The Global Timber Index (GTI) report for December 2023 revealed that compared with the previous month, the GTI indexes of Mexico and Brazil rose by 12.1 and 7.2 percentage points, respectively, with GTI-Brazil enterprises seeing a notable increase in the number of new orders, indicating that the downturn in the timber markets of the above two countries had significantly eased. The GTI indexes of ROC and Gabon respectively increased by 2.7 and 1.9 percentage points from the previous month, though still below the critical value (50%). As to the timber markets in Indonesia and China, both markets saw a growth in order volume (including export orders) compared with the previous month, however, most enterprises were inclined to reduce inventory, and no marked improvement was observed on the production and supply side.

This month, regions including Africa, Latin America and Asia were challenged by continuous heavy rains, which caused landslides, railway damage, logistics disruption and other problems, affecting timber transportation, production and business activities. GTI pilot countries and sample enterprises also shared new challenges they were facing, for instance, Brazilian enterprises said alternatives such as plastic, aluminium and MDF (medium density fibreboard) posed a challenge to the sales of wood products, and moreover, declining water level of the Amazon River and limited availability of containers resulted in decreased volume of harvesting; Gabonese enterprises reported that heavy rains made it difficult to obtain the necessary resources for production, and some enterprises were unable to deliver logs to buyers on schedule; Malaysian enterprises expressed concerns about uncertain global economy caused by the war, which could potentially affect the demand in the global timber market; and, Mexican enterprises said forestry activities were hindered by a lack of tools to transport roundwood to the sawmill.

GTI Report - December 2023.pdf