US Dollar Exchange Rates of 15th August 2008
China Yuan 6.8630
Report from China
Value of China¡¯s forest products up 14%
According to the latest statistics from China¡¯s customs
agencies, the total trade value of forest products in China
(exports and imports) amounted to about USD31 billion in
the first half of 2008, up 14% from the same period in
2007. The total import value was USD14.1 billion, rising
21% from last year, and the export value was USD16.9
billion, up 8.8% from the previous year. The balance of
forest product trade was USD2.78 billion.
1.1 Imports
Logs
Nearly 16.36 million m³ of logs valued at about USD2.8
billion were imported in China during the first half of the
year, a downward trend of 18.2% by volume and a rise of
4.7% by value from the same period of last year. Of the
total log imports, softwood imports valued at about
USD1.217 million were 9.855 million m³ by volume,
while hardwoods were 6.5 million m³ by volume and
valued at nearly USD1.584 million. The import volume
and value of softwood dropped 21.5% and 1.9%,
respectively, from the same period of last year, whereas
import volume of hardwoods were down 12.7% and the
value was up 2.5%. During the same period, tropical log
imports accounted for 4.165 million m³, making up 64%
of hardwood imports, down 6.5% from last year.
Russia remained the largest supplier of logs to China. A
total of 10.597 million m³ of logs were imported from
Russia, which accounted for 64.8% of the total imports.
However, since Russia has increased export tariffs
considerably, unit costs of Russian logs have increased
USD100/m3 to USD230.8/m3. As a result of these price
increases, imports of logs from Russia fell 24.3% from the
same period last year. The volume of Russian logs
contributing to China¡¯s total logs imports dropped 5.2%.
Countries supplying over 10,000 m³ of logs are shown
below in Table 1:
Manzhouli Port received 4.27 million m³ of logs during
this period or 26.1% of total logs imports to China, and
remained the largest port to accept log imports. Harbin
Port followed in second, with 3.98 million m³ of logs,
consisting of 24.3% of the nation¡¯s total. Nanjing Port and
Huhhot Port ranked in third and fourth places, importing
3.95 million m³ and 1.07 million m³ of logs, amounting to
24.1% and 6.6% of the total, respectively. Table 2 below
shows log imports by region in the first half of 2008:
Sawnwood
China imported 3.42 million m³ of sawnwood valued at
USD962.39 million during the first half of 2008, up 9.9%
by volume and 14.2% by value over the same period from
2007. The major suppliers of sawnwood to China were
Russia, Canada, the US and Thailand. Table 3 shows the
main supplying countries of sawnwood to China for the
first half of 2008:
Sawnwood imports were mainly concentrated in
developed coast provinces such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou
and Shanghai. Inland ports such as Manzhouli, Huhhot
and Harbin imported most of Russian sawnwood. Table 4
below shows the major regions importing sawnwood
during the first half of 2008:
Wood-based panels, wood furniture and chips
Imports of wood-based panels continued to drop from last
year. The import volume and value of fiberboard dropped
30.8% and 21.8% to 165.1 thousand tons and USD700.45
million, respectively. Imports of particleboard were
121,000 tons and valued at USD46.92 million, down
17.5% by volume and 0.4% by value. Imports of plywood,
mostly from Indonesia and Malaysia, were 159.2 thousand
tons and valued at USD91.10 million, down 0.3% and up
2% from 2007, respectively. The import volume from
Malaysia was 55,700 m³ and USD26.79 million,
representing 35% by volume and 29.4% by value of the
total plywood imported by China.
A total of 1.664 million pieces of wood furniture valued at
USD147.12 million were imported, up 94.8% by volume
from 2007. A total of 586,900 tons of wood chips valued
at USD98.23 million were imported, up 24.8% by volume
and 58.5% by value from 2007. Imports of charcoal also
rose 121.7% by volume and 61.2% by value from 2007.
1.2 Exports
Wood furniture
During the first half of 2008, a total of 118.09 million
wooden furniture pieces valued at USD5.233 million were
exported, or 31% of the total export value of forest
products exported from China. The total export volume
fell 10.5% by volume and rose 7.6% by value from 2007.
China¡¯s wooden furniture has been exported to over one
hundred countries, with major importing regions being the
US, UK, Japan and Hong Kong SAR, accounting for
53.5%, 9.5%, 8.1% and 2.7% of total export value,
respectively.
Wood-based panels
A total of 3.775 million m³ of plywood valued at nearly
1.732 million was exported during the first half of 2008.
This represented a 15.6% fall in volume and 2.1% decline
by value from the same period in 2007. Plywood was
exported to all parts of the world, including the US, Japan
and Middle Eastern countries. Exports of particleboard
valued at USD21.95 million increased considerably to
6.46 thousand tons, rising 43.7% by value and 18.3% by
volume from last year.
Paper, board and paper products
Paper and paper products have become the single largest
exported forest product after wooden furniture,
representing 21.6% of the total export value of forest
products from China. A total value of nearly USD3,654
million of products were exported, a 14.7% rise from 2007
levels.
Exports of wood chips valued at USD8.35 million dropped
to only 73 thousand tons during the first half of 2008.
Exports of sawnwood also fell 13.8% to 355 thousand m³
and valued at USD202 million. Exports of pulp and veneer
also dropped 37.3% by volume and 13.6% by value.
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