Home / Lights & Construction

In recent years, with the continuous strengthening of my country’s ecological and environmental protection efforts, the forest area is increasing, but the forest consumption is strictly controlled. Although my country’s wood production has increased, it cannot meet domestic demand. China is currently the world’s largest wood product. One of the importers, manufacturers and exporters, especially China's timber imports has been increasing year by year, which has accounted for 50% of China's total consumption.

China is extremely sensitive to the policy influences and changes of the main source countries of overseas timber. Analyzing the forestry status and policy direction of the main source countries of China's timber is of vital importance to the trend of domestic timber prices.

China's main timber import destinations and import volume

In 2020, China's timber imports amounted to 23.052 million tons, a decrease of 2.397 million tons from 2019.

Among them, China imported 2.834.8 billion U.S. dollars of timber from Russia in 2020, ranking first with 35.4% of the total import value.

Secondly, the Southeast Asian country Thailand imported US$960 million in timber, ranking second; Indonesia imported US$233 million in timber; Vietnam imported US$124 million in timber.

Among North American countries, timber imports from the United States were ranked third, followed by Canadian timber imports of 567 million US dollars, ranking fourth.

The African country Gabon imported US$263 million in timber and ranked fifth; Cameroon imported US$98 million in timber.

Among European countries, timber imports from Germany are 223 million dollars; Finland imports 196 million dollars; Ukraine imports 196 million dollars; Sweden imports 174 million dollars; Romania imports 111 million dollars; Belarus imports 105 million dollars.

Among South American countries, Chile imported 120 million U.S. dollars of timber, Brazil imported 95 million U.S. dollars, and Ecuador imported 87 million U.S. dollars.

Main timber species and current status of timber export in major importing countries

Russia: Pinus sylvestris, birch, Fraxinus mandshurica, etc.

Russia, as China's main timber export destination in recent years, has its own superior natural conditions. The forest area of 8.15 million square kilometers and the forest reserves of 80.7 billion cubic meters are indispensable conditions. The plate connection makes Russia and China become neighboring countries. Timber transportation can rely on railroads between the continents. At the moment when the sea transportation is blocked, Russia's export status to Chinese timber merchants is becoming more and more obvious.

But in February 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a new law: When the export of softwood logs and high-value hardwood logs will be banned from January 1, 2022, most of the trade may end next year. This means that in the future, China's main timber importing country Russia's timber imports will be greatly reduced, and the pattern of China's main timber importing countries may change next year.

Southeast Asia: rubber wood, Liuan, teak, merbau, gamba bean, etc.

Southeast Asia has a unique climate and has become the second largest tropical rain forest area in the world. The climate advantage can produce high-quality precious woods such as rubber wood and teak. At the same time, the deployment of coastal cities has made many countries in Southeast Asia become timber transit countries. Whether it is timber production or logistics transshipment, Southeast Asia has become an important position in the timber supply chain.

However, in recent years, excessive logging has caused visible changes in the forests of Southeast Asia. Many countries have begun to restrict timber mining and introduced timber restrictions on logging policies. For this reason, many countries have begun to develop wood deep processing industries. With the help of excellent geographical conditions and convenient transportation resources, the prospects for the processing business in Vietnam are promising. The furniture industry in Indonesia has also developed rapidly. If the epidemic in August had not directly swept the entire Southeast Asia and related wood When processing enterprises press the pause button, their scale of development will grow more rapidly.

North America: SPF, southern pine, Douglas fir, red oak, white oak, black walnut, white wax, etc.

In North America, the United States and Canada are currently the world's most important exporters of timber resources. The export volume of logs from the United States ranks among the top in the world; the total export volume of sawn timber and wood-based panels in Canada ranks first in the world. An environment rich in wood resources is indispensable, coupled with superior material properties, strict quality, grade and other systems, it is welcomed and favored by the international market. At present, Canada's forest product export market is mainly concentrated in North America and some Asian countries. Its export country is the United States, and China is the country with the fastest growth in Canadian forest product imports.

The notable feature of the US forest products trade is that imports are greater than exports. Imports are mainly finished or semi-finished products such as sawn timber, plywood, paper products and wooden furniture, and exports are mainly raw materials such as logs and wood pulp. For this reason, the United States exports a large amount of wood to China every year for processing, and China sells finished products to the United States. However, the United States is accustomed to currency devaluation and inflation. In recent years, the production line has been transferred to Vietnam due to the trade war.

Africa: African rosewood, hedgehog red sandalwood, Okoume, Sapele, wenge wood, big zebra, blood sandalwood, small leaf red sandalwood, etc.

Nearly 10% of logs imported by China come from Africa. Among them, Gabon’s supply of Chinese timber exceeds that of other African countries, and China is also Gabon’s main timber export market: 40% of Gabon’s log exports go to China. The Republic of Congo ranks second among all African countries that export timber to China: Half of Congo’s exports of logs are exported to China. In addition to the top two Gabon and the Republic of Congo, the other three African countries that export logs to China are: Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Mozambique. Without exception, for these countries, China is the largest export market for their timber.

The Sino-African trade chain is extremely complicated. Several African countries are now the fastest-growing Chinese timber suppliers. In the future, Russia's reduced timber supply due to policy influences may make up for it from Africa, but increasing imports from Africa will undoubtedly affect Africa. Forest management and sustainability. Many African countries have also noticed this, and have begun to advocate the improvement of the deep processing capacity of the domestic timber industry in African countries, which will correspondingly restrict timber exports.

Europe: birch, spruce, red pine, unedged beech, etc.

Looking at Europe from the satellite, the whole Europe, except for Spain in the southwest corner, where the vegetation coverage rate is not high, the rest of the region is green and the vegetation coverage rate is very high. European countries such as Russia, Sweden, Germany and other European countries account for about one-fifth of the total annual exports of sawn timber in the world, and they are important members of timber production and export.

However, since the epidemic last year, the wood processing industry in Europe has also been severely affected, with the decline in timber harvesting and board production, and the decrease in timber supply. In addition, the forest fires caused by climate change have not stopped for many months this year; the wood destroyed by insects and other threats accounted for two-thirds of the total deforestation in Germany, and the proportion was 20% in 10 years.

In terms of policies, the low-carbon environmental protection and carbon neutral policies advocated by the European Union encourage the construction industry to use more wood to build houses to control carbon emissions, and the demand for wood will increase in the future. On the other hand, successive years of felling of trees has led to the destruction of virgin forests, and it is urgent to control felling and planting trees for afforestation.

Concluding remarks

It can be seen from the status quo and policies of various countries in the world that many countries have begun to pay attention to environmental protection in their economic development, and they have begun to advocate the layout of plantations while restricting deforestation. In the past, economically backward countries that relied on a single economy and only exported timber have also begun to pay attention to the deep processing industry of timber. These are not good news for China, which is a large timber importer. When the total amount of timber is the same, either its own development needs will increase, or environmental needs will begin to control the logging rate. Undoubtedly, the total amount of timber that can be imported in the future will be reduced. Affect the process of China's industrial development.