Brazilian Tree Industry Registers $6 billion Trade Surplus

The Brazilian Tree Industry (Ibá), Brazil, has concluded its analysis of the forestry sector with the compilation of data through November 2016. During the first 11 months of 2016, export volume for the three analyzed segments (pulp, wood panels, and paper) evolved in comparison with the same period last year and contributed to the positive trade balance in the sector, which has reached $6 billion (+2.3%). Pulp made a positive contribution with $4.7 billion (-0.1%), paper added $1.0 billion (+9.7%), and wood panels contributed $220 million (+29.4%).

Other performance indicators for the Brazil planted tree industry is available in the 31st edition of Cenários Ibá, the monthly bulletin of the Brazilian Tree Industry.

Exports. From January to November 2016, the pulp sector exported a volume of 11.7 million metric tons (+11.6%), the paper sector exported 1.9 million metric tons (+2.5%), and the wood panel sector exported 932,000 cubic meters (+65.2%).

Export Destinations. Latin America is still the main destination for exports from the paper and wooden panels sectors, accounting for 60.3% ($1.0 billion) and 54.0% ($121 million), respectively. For pulp, the greatest share went to the Chinese market with 37.9% ($1.9 billion), followed by Europe with 33.1% ($1.7 billion).

Export Revenue. In the first 11 months of the year, the sector recorded exports of $6.9 billion (-2.1%); pulp reached $5.0 billion (-1.2%), paper $1.7 billion (-7.3%), and wood panels $224 million (+27.3%).

Production. In the same period, Brazilian pulp production reached 17.1 million metric tons (+8.5%) and paper remained stable with a total of 9.5 million metric tons.

Domestic Sales. Paper sales in the domestic market recorded 4.9 million metric tons (-0.4%) between January and November 2016, while the wood panels segment recorded more than 5.7 million cubic meters (-3.3%).