Prices for overseas traded softwood wood chips fall 11% in eight months
30 June 2015Overseas traded softwood chip prices declined by 11% from August 2014 to April 2015, after having trended upward for more than a year.
The FOEX softwood chip price index (PIX-SCG) fell to $165.86 per oven-dry metric ton (odmt) in April, which was the lowest level since late 2013 and 4.3% below the five-year average.
The hardwood chip price index (PIX-HCG) moved slightly higher in late 2014 and early 2015 to reach $182.47/odmt in April 2015. The current price is back up to the same level as a year ago, but still has a long way to go to reach the record high levels of over $200/odmt that occurred almost four years ago. In April 2015, the price premium for hardwood chips over softwood chips, the highest since early 2014.
FOEX and Wood Resources International (WRI) have cooperatively launched two wood chip price indices, the Softwood Chip Global (SCG) and Hardwood Chip Global (HCG), both part of the PIX index family of FOEX.
The Indices represent prices (CIF) for wood chips that are traded globally overseas for the manufacturing of wood pulp and wood based panels. The Indices are reported monthly on the FOEX web site (www.foex.fi).
