Consumer Industry & Agriculture
Forest Products
Sojitz Canada Forest Products Department, which operates in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), has two sections: Logs and Lumber. Our primary business is exporting logs and lumber from North America to Japan for housing. We conduct negotiations, control quality, perform market analysis, and manage logistics in a timely manner for our overseas customers.
The Log section ships from decked logs or log booms by bulk vessels and in some cases via containers. We export softwood logs such as Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Balsam, and Spruce mainly to Japan and occasionally to Korea and China. Sojitz is one of the major log exporters to Japan where logs will be consumed for sawn lumber for housing and plywood. We mainly load out of Nanaimo in British Columbia and Alaska, U.S.A. Prior to loading to our designated ports, we conduct log inspections to ensure that quality meets each of our customer’s desired standards.
Although forestry might sound like a rural industry in a developed country like Canada, it still remains one of the biggest industries in British Columbia. The Sojitz Canada Lumber section consists of four members. Since 2017, we’ve been importing lumber from Japan to the U.S. The appearance and characteristics of Japanese Sugi are very similar to Western Red Cedar (WRC) which is often used for fence/decking in the USA. Due to decreased supply of WRC within North America, there has been a need for other species and the popularity of Japanese Sugi has increased dramatically. The Japanese Government is promoting new ways to use wood in recent years as the log growth rate exceeds the harvest volume in Japan. So exporting lumber out of Japan matches the Japanese environmental/economical strategy with lumber demand in the USA. We expect consistent growth in U.S. housing starts based on population trends and are focused on this market. We also import block boards from China into Canada.
Today we are actively seeking opportunities to create business related to biomass energy. In order to conserve the environment, the world is looking to substitute traditional natural resources with renewable energy. While Canada has abundant non-renewable energy resources, it also has a vast and boundless land covered in trees. The potential of woody biomass is therefore nearly unlimited. Canada is located right between Asia and Europe, and we look forward to contributing not only to Sojitz but also to the world by promoting the use of biomass energy. We are devoted to diversifying our sales channels and developing new markets while maintaining our good relationships with customers at home and abroad as we continuously strive to be the major player in the forest industry.