Global Timber Index launches sub-index for market expectation

29 January 2025, Yokohama

GGSC Secretariat

Finish-Estoque in Palmas, Paraná, Brazil. Photo: Banco de Imagens Marini

The Global Timber Index (GTI), which tracks the performance of the timber sector in diverse pilot countries, has launched a new sub-index, the Market Expectation Index, for tracking and monitoring the confidence levels of leading timber enterprises in GTI pilot countries regarding the trends of timber and wood markets in their countries over the next six months. With this addition, the GTI now encompasses 12 sub-indices, providing a more comprehensive reflection of the production and business trends of the timber sectors in pilot countries.

GTIs for Thailand (53.3%) and Brazil (51.1%) were above the 50% threshold in December, thus indicating an upward trend in their timber sectors. However, GTIs for China (49.8%), Republic of the Congo (41.6%), Mexico (39.9%), Ghana (36.4%), Gabon (34.7%), and Malaysia (20.3%) were below the threshold, suggesting the global timber market remained sluggish with significant downside risks.

This month, the volume of harvesting declined in all GTI-participating producer countries, particularly in Malaysia, Brazil, Gabon, and Mexico. Moreover, the declines in the four countries persisted for several months, signalling a significant reduction in the supply of logs from these countries. Several factors cause this decline, including lackluster demand (particularly in markets such as Europe and China), a slowdown in renovation activities during holidays, etc.

Factory of YI XIN HE GHANA LIMITED, Ghana. Photo: Peter Zormelo

Encouragingly, some timber markets were showing positive signs. For example, domestic market demand in Thailand grew significantly compared to the previous month; for Brazil and China, the volume of export orders increased; and for Mexico, the export market ended months of contraction.

In other news, the GTI-Producers Index, a specialized index for timber production, was at 48.4% in December, and the GTI-Woodbased Panel Index, a specialized index for wood-based panels, stood at 42.9%, indicating that both subsectors declined in December.

The GTI reports on significant indications of progress towards sustainable forest management in the pilot countries. In December, for example, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia launched the Legality and Sustainability Verification System (SVLK) Plus with enhanced traceability features to ensure that they can trace every exported wood product to its origin.

Also, Malaysia achieved its goal of planting 100 million trees between 2021 and 2025, well ahead of schedule. To date, Malaysia has recorded a forest cover of 18 million hectares, or 54.58 percent of the country's total land area.

Recently, Gabon and the EU officially launched a technical assistance programme for the sustainable management of Gabonese forests. The first goal of the programme is to revise Gabon's forest laws to meet international standards while adapting to national realities, therefore ensuring sustainable and fair exploitation of forest resources. In addition, it seeks to ensure the sector's compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

The monthly GTI Report, GTI-Producers Report and GTI-WBP Report are available free at www.itto.int/gti.

Download the latest GTI Report, GTI-Producers Report, and GTI-Woodbased Panel Report.