Pulp production in Japan has picked up in 2014 compared with 2013, with wood fiber consumption being 6% higher during the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2013, according to the Japan Paper Association, as reported this week by Wood Resources Quarterly (WRQ), Seattle, Wash., USA. The increase in demand was practically the same for softwood fiber as for hardwood fiber, but the overall volume of the total virgin fiber consumption is still split at approximately 68% hardwood and 32% softwood fiber.

 

To meet the higher wood fiber needs, domestic fiber sourcing from the domestic sawmills has increased by 2% and import volumes have gone up 9% year-to-date. In the 2Q/14, importation of softwood and hardwood chips was up by as much as 17% and 14%, respectively, compared with the same quarter last year.

 

Despite the substantial increase in import volumes, average prices for imported hardwood chip prices in Japan declined by about $17 per odmt from 2Q/13 to 2Q/14, WRQ notes. Average prices for softwood chips were $1 higher in the 2Q/14 compared with the same quarter in 2013, but as much as $13 higher than in the first quarter this year.

The general trend the past four years has been that prices for imported chips have gone up in the local currency due to a weakening yen against the U.S. dollar, and that prices for domestically sourced chips have fallen slightly, WRQ says. In the 2Q/14, prices for imported softwood chips were on average 65% higher than residual chips from domestic sawmills, while imported hardwood chips were just over 20% higher than locally sourced hardwood chips, WRQ reports.