Overseas traded hardwood chip 14% below peak four years ago
19 November 2015Prices for hardwood chips traded overseas have been in steady decline since November 2011. In less than four years, the FOEX hardwood chip price index (PIX-HCG) has fallen almost 14% to reach US$178.34 per oven-dry metric ton (odmt) in July 2015.
The downward trend of the index has partly been the result of lower prices for hardwood chips, in US dollar terms, imported to Japan from Australia, Chile and South Africa.
Global overseas trade of hardwood chips has slowed down in 2015 with the total trade for the first six months of the year being almost 14% lower than the same period in 2014.
The FOEX softwood chip price index (PIX-SCG) has fluctuated more than the PIX-HCG the past two years and has been on an upswing for the past three months after having declined since last summer.
In July, the index was up almost 4% month-over- month to US$173.20/odmt, the highest level since December 2014. The increase in the price index was due in part to higher import prices in Japan and Turkey.
