New timber import figures covering the third quarter of 2025 reveal an ongoing mixed picture for the sector.
Year-to-date volumes are still trailing 2024 but showing some signs of improvement as the year progresses.
Latest statistics from Timber Development UK show that total imports in the first nine months of 2025 reached 7.01m cubic metres 鈥� some 2.1% below the 7.15m cu.m recorded in the same period of 2024. This gap has narrowed since the half-year point, however, when volumes were down by 2.9%.
This slight uplift has been driven by a need to replenish stocks after the flurry of construction activity seen in Q2, said TDUK. This resulted in a more positive third quarter for imports, which saw higher volumes than in Q3 2024 across the softwood, hardwood, plywood, OSB and engineered wood product sectors. Overall imports for Q3 were only 0.2% lower than Q3 2024, with a marked drop in MDF imports preventing combined volumes from moving into year-on-year growth.
For the year-to-date, solid wood imports from January to September 2025 were 2.5% lower than in the same time period in 2024, with panel products down by 1.3%. Weaker demand for softwood and a significant 25% fall in imported MDF remain the main factors holding back overall growth. By contrast, hardwood, particleboard and OSB imports have all edged ahead of 2024 levels, with hardwood plywood, softwood plywood and engineered wood products also delivering consistent gains throughout 2025.
The supply balance within softwood imports has also shifted. Despite a stronger September from Sweden, reduced volumes from the country accounted for more than the entire year-to-date deficit of 118,000 cubic metres. Germany and the Republic of Ireland also recorded declines of 9% and 14% respectively, lowering their shares of supply. These reductions were partly offset by increased volumes from Latvia and Finland, which rose by more than 60,000 and 30,000 cubic metres respectively.
Softwood import values rose sharply in the nine months to September, increasing by 9% compared with 2024. Planed softwood values climbed 8%, and sawn goods rose 11%. These increases were driven by a 12% rise in the average price of all softwood imports, despite overall softwood volumes falling by almost 3%. Pricing data indicates that softwood prices have risen over the past 12 months, diverging from the downward trends seen in sawn hardwood and plywood. Recent months, however, show signs of softwood prices beginning to soften again.
Hardwood imports remained largely unchanged year-on-year, growing by just 0.2% in total volume. The USA, Latvia and France all increased their supplies by 5%, 25% and 4% respectively, while Cameroon saw a 19% rise. Tropical hardwood volumes fell by 3%, despite significant increases from Cameroon and Malaysia, due to reductions from other key supplying countries. Temperate hardwood imports dropped by around 6%, with declines from Romania, the USA and Estonia offset only by France, which increased volumes by around 2,000 cubic metres.
The panel products sector showed a varied performance. Hardwood plywood imports rose by approximately 55,000 cubic metres, driven primarily by increased supply from China and Malaysia, which together provided 80% of the total. TDUK said that it was difficult to determine if this marked increase is due to increased consumption or Chinese hardwood plywood being diverted due to EU anti-dumping measures. Particleboard volumes increased by just over 1%, though changes in supply patterns were notable, with losses from Portugal and Belgium balanced by gains from China and Luxembourg.
In engineered products, Finland continued to dominate the UK Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) market, supplying 83% of volume. Although this share is slightly lower than in 2024, Finnish volumes still grew by around 14%.
According to the latest NSD Softwood Import Forecast, import volumes will fall by around 3% in 2025 to around 5.62m cubic metres, before growing by 3.7% in 2026 to around 5.83m cubic metres.
TDUK head of technical and trade, Nick Boulton, said: 鈥淭he latest timber import figures for Q1-3 of 2025 do show a slight improvement, albeit from a very low base, with several product categories showing signs of uplift聽 in the third quarter in particular. This is most likely restocking after the raised construction activity we saw at mid-year. That said, the market remains difficult and overall volumes remain behind last year鈥檚 levels. The slight improvement is welcome, but it underlines just how sensitive demand continues to be across the sector. We will need to see sustained stability in 2026 before confidence can fully return to the market.鈥�
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