Japanese sawmills are continuing to cut back on production, with new data from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries showing that local mills cut output by 8.8% for January (to 579,000 cubic metres), continuing a long\u2011running decline in lumber production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a 12\u2011month basis, mills produced 6.95 million cubic metres of lumber, with shipments leaving Japanese ports standing at 591,000 cubic metres for the month \u2014 down 7.8% from December and 5.3% year on year \u2014 while ending inventory came in at 1.08 million cubic metres, down 8.1% month on month and 15.8% year on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n