During the course of the first quarter of 2013, European softwood-lumber suppliers showed a level of brisk demand unexpected in this form on the Japanese market. Following initially very sluggish purchasing behaviour by Japanese importers for most of the fourth quarter of 2012, the situation swung sharply around shortly before the turn of the year, before gaining weekly in momentum in January, February and March. However, brisk demand for European softwood lumber is contrasted by generally limited supply.
Insufficient roundwood supplies and a weather-driven weak start on European softwood-lumber markets had caused numerous producers to reduce sawing operations as early as the first quarter. With the price hikes implemented in Japan since the beginning of the year however, recent weeks have seen successive rises in production activity among European consignors, whereby the higher sawing level will probably only be reflected in higher delivery volumes to Japan during the course of April and May.
