West African timber producers face generally dull international demand

The overall West African producer sentiment is that markets are dull some experiencing low levels of activity. The Middle East market in particular is currently characterised by low demand which is linked to higher than usual stocks in Iraqi and Dubai ports. In addition, shippers in West Africa face competitive pricing from Indonesia and Malaysia in the South African market. Inquiries for some timber species such as okoume, andoung, iroko, and padouk have fallen in the Asian and Middle East countries. In Holland the high level of sawn azobe stocks has impacted the flow of orders and led to ...