Annual Domestic Timber Usage Shifts from Decline to Increase, Marking a 'Trend Reversal'

Provided by Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The use of domestic timber increased slightly last year compared to the previous year. This is significant as the previously declining trend in domestic timber usage has shifted to an increasing trend.

On the 30th, the Korea Forest Service announced the results of the "2021 Timber Usage Survey." The survey was conducted to understand the status of domestic and imported timber used in Korea last year, based on 19 timber products including sawn timber.

The survey covered 4,736 timber production, processing, and distribution companies and included ▲sawn timber ▲plywood ▲medium-density fiberboard (MDF) ▲particleboard (PB) ▲wood flooring ▲oriented strand board ▲preservative-treated wood ▲fire-retardant wood ▲wood-plastic composites ▲glulam ▲wood chips ▲wood pellets ▲wood briquettes ▲molded charcoal ▲charcoal and wood vinegar ▲sawdust and wood powder ▲firewood ▲shiitake mushroom logs ▲and pulp.

The survey results showed that the total timber usage last year was 28.67 million cubic meters. Of this, 4.912 million cubic meters were domestic timber, and 23.758 million cubic meters were imported timber, indicating that imported timber accounted for the majority in simple numerical terms.

However, it is noteworthy that domestic timber usage, which had been decreasing annually, turned to an increasing trend last year.

For example, the annual usage of domestic roundwood decreased from 4,623 cubic meters in 2016 to 4,497 cubic meters in 2017, 4,424 cubic meters in 2018, 4,260 cubic meters in 2019, and 3,740 cubic meters in 2020, but increased to 3,923 cubic meters (an increase of 183 cubic meters) last year, marking the first increase in five years.

The Korea Forest Service attributes the increase in domestic timber (including roundwood) usage to the co-growth of related industries such as furniture manufacturing.

According to the recently released Mining and Manufacturing Industry Trend Survey by Statistics Korea, the domestic shipment index for wood and wood product manufacturing rose from 82.5 in 2020 to 82.8 last year, and the furniture manufacturing domestic shipment index reached an all-time high of 112.6 last year. The domestic shipment index is based on 2015 as the base year (100) and indicates the level of goods sold from production factories.

With the increase in timber usage, the sales of domestic timber production companies also rose last year. The sales of timber production companies increased by 608.4 billion KRW (24.3%) from 2.4969 trillion KRW in 2020 to 3.1053 trillion KRW last year.

Shim Sang-taek, Director of the Forest Industry Policy Bureau at the Korea Forest Service, said, "When comprehensively analyzing the timber usage survey and timber industry trend survey, it appears that domestic timber usage is attempting a trend reversal after a period of stagnation. The Korea Forest Service will expand policies to promote domestic timber usage so that domestic timber production companies can focus on stable business activities amid the global economic crisis."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.