The global MDF market amounted to 96.4 million cubic meters in 2016, posting solid gains over the last ten years. In value terms, the market stood at $38.5 billion, which was about the same level as 2015, according to a report by IndexBox.

China was the country with the highest volume of consumption (55.2 million cubic meters) in the world. Other major consumers included Turkey (4.7 million cubic meters), the U.S. (4.2 million cubic meters), Brazil (3.8 million cubic meters) and Poland (3.1 million cubic meters).

Production of MDF reached 97.5 million cubic meters in 2016; a relatively flat trend from 2007-2009 was followed by a steady growth through to 2016, which, however, decelerated over the last two years. In value terms, global production of MDF was estimated at $38.5 billion in 2016, which was 4 percent less than the highest level of production achieved in 2014. The value of production dropped in 2009 by 12 percent, followed by recovery and further growth over the next four years, until it fell again. 

China was the key world MDF producing country with an output of about 57.7 million cubic meters in 2016, which accounted for 59 percent of the global output. The other major producers were Turkey (5 percent), Brazil (4 percent) and Poland (4 percent).

MDF remained a widely traded commodity, despite the decline of the share of export in total global output from 27 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2016. High trade intensity is determined mainly by the substantial distances between the main centers of MDF manufacturing and key consuming countries. 

In 2016, the U.S. (1.6 million cubic meters) and Iran (1.4 million cubic meters) were the leading destinations of MDF imports, together making up 19 percent of global imports. They were followed by Saudi Arabia (5 percent), the UK (4 percent), Italy (4 percent) and France (4 percent). See http://www.indexbox.co.uk