US buyers cut Brazil wood orders by a third before new tariffs

Wood exporters across Brazil have shipped US$855.2 million across ten of the country’s main export lines in the first half of 2026, with sales into the United States falling by a third before Washington’s new 25 per cent duty took effect on 22 July. That is according to Gustavo Milazzo, Chief Executive of the export platform WoodFlow, whose analysis of Comex Stat trade records puts the half-year total 8 per cent below the $929.5 million shipped over the same months last year.

Washington has spared much of what Brazil actually sells, with the Trade Representative’s final Section 301 notice clearing tropical logs, sawnwood, veneers, and plywood alongside most grades of wood pulp. Anything already covered by a specified Section 232 heading escapes the new charge altogether, leaving the biggest lines in the American trade on the rates they already carried, Wood Central understands.

Mills selling at home met a softer market in June, with the country’s producer price index falling 0.77 per cent in a second straight monthly decline and six of the 24 industrial activities tracked by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics recording lower prices. Furniture makers, among the largest domestic buyers of Brazilian panels, moved the other way with a 2.08 per cent monthly gain and prices 7.68 per cent higher across 12 months.

Pine plywood remains the largest American earner, worth $151 million across the half and $27 million in June, with pine sawnwood close behind on $143.3 million and $24.3 million over the same months. Many Brazilian plants were built specifically to American standards, sizes, certifications, and applications, Milazzo said, none of which transfer to a new buyer overnight.

“We barely understand one tariff before the next appears,” Milazzo said of a sequence that has exporters recalculating costs, contracts, and margins almost in real time, with a second round of duties from 10 to 12.5 per cent reaching Brazil two days after the 25 per cent charge started.

One destination dominates the order book, with the United States accounting for 24.7 per cent of the half-year total, and Milazzo warning that switching markets means requalifying products and rebuilding buyer relationships from scratch. Cargo has already started moving elsewhere, with timber through Paranaguá to Mexico jumping 33 per cent over the first quarter.

Two southern states account for most of the exposure, with the Brazilian Association of Mechanically Processed Timber reporting 173,300 jobs in the wood industry in 2024 and 376,000 once furniture is included. “Paraná and Santa Catarina stand out among the main employing hubs,” Paulo Pupo, Superintendent of the association, said of the plants concentrated in the country’s pine plantation heartland.

The ports handling most of Brazil’s wood exports are concentrated along the country’s southern and southeastern coast. Paranaguá led the January-April 2026 ranking with 38,696 TEUs, followed by Navegantes with 24,096 TEUs, Itapoá with 23,286 TEUs, Santos with 12,118 TEUs, Itajaí with 9,896 TEUs and Rio Grande with 8,549 TEUs. Together, those ports accounted for the vast majority of Brazil’s containerized wood exports.

Top Wood Export Ports | Jan-Apr 2026 | TEUs

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

It comes as China’s construction gauge fell to 47.0 in July, its weakest reading since the Covid lockdowns of early 2020, which has softened demand in a market that ranks among the biggest buyers of Brazilian sawn timber.

Source: Wood Central

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