The Softwood Trade

Abstract

Importing softwood is the largest section of the UK timber trade, in numbers of firms engaged, in volume of timber handled and in overall finance involved. (It accounts for approximately 54 per cent of the value of all timber imports.) The seasonal nature of the trade introduces its own problems, which are not reproduced to the same extent in the hardwood and plywood panel products importing trades. It is useful, therefore, to consider the special problems of the softwood trade.