UK timber and panel imports at highest level for nine years
15 March 2017UK imports of timber and panel products are at their highest level for nine years the UK Timber Trade Federation monthly statistics show.
Provisional totals for 2016 show a volume of 9.8 million m3 of the main timber and panel products. This total is likely to increase slightly as final figures become available, but currently show volume being 5% higher than in 2015.
David Hopkins, managing director, TTF, said: “These figures show the healthy state of the timber economy in the UK, with year on year growth since the financial crash of 2008/10. We will be working to help grow the timber sector further during the course of 2017 also.”
Despite the healthy growth, the volumes are still below the peak years of 2007, figures show.
Import volumes in Q4, 2016 were nearly 2% higher than Q4, 2015. This was the third consecutive quarter of growth over the corresponding quarter in 2015, but the figures do show that the rate of growth has decreased since Q2, 2016.
