Wood Chips (Eucalyptus & Acacia Pulpwood Chips)

Hardwood eucalyptus and acacia pulp chips and softwood chips, sold per bone-dry metric tonne on chip carriers

Wood chips for pulp are sold on dry fibre, not on the wet weight in the hold. The trade measure is the bone-dry metric tonne (BDMT): the ship's cargo is weighed and sampled for moisture, and the invoice is on the oven-dry weight of wood, so a wet cargo does not cost the buyer water freight. The specification names the species (Eucalyptus globulus, other eucalypts, acacia), the chip size, bark content and contamination limits in the mill's specification. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 4401.22 (non-coniferous chips) total 19.3 million MT and USD 2.11 billion across the reporters in the pull, led by Australia (29.1% of the value, 3.68 million MT), Thailand (19.6%, 4.49 million MT), Chile (8.9%), South Africa (8.7%), Brazil (7.5%), Indonesia (7.0%) and Uruguay (2.6%); Vietnam is not in the pull, but it supplies close to 60% of the Asia-Pacific hardwood chip trade and shipped 4.05 million BDMT to China in the first four months of 2026. Under HS 4401.21 (coniferous chips), 11.9 million MT and USD 992 million, the USA declared 27.0%, Latvia 15.9% and Australia 12.2%.

The buyers are pulp and paper mills in China and Japan and the trading houses that supply them. The market has moved: Australia's hardwood chip exports have fallen 45% from their 2018 peak of 6.8 million BDMT, with Japan-bound volumes down 65%, as Chinese mills blend more Vietnamese chip. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers chips between plantation chip mills and exporters on one side and mills and their traders on the other, and the freight is priced through our sister chartering desk, LaycanDesk. Chips move in bulk on dedicated woodchip carriers, high-cubic ships built for a light cargo, on FOB and CFR terms per BDMT. Every cargo carries a phytosanitary certificate where the importer requires it, a moisture and weight survey at load, FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody certificates where claimed, the EU Deforestation Regulation data where the chips or their products go to the EU (applying to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026), and plantation origin documents for the fibre.

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.