NZ January report - a vibrant domestic sceneFriday 30 Jan 2026
The NZ domestic scene is currently leading the charge with some sawmill owners reporting reasonable order books. More particularly, most believe 2026 is shaping up to be a better trading year with wider out enquiries and the volume of phone traffic suggesting a general improvement in house starts and light construction in our near future. A vibrant domestic scene is good for forest growers with the associated money go round generated by log sales also good for economic vibrancy across all ranges of communities, including, of course, more jobs. This year, Chinese New Year (CNY) is later than normal at a 17 February start. The first 7 days are the main public holiday whilst festive celebrations continue up to 3rd March to include the Lantern Festival. 2026 is the year of the horse, considered generally to be positive. All of this is relevant to the log trade with NZ going in to full log export production whilst our key market is on holiday. Just to what degree the China Eastern seaboard returns to good daily usage numbers following CNY will be critical to supply/demand and therefore log prices. Recent trade numbers out of China are staggering. 2025 yielded a $1.2 trillion trade surplus, cash reserves are now in excess of $3 trillion, export sales up 6.6% with export sales to the US down 30% in 2025. All of this is critical to a NZ Forest grower. Economic growth centred on manufacturing and exports equals more wood usage. With NZ currently supplying in excess of 80% of all softwood logs in to this massive market, increased wood usage equals “you beauty”. More >> Source: Laurie Forestry  | ||
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