BRAZIL - In October 2018 the consumption of wood panels in Brazil reached 613 thousand m3, an increase of 2.9% compared to October 2018 (596 thousand m3).

Against this positive note, export volumes by Brazilian wood panel manufacturers dropped sharply in October, - 15.9%, reaching 116 thousand m3 and when compared to the 138 thousand m3 exported in October 2017.

Consolidated sales for the first ten months of the year (10M) in the Brazilian domestic market reached 5.59 million m3, an improvement of 4.7% compared to the same period of 2017 (5.34 million m3).

Also positive are the export values of Brazilian wooden panels for the first 10 months, as they show a 5.0% growth, reaching USD 254 million in the period (10M-2017: USD 242 million).

Latin America was the main regional export market for Brazilian wooden boards in the January - October 2018 period, with USD 142 million (10M-2017: USD 126 million), which represented an improvement of 12.7%.

The North American market followed with USD 58 million, a slight improvement of 1.8% compared to the same period of 2017.