NEWS

Container freight rates swung wildly between January 2023 and August 2024. Rates fell to a low of $1,340 per 40-foot container in October 2023. That rate has since soared, reaching a record high of $5,900 in July.

Total EU plywood production fell by 2.5% from 3.2 million cubic meters in 2021 to 3.1 million cubic meters in 2022, then dropped by 15% to just 2.6 million cubic meters in 2023. This is unprecedented. It's the lowest level ever recorded, and only about half of the nearly 5 million cubic meters per year the EU had produced before the COVID pandemic. Imports are also down.

This year, Vietnam's wood and wood products exports reached $9.5 billion by mid-August, up by 24% year-over-year. Wood products comprised $6.5 billion or 68% of that total. The U.S. continues to be Vietnam's largest export market, buying $4.9 billion from January to mid-August, an increase of 26% vs. last year.

The D.C. Circuit Court has ruled that the EPA misinterpreted the Clean Air Act in its 2022 rule on emission standards for industrial boilers and process heaters, or boiler MACT. The court said that EPA misinterpreted the definition of "new source" by determining that a source is "new" based on the original proposed rule date of 2010, finding that EPA had to consider "when each sequential emission standard was first proposed." In this case, that date is 2020.

The American Hardwood Export Council has published a new Europe Market Report and a special report on the EU Deforestation Regulation. AHEC is moving forward with a response to the EUDR for the U.S. hardwood industry. Specialists have been hired, data sources secured, and the development of an online platform to demonstrate the negligible risk of illegality and deforestation is already underway.