AVAILABILITY OF WORLD TIMBER RESOURCES 



127 



Imports and exports of forest products 



IMPORTS 



EXPORTS 



1950 19*0 



1960 1970 



Figure 47 



Nearly all of the growth in lumber imports has 

 been composed of softwoods from Canada, chiefly 

 from British Columbia. Hardwood lumber imports, 

 mostlv from the tropical regions of the world and 

 Canada, have fluctuated between 0.2 and 0.4 

 billion board feet per year during the past couple 

 of decades. 



Pulp products. — Imports of woodpulp, news- 

 print, and other grades of paper and board have 

 also increased since 1950. In earlier years much 

 of the imported pulp and paper came from Scan- 

 dinavia but recently by far the largest part of 

 these imports have originated in Canada (Append. 

 V, tables 29 and 33). 



About 7 percent of the imports of pulp products 

 in 1972 was composed of round pulpwood and 

 chips (Append. IV, table 3). In the past two 

 decades, volumes of pulpwood imports have 

 fluctuated between 1.0 and 2.5 million cords. 

 Most pulpwood imports have come from Canada, 

 although some imports have originated in the 

 Bahamas in recent years. 



Plywood and veneer. — Although not large in 

 terms of cubic volume, hardwood plywood and 

 veneer imports have shown very rapid growth since 

 1950, rising from 5 million to over 200 million cubic 

 feet, roundwood equivalent (Append. IV, tables 1, 

 4, and 5). Over nine-tenths of these imports have 

 come from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and the Philip- 

 pines. Most of the timber used in the manufacture 

 of these products, however, has originated in 

 tropical hardwood forests in the Philippines, 

 Malaysia, and Indonesia. 



Other. — Small volumes of logs, softwood ply- 

 wood, particleboard, and miscellaneous roundwood 

 products such as posts and poles also have been 

 imported. Most of these imports have been cross- 

 border trade with Canada. 



The rise in imports of timber products over the 

 past three decades is attributed to: 



• rising consumption of industrial timber 

 products in the United States, 



• a tightening domestic timber supply situation 

 and economic development of timber resources 

 in Canada and the Western Pacific Area, 



• effective marketing efforts by timber pro- 

 ducers in exporting countries. 



TRENDS IN U.S. EXPORTS OF TIMBER PRODUCTS 



Exports of timber products in recent years have 

 followed about the same upward trend as imports, 

 rising from 0.1 billion cubic feet in 1950 to 1.3 

 billion in 1972 (fig. 47, and Append. IV, table 6). 



Value of timber exports also climbed sharply to 

 $2.0 billion in 1972, or about 4.2 percent of the 

 total volume of all U.S. merchandise exports in 

 that year (table 99). 



Lumber. — Exports of lumber, chiefly softwoods, 

 have roughly tripled since the early 1950's, rising 

 from 0.1 billion cubic feet roundwood equivalent 

 (0.5 billion board feet) to 0.2 billion cubic feet in 

 1972 (1.5 billion board feet) (Append. IV, table 7). 

 Most of the increased shipments in recent years 

 have gone to Japan, with smaller amounts to 

 Europe, Latin America, and other countries. 



Pulp products.— Exports of pulp products also 

 increased rapidlv in the 1950-72 period moving up 

 from less than 6.1 to 0.6 billion cubic feet, round- 

 wood equivalent. Western Europe has taken sub- 

 stantial amounts of pulp and liner board, for 

 example, while large quantities of woodpulp have 

 been shipped to the Far East, largely to Japan 

 (Append. V, tables 28 and 32). 



Pulp chips produced from slabs and other 

 residues of primary timber processing have made 

 up a growing part of the shipments of pulp 

 products to Japan since the mid-1960's (Append. 

 IV, table 8). In 1972, some 2.5 million tons of chips 

 (142 million cubic feet roundwood equivalent) 

 were exported to Japan from the Pacific Coast. 

 Small volumes of round pulpwood were exported 

 to Canada. 



Logs. — Exports of logs have also increased 

 rapidly since the late 1950's to about 0.5 billion 

 cubic feet in 1972 (3.1 billion board feet local log 

 scale or roughly 4.1 billion board feet lumber tally) . 

 By far the largest part of these exports consisted 

 of softwood logs (3.0 billion board feet), with 

 nearly 90 percent of these going to Japan 

 (Append. IV, tables 9 and 10). Log exports to 

 Canada also have increased to a little over a half 

 billion board feet in 1972. 



Other.— Exports of items such as plywood and 

 veneer, poles, piling, etc., have grown, but the 

 volumes involved have represented a very small 

 part of the harvest of roundwood from U.S. 

 forests. 



