japan

Laminated timber imports at a long-time low

Article by Martina Nöstler (translated by Eva Guzely) | 31.01.2024 - 09:00

Last year, Japan imported a substantially smaller volume of laminated timber than it did in 2022. You have to go back several years to find a similarly small total import volume.

In 2023, Japan imported 558,000 m³ of glue-laminated and cross-laminated timber, recording a decrease of 38% or nearly 350,000 m³ compared to 2022. As a look in the Foreign trade section of our Datacube shows, Japanese laminated timber imports were lower only twice over the past 20 years, that is in 2009 (478,803 m³) and in 2008 (445,766 m³).

In December 2023, imports totaled 53,000 m³, which corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 7%.

241,000 m³ (-37%) of laminated timber were imported from Finland last year. Romania was Japan’s second most important trading partner with a volume of 80,000 m³ (-46%). In 2023, Japan bought around 64,000 m³ of glulam and CLT from Austria. Compared to 2022, the country thus reduced its purchases by 45%.

Watch our (German) video tutorial for detailed instructions on how to analyze foreign trade data in our Datacube.