Steep decline in trade lead to price retreat in West Africa
17/07/2008 - 12:09
The volume of trade continued to decline. Demand from Asia and Europe was very low and producers in West and Central Africa were slowing production to even lower levels than they had previously considered necessary. In some areas, there were quite large volumes of older logs that had either been sold off at a low price or converted to sawn lumber. Orders were available for fresh logs but limited to very restricted species and for better qualities only. Prices for the premium species such as sapele had fallen again and even sipo had been marked down. Demand for okoume logs was also low and prices tended to be weak with an overstock of older logs still to be sold. Prices for many species were unchanged due to the absence of demand.
Buyers were delaying shipments against existing contracts which were causing a build up of both logs and sawn lumber in the export storage yards and at mills. There were predictions as to when an improvement in demand might occur and, with construction activity in Europe rapidly scaling down, there was consensus that poor market conditions would continue possibly through to the end of the year.
