New Zealand Log Export Prices Firm as Sales to China Increase

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported on Tuesday (11-21-23) that log export prices have firmed this month, with sales to New Zealand’s largest customer, China, picking up despite its post-COVID construction slowdown.

November prices rose $9 (NZ) compared to October, approaching $110 per Japanese Agricultural Standard meter-squared at the wharf gate of South Island ports and $5–10 more for North Island exporters. Sales are solid for log exporters. However, New Zealand exports to China have been dropping. According to RNZ, log, wood, and wood article exports made up $4.8 billion of New Zealand’s total $46 billion of goods bound for the country year-to-date.

Allan Laurie of Laurie Forestry told RNZ that it was vital for New Zealand forestry companies to seek new markets. “It’s really time for New Zealand forestry Inc. to get out into the world and start to look at other markets and improve our sales opportunities internationally, looking to non-traditional markets even where we know radiata pine stands very, very well against many other species.”

Laurie said South Korea’s market was “probably in even worse shape than China right now,” but India was standing out as having good opportunities for New Zealand radiata pine exporters—at prices close to Chinese values.