Spain wood chips import

European pulpmills imported much less Eucalyptus chips from Latin America during 2012, mainly because Spanish pulp mills reduced their reliance on relatively costly wood fiber from Uruguay dramatically, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly (www.woodprices.com).
The pulp industry in Spain has turned its focus to increasingly rely on domestic wood fiber sources rather than imported wood fiber the past year. Importation of wood chips importation was down as much as 58 percent the first ten months of 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011, and there has not been a single chip vessel that has entered a Spanish port since May of 2012. This is a remarkable turn-around in wood fiber sourcing. As late as 2011, Spain imported 675,000 tons of Eucalyptus chips, 87 percent from Uruguay and the rest from Congo and Chile.