US Dollar Exchange Rates of 10th February 2018
China Yuan 6.289
Report from China
National accreditation body recognised by US EPA
According to the China Daily website China¡¯s National
Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS)
has been recognised by the United States Environment
Protection Agency (EPA).
The CNAS has authority to offer accreditation services
internationally which will benefit China¡¯s wood product
traders who will be able to provide certificates issued by
CNAS without the need for repeated certification and
testing.
In December the CNAS alerted manufacturers that the
EPA issued a revised Formaldehyde Emission Standard
for Composite Wood Products which raised safety
standards and required detailed information on composite
wood products destined for the US market.
Meeting the US regulations became a major technical and
cost issue for Chinese manufacturers which impacted
exports of wood products to the US.
The US regulation calls for composite wood products to be
tested by a certification body recognised by the EPA
before entering the US. The prerequisite for becoming a
certification body recognized by EPA is the accreditation
which the CNAS secured in January this year.
Now the CNAS is officially recognised by the US EPA as
a certification body so it can play an active role in the
export of wood products from China to the United States.
For more see:
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-
02/documents/eparecognized_
accreditation_bodies_under_the_formaldehyde_emis
sion_standards_for_composite_wood_products_rule_0.pdf
Kevazingo not a recognised ¡®redwood¡¯ in new national
standard
A revised national standard, (GB/T 18107-2017 effective
1 July 2018), for Chinese redwood has been released by
the National Standard Committee replacing GB/T 18107-
2000.
The number of recognised redwood species has been
reduced to 29 from 33. The following have now been
excluded: Vietnamese padauk (Pterocarpus cambodianus
Pierre), maidu (Pterocarpus pedatus Pierre.), black
rosewood (Dalbergia fusca Pierre) and ponce¡¯s kamagong
(Diospyros poncei Merr.).
According to analysts these changes only reflect
rearrangement of species with different names. For
example Vietnamese padauk (Pterocarpus cambodianus
Pierre) and maidu (Pterocarpus pedatus Pierre.) are
regarded as the same as Myanmar padauk (Pterocarpus
macarocarpus Kurz), black rosewood (Dalbergia fusca
Pierre) is another name for Myanmar blackwood
(Dalbergia cultrate Grah.).
In addition to changes in nomenclature, information on 6
redwoods in 8 categories have been modified with new dta
on wood characteristics.
These changes, say analysts, are aimed at making it more
convenient for consumers and for market promotion. The
changes also are a reminder to redwood enterprises that
the ¡®redwoods¡¯ are becoming scarce.
The revision of the national standard for redwoods has
disappointed many in the private sector who hoped the
revision would add more species in particular mukula
(Pterocarpus chrysothrix), from Zambia and
bubinga/kevazingo (Guibourtia demeusei).
See:
http://www.gb688.cn/bzgk/gb/newGbInfo?hcno=6E961C6DB78
254EF883B5053D08BFA3B
and
http://www.vekea.com/news/info_11_itemid_3899.html
Rise in flooring sales
According to the flooring Committee, China National
Forestry Forest Industry Association (CNFPIA), China's
wood and bamboo flooring sales in 2017 totalled 415.2
million square metres, a year on year increase of 5%.
Of the total, the volume of solid wood flooring sales rose
9% to 47.9 million square metres, wood composite
flooring sales grew 10% to 114.9 million square metres,
laminate flooring sales increased 2% to 214.7 million
square metres while bamboo flooring sales were down
1.2% to 33.6 million square metres, the balance being
other flooring types.
Laminate flooring sales accounted for more than 50% of
total sales followed by wood composite flooring which
accounted for 28% of all sales. Solid wood flooring
accounted for 12% of sales with the balance being mainly
bamboo flooring.
Top 10 ports ranked
At the recent China Wood Supply Chain Conference and
Wood Industry Zone Development Forum, the China
Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association
(CTWPDA) announced the top 10 ports handling wood
products. These were in order of rank:
Zhangjiagang, Taicang, Jinjiang, Dafeng, Xinminzhou and
Changshu Ports in Jiangsu Province, Penglai and Rizhao
Ports in Shandong Province, Zhanghzou Port in Fujian
Province and Qinzhou Port of Guangxi Province.
Local experts think that about 40% of China¡¯s log are
imported through Jiangsu provincial ports, including
Zhangjiagang, Taicang, Jinjiang, Dafeng, Xinminzhou,
Changshu, Lianyungang and Taizhou Ports, the second is
Shandong Province ports such as Penglai, Rizhao,
Qingdao and Lianshan. Guangdong Province and borders
in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are important
for sawnwood imports.
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