US Dollar Exchange Rates of
10th
Nov
2023
China Yuan 7.28
Report from China
Forest
products trade between China and Belt & Road
countries
According to China Customs, the value of forest products
trade between China and the Belt and Road countries has
been on the rise since 2017 and grew 52% from US$51
billion in 2017 to US$78 billion in 2022. Imports
dominate the forest products trade between China and the
Belt & Road countries which have been running a deficit
since its launch.
Wood products trade between China and Belt &
Road
countries
Forest products include wood and non-wood products.
Trade in wood products dominates trade between China
and the Belt & Road countries accounting for nearly 60%
of the total. Trade in non-wood products trade makes up
the balance.
China imported almost 97% of its wood products from the
Belt & Road countries including timber and wood
products (HS code 44, 50%), wood pulp (HS code 47,
33%) and paper, paperboard products (HS code 48, 15%).
Log imports
According to China Customs, China’s log imports from
the Belt & Road countries were 5.42 million cubic metres
valued at US$966 million in 2022, down 48% in volume
and 42% in value year on year. China’s log imports from
the Belt & Road countries have shown a declining trend
and fell 62% between from 2013 to 2022.
The log trade with Russia is the largest of the Belt & Road
countries and accounted for 41% in 2022 down from the
61% in 2021. However, China’s log imports from Russia
plummeted to 2.21 million cubic metres in 2022 due to the
increase in log export tariffs by Russia.
The species of imported logs in 2022 were spruce and fir
(40%) and birch (34%). In addition, a small amount of
poplar, scots and Korean pine, oak and beech were
imported in 2022.
Sawnwood imports
According to China Customs, sawnwood imports from the
Belt & Road countries were 19.51 million cubic metres
valued at US$4.76 billion in 2022, down 8% in volume
and 5% in value year on year.
China’s sawnwood imports from the Belt & Road
countries have been increasing and rose 77% from 11
million cubic metres in 2013 to 19.51 million in 2022 and
in 2022 accounted for 73% of the national total. Russia
was the largest Belt & Road countries in terms of
sawnwood imports and accounted for 67% in 2022.
But China’s sawnwood imports from Russia fell 7% to
13.09 million cubic metres in 2022. In contrast, China’s
sawnwood imports from Thailand, the Philippines, Belarus
and Croatia rose 2%, 1%, 34% and 9% respectively in
2022.
The species of imported sawnwood in 2022 were scots and
Korean pine (29%), spruce and fir (28%) and tropical
sawnwood (24%).
Tropical log and sawnwood imports between China
and Belt & Road countries
According to China Customs tropical log imports from the
Belt & Road countries were about 90,000 cubic metres
valued at US$84 million in 2022, down 32% in volume
and 48% in value year on year.
China’s tropical log imports from the Belt & Road
countries have showed a declining trend and fell 92% from
1.10 million cubic metres in 2013 to 90,000 in 2022,
accounting for just 1.5% of the national total for tropical
log imports. 80% of China’s tropical logs were imported
from Cambodia (25,000 cu.m, 28%), Laos (23,000 cu.m,
25%), Malaysia (12,000 cu.m, 14%) and Thailand (11,000
cu.m, 12%) in 2022.
Tropical sawnwood imports
China’s tropical sawnwood imports from the Belt & Road
countries totalled 4.89 million cubic metres valued at
US$1.262 billion in 2022, up 2% in volume but down 1%
in value year on year.
China’s tropical sawnwood imports from the Belt & Road
countries have showed an increasing trend and rose from
84,700 cubic metres in 2013 to 4.89 million cubic metres
in 2022, accounting for 77% of the national total for
tropical sawnwood imports.
92% of China’s tropical sawnwood were mainly imported
from top Belt & Road countries, Thailand (3.85 mil. cu.m,
79%) and the Philippines (654,000 cu.m, 13%) in 2022.
See: https://lb.bfsu.edu.cn/64.pdf
.
China had signed cooperation agreements on Belt and
Road cooperation with 152 countries by October 2023.
The number of countries in the "Belt and Road" initiative
account for 77% of the number of countries in the world,
the area of countries joining the "Belt and Road" account
for 65% of the total area of 197 countries and the
population of countries in the "Belt and Road" initiative
account for 65% of the total population of the world.
Global Timber Index (GTI) Report
The Global Timber Index (GTI) Report for October 2023
shows that since the beginning of this year, the Chinese
government has rolled out a series of policies to support
the development of real estate and household furnishing
industries such as the “Notice on Several Measures to
Promote Household Furnishing Consumption” and the
“Circular on Optimizing the Criteria for the Recognition
of Housing Units in Personal Housing Mortgage”.
The effect of these policies is having an impact and
driving the development of the timber market in China.
This month China's timber enterprises included in the
GGSC saw an increase in both orders and production
volume with the GTI-China index registering 55.2%, an
increase of 18 percentage points from the previous month.
Data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics
showed in the first three quarters of this year China's gross
domestic product (GDP) reached 9.13 billion yuan, a year-
on-year increase of 5.2%.
Final consumption expenditure contributed to 94.8%
percent of economic growth, driving GDP growth by 4.6
percentage points; the total retail sales of consumer goods
reached 34.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of
6.8%; besides, the value created by the service sector
increased by 6.0 percent year-on-year, and the per capita
service consumption expenditure of residents grew by 14.2
percent year-on-year, indicating the pace of the recovery
exceeded expectations.
On 2 November the National Development and Reform
Commission and other government agencies issued a
three-year action plan to speed up substituting plastic with
bamboo, encouraging public agencies to actively purchase
relevant bamboo products that replace plastic and in the
fields of daily necessities, culture and tourism,
encouraging the use of shopping bags and stationery made
from bamboo instead of plastic.
The three-year action plan also points out that the overall
added value of the main products substituting plastic with
bamboo shall increase by at least 20% by 2025.
In October this year, China's timber industry showed
stable and sound development momentum, driven by a
series of policies for stimulating the real estate market and
encouraging infrastructure investment in China.
GTI-China enterprises reported that both production
volume and domestic orders increased compared with the
previous month, the import of raw materials such as wood
was more active, and the prices of timber stopped falling
and stabilized.
However, on the other hand, the international demand was
still relatively sluggish, and orders from overseas
decreased compared with the previous month.
In October the GTI-China index recorded 55.2%, an
increase of 17.9 percentage points compared to that of the
previous month, rose above the critical value (50%) after
one month, indicating that the business prosperity of the
timber enterprises represented by the GTI-China index
expanded from last month.
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