Japan's lumber industry, which imports 80 percent of its supplies, may buy more timber from the United States, Canada and New Zealand after an increase in export taxes slashed Russian shipments by 55 percent.
"Imports from North America and New Zealand will increase as supply from Russia is unreliable," Akira Sekimoto, general manager at Tokyo-based Sumitomo Forestry Co., said in an interview Tuesday. The company is the biggest owner of forests in Japan and the nation's largest builder of houses using timber.
Increased demand for North American supplies may help support Chicago lumber prices, which dropped 27 percent in the past year. Shipments from Russia, Japan's largest source of logs in 2007, slumped after an export tax increased twice in less than a year to 25 percent and the country said it planned to boost the duty to 80 percent. The cost of using alternative timber may force processors out of business.