Vietnamese market
-As stated in one of our previous blog posts, the Vietnamese forestry industry is currently experiencing an overall decline in export. Although wood and wood products export shows some sign of recovery as 2023’s total export number currently stands at 1.2 billion USD, with April showing an increase of 5.5% compared to March. Although it is still far from April 2022’s figures by a whooping 24.5%. Domestically, the main factors behind this decline are higher raw material and energy prices, leading to increased production costs.
International markets
-In the US and the EU, high inflation and the monetary policies made to tackle it are increasing living costs. Hence, lowering the demand for non-essential goods such as wood and wood products. Housing markets in both regions, known for their large consumers of wood, are also going through a rough time, further reducing the demand for wood imports. Internationally, this is one of the main contributors to the fall in export in the Vietnam forestry market.
-Like Vietnam, forestry industries across Europe face challenges for most of the same reasons. Most notable are Finland and Germany, with export figures decreasing considerably as abundant energy from Russia is no longer available. Germany is arguably the hardest hit between the two markets, as prices of most wood products fall steeply.
-Russian Association of Furniture and Woodworking Industry Enterprises plans to increase import duty to as high as 50% on wooden goods imported from the EU. This can be seen as “retaliation” for all the Western sanctions put in place to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
-Countries will soon begin voting on EUDR, the initiative by the European Union to prevent the import of products into its member states, specifically those born from deforestation and illegal harvesting. This bill was met with protests from many countries in fear that it will severely interrupt their export operations.
-Indonesia seeks to nearly double its decorative wood products export in the span of 2 years from 2.8 billion USD in 2022 to 5 billion USD in 2024. This product group mainly includes furniture wood and ornament wood products.
https://goviet.org.vn/bai-viet/nua-dau-nam-2023-xuat-khau-go-va-san-pham-go-giam-tu-28-32-9968
https://www.globalwoodmarketsinfo.com/mood-in-the-german-wood-industry-deteriorates-considerably/
