China’s total apparent log consumption fell 1.3% in 2025 to 170.748 million cubic metres, down from 173 million cubic metres a year earlier, as the country’s timber buyers continued to pull back amid a property sector that just won’t turn around. That is according to data from China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration, which also showed that domestic timber production slipped 1.1% to 139.37 million cubic metres last year.
It comes as new data collated by Lesprom Analytics shows that log imports dipped 13.1% to 31.38 million cubic metres, marking the fourth straight year of decline, with volumes now standing at about half the Covid-peak levels of 63.57 million cubic metres in 2021.
Log exports barely registered, dropping from more than 12 thousand cubic metres in 2024 to just 3.68 thousand cubic metres last year, while the value of log imports crashed 21.9% to US $4.8 billion, as the average price of logs fell 10.1% to just US $153 per cubic metre.
Chinese construction activity is in less timber-intensive industries
According to PF Olsen’s latest Wood Matters report, published last week, whilst infrastructure fixed asset spend in China has stayed positive, spending in transport, utilities, and urban renewal is far less timber-intensive than residential construction.
“This has contributed to the relatively stable baseline demand but will never replace the peak demand during the construction boom,” according to Scott Downs, PF Olsen’s General Manager of Marketing and Sales, who said log inventories at ports sat at about 2.8 million cubic metres following the Chinese New Year, with daily pine log port offtake steady at around 55,000 cubic metres — far below the 60,000 cubic metre norms reported throughout much of 2024.
And whilst stockpiles of New Zealand radiata pine grew (rising 2% to 18.2 million cubic metres or 58% of total imports), alongside Canada (up 12% to 1.33 million) and Japan (up 4% to 1.71 million cubic metres), many other suppliers weren’t so lucky. Imports from Papua New Guinea fell 23% to 1.60 million cubic metres, and the Solomon Islands dropped 31% to 1.09 million cubic metres.
Russia — where a ban on unprocessed softwood and hardwood log exports took effect in January 2022 — was still shipping logs but at much reduced volumes, down 14% to 1.23 million cubic metres. Germany’s shipments fell off a cliff — down 46% to 0.76 million cubic metres.
Tropical logs copped the worst of it
China Customs data shows tropical log volumes dropped 27% to 5.063 million cubic metres in 2025. Much of the decline is structural — a growing number of producing countries, led by Papua New Guinea, now require permit holders to process timber domestically before export, while growing awareness of tropical forest protection among Chinese consumers has further eroded demand.
Wood Central earlier this month reported that China’s softwood lumber imports have now halved from their pre-pandemic peak, falling 12% in 2025 to just 14.6 million cubic metres — the third consecutive annual decline, with housing starts now 64% below the 10-year average. More than 78% of lumber arriving at Chinese ports now comes via Russia and Belarus, with imports from the United States falling 39% to 134,000 cubic metres and Finland down 22% to 440,000 cubic metres.
At the time, Wood Central reported that The Economist had warned China’s property crisis could drag on into 2030, noting that new-home sales had tumbled from more than half of all transactions in 2022 to just 26% in 2024 — and continued to fall across 2025. Morningstar’s latest China real estate report, published this quarter, doesn’t expect a rebound until 2027.
To learn why China is looking to take far fewer logs over the long term, click here for Wood Central’s exclusive interview with Rudolf van Rensburg, co-author of China – Forest, Log & Lumber Outlook in June 2024.
