Demand for bangkirai decking remains slack

After an already sluggish pace of business in spring, demand for bangkirai decking on European sales markets has not revived in the last six weeks either. Importers and agents are thus still reporting slow progress in trade and a volume of sales that fails to match last year’s levels. In contrast to the last few weeks, say various importers, the weakness in demand is meanwhile also affecting to a greater extent the competing products from South America, such as garapa, cumaru, and ipé, which were still doing relatively well at the beginning of the garden season. Demand for softwood decking has evidently slackened as well recently. WPC is the only product that can still set itself apart from this development. Here, demand is unanimously reported to be comparatively good and the volumes of sales higher than those of the same time last year.