US Dollar Exchange Rates of
10th
Jul
2023
China Yuan 7.21
Report from China
Duties on China's hardwood plywood and
engineered wood flooring continue
According to a recent announcement from the US Decorative Hardwood
Association, the US International Trade Commission decided that the existing
duties on Chinese hardwood plywood will remain in place for the next five
years. This decision follows the country's review process on whether to
remove the tariffs after five years as required by the Uruguay Round
Agreement Act and follows a similar ruling by the Commerce Department.
The Commission stated that removing existing anti-dumping and countervailing
duties on hardwood plywood from China would cause substantial harm to the US
wood flooring industry.
The US International Trade Commission also ruled that the existing duties on
Chinese engineered wood flooring will remain in place for the next five
years. This is a critical development for the industry which has been
fighting to have this overturned.
First ‘carbon neutral’ industrial park for Fujian
It has been reported that Fujian Three Gorges Offshore Wind Power
International Industrial Park obtained a carbon neutral certificate issued
by the Beijing Green Exchange lifting the industrial park to take the lead
in achieving carbon neutrality and thus became the first industrial park in
China to achieve carbon neutral status.
A ‘carbon neutral’ wood pallet industry has been created in the Guolin wood
industrial zone in Fujian Province. Pallets are generally divided into three
categories metal, plastic and wood wit wooden pallets being most widely used
because of their lower cost, strenth and their carbon fixation.
In related news, the China Forestry Group Corporation focuses on realising
the recycling and sharing of wooden pallets and promotes the development of
green and low-carbon industries to build wooden pallets to sequester carbon.
It has been estimated that one cubic metre of wood can produce 18 wood
pallets. Based on the annual output of 10 million pallets about 5-600,000
cubic metres of wood will be used per year and about 530,000 tonnes of
carbon will be sequestered per year.
According to the State Forestry and Grassland Administration wood and wood
products are efficient and inexpensive carbon sequesters. The wood industry
not only has low energy consumption in processing but the waste and waste
produced in the production process can be used as biomass fuel which reduces
the use of fossil energy while improving the utilisation rate of wood.
China's new wood industry base in Rizhao city
Taking advantages of timber imports a timber industry cluster has
been rapidly developing in Lanshan District, Rizhao City in Shandong
Province. There are around 400 timber trade and processing enterprises
established there.
More than 360 wood processing enterprises have an annual wood processing
capacity of 7 million cubic metres and an annual output value of more than
RMB10 billion and support more than 20,000 direct employees.
At present there are 9 special timber handling berths at Lanshan Port with
an annual handling capacity of 10 million cubic metres of timber and its
business involves more than 30 countries such as Russia, New Zealand, the
United States, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay, Germany and Poland.
Lanshan Port has the only national import wood quarantine
and pest control area in Shandong port. There are 400 drying kilns with an
annual capacity of 800,000 cubic metres and the timber storage capacity of 5
large special timber yards is about 1.2 million cubic metres.
A total of 9.15 million cubic metres of logs were imported through Lanshan
Port in 02022 a year on year increase of 14% and accouned for just over 21%
of the national total. Timber imports through Lanshan Port reached 5.18
million cubic metres in the first half of 2023, an increase of 7%
year-on-year.
Rizhao city has unique geographical advantages, or the fan-shape origin of
sea and land, can gather global resources, and then sell to the world.
Building a factory in Rizhao can take advantage of these advantages and
reduce production costs.
Lanshan District aims to build a low-carbon integrated national imported
wood trade and processing demonstration zone in the next few years.
See:
http://sd.people.com.cn/n2/2023/0711/c386785-40489909.html
China timber index
In June this year, after experiencing consecutive slowdowns in
April and May, the economy in China began to stabilise. The weakness in
market demand slowed but enterprises still feel weakened demand, especially
in international markets.
On 29 June the Standing Committee of State Council reviewed and approved
"Measures to Stimulate Home furnishing Consumption". It was pointed out that
home furnishing consumption has the characteristics of long upstream and
downstream supply chains.The Chinese government will adopt measures to boost
furnishing consumption through policy coordination and synergistic efforts
between promoting home furnishing consumption, renovation of old residential
areas, reconstructing housing for the elderly, constructing convenient
living circles and improving recycling to generate a concerted effort to
promote consumption.
In addition, on 28 June the Third Session of the Standing Committee of the
14th National People's Congress voted and decided to establish 15 August as
National Ecological Day to promote an understanding for the entire nation
and generate conscious actions by all industries.
In June production and output in the timber and timber products industry
gradually slowed due to the holiday season and because of the slow recovery
of demand.
Orders and production of GTI-China enterprises decreased compared to the
previous month, reduction of inventory of raw materials and finished
products was in progress as market prices remained in a downward trend.
In June, the GTI-China index recorded 48.2%, an increase compared to that of
the previous month but has been below the critical value (50%) for 2
consecutive months, indicating that the prosperity of the enterprises
represented by the GTI-China index shrank further from last month however,
the pace of contraction eased.
Through the eyes of industry
The latest GTI report lists the challenges identified by the
private sector in China.
See:
https://www.itto-ggsc.org/static/upload/file/20230714/1689299252208888.pdf
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