Sawn Softwood (Pine, Spruce & Fir)

Kiln-dried spruce, pine and fir by strength class and visual grade, container or breakbulk

Sawn softwood is bought on four things: species, dimension, moisture and grade. Dimensions are written as thickness by width in millimetres (for example 47 x 150 mm or 50 x 200 mm) with lengths in 300 mm steps, and sizes and tolerances for structural timber follow EN 336 (tolerance classes T1 and T2) against the reference moisture content; North American dimension lumber is written in nominal inches (2x4, 2x6) and graded under NLGA rules. Kiln-dried (KD) material is typically ordered at 12-18% moisture for construction and planed work, and structural timber that is graded dry must be at or below 20%. Grade comes in two languages. Structural buyers order a strength class under EN 338 (C16 and C24 are the common ones), assigned by visual or machine grading to EN 14081 and shown by a grade stamp on each piece; joinery and packaging buyers order Nordic visual grades (unsorted, the top A grades A1-A4 sold together, then fifths (B) and sixths (C)) under the Nordic Timber grading rules or EN 1611-1. North American SPF (spruce-pine-fir) is stamped by an accredited grading agency as No.2 & Better, Stud or Economy. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 4407 total USD 28.2 billion and 44.6 million MT across the 76 reporters in the pull. In fir and spruce (HS 4407.12) Sweden declared 7.50 million m³ at an average USD 291/m³, Germany 6.50 million m³ at USD 257, Austria 6.08 million m³ at USD 231 and Finland 3.97 million m³ at USD 258; in pine (HS 4407.11) Sweden declared 5.11 million m³ at USD 267, Finland 4.18 million m³ at USD 243, the USA 2.18 million m³ at USD 281 and New Zealand 1.64 million m³ at USD 365. Canada declared USD 6.65 billion and 10.88 million MT under the whole heading, the largest single exporter.

The buyers are construction and formwork contractors, builders' merchants and timber distributors, truss and frame manufacturers, joinery and door plants, and pallet, crate and cable-drum makers who consume the lower visual grades. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers sawn softwood between sawmills and their export agents on one side and importers and distributors on the other, lot by lot against the buyer's grade, size list and moisture. Softwood moves in strapped, wrapped and marked bundles, loaded into 40-ft containers for most destinations or as breakbulk on packaged-timber vessels from Nordic and North American mills, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Legality is a condition of shipment, not an afterthought: FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody certificates where the buyer requires them; for EU destinations, the EU Deforestation Regulation data the importer needs for its due diligence statement, including the geolocation of the harvest plots; for Great Britain, the due diligence the UK Timber Regulation requires of the first placer on the market; for the USA, the Lacey Act plant and plant product declaration with genus, species and country of harvest; and a phytosanitary certificate, heat treatment or kiln-drying certificate where the importing country requires it, with ISPM-15 marking on any wood packaging and dunnage. Excluded origins are not offered under any label. Import duties differ by market, including the US anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber, and those are the buyer's check before a contract is signed.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.