This is due to the fact that very little pulp is consumed domestically in Chile, while about two-thirds of Brazil's pulp production is utilized by domestic paper mills. Total paper and paperboard production in Brazil is 3.5 times the volume produced in the other 3 countries combined. Last year, at least in the first half of 1995, there was a strong international demand for pulplogs, both conifer and hardwood. All 4 countries exported significant quantities of pulplogs last year, but only Chile exported substantial volumes of sawlogs, more than 1.6 million m3. Battistella has exported some sawlogs from Brazil to Turkey this year, and there have been a couple of shipments to Korea in the past, but this business is tiny in comparison with Chile's on-going trade with South Korea.
Chile is also the major player in the region in the wood chip export industry.
Brazil exported about 800,000 gmt, to both Japan and Europe, and Argentina exported about 80,000 gmt to Japan. Wood-based panel production is much greater in Brazil than in the other 3 countries. Particleboard and hard fibreboard production is greater, and plywood production is also very important in Brazil. In Chile, the first pine plywood mill is currently being built by Arauco, and in both Argentina and Chile the plywood industries based on native hardwoods are in very tough shape. Duratex should soon have an MDF plant in Agudos, Brazil, and I will be very surprised if more facilities aren't built in Brazil very soon.