| US                            
      Dollar Exchange Rates of  15th Feb. 2008China Yuan                            
      7.190
 Report from China
 China reports strong timber trade data for 2007
 According to the Director General of the State Statistical
 Bureau, Mr. Xie Youzhan, China¡¯s GDP reached RMB
 24.66 billion yuan (roughly USD3.52 billion) in 2007, up
 11.4% from last year. In 2007, the total import and export
 trade value rose 23.5% to USD2.17 trillion over the last
 year, the trade balance was USD262.2 billion, up 47.7%
 over the last year. Given these strong economic results,
 China¡¯s forest products trade extended considerably in
 2007.
 
 1.1 Imports
 1.1.1 Logs Log imports totaled 37.1 million m3 valued at USD5.35million in 2007, up 15.4 % and 36.2 % respectively over
 the last year.
 
 Russia remained the most important supplier in 2007.
 China imported 25.40 million m3 of logs from Russia
 valued at USD2.706 million, up 16.4% in volume and
 37.6% in value over the last year. Major suppliers of logs
 (over 1 million m3) to China were as follows:
 
 Tropical log imports in 2007 were 8.40 million m3, up8.5% over the last year, but the proportion to the total log
 imports was 22.6% by volume, compared with 24.1% in
 2006.
 1.1.2 Sawnwood Sawnwood imports totaled 6.55 million m3, valued atUSD1.77 million in 2007, up 6.5% in volume and 4.4% in
 value over the last year. Imported sawnwood came from a
 number of countries. Russia and the US were two of the
 traditional major suppliers. China imported 1.58 million
 m3 of sawnwood from Russia and 1.07 million m3 from
 the US in 2007, accounting for 24.2 % and 16.4 % of the
 total sawnwood imports respectively. Table 5 shows the
 major sawnwood suppliers to China.
 
 1.1.3 Wood-based panels Plywood imports were 306,000 m3 and valued at USD170million in 2007, down 26% in volume and 13.6% in value
 from last year. Imported plywood mainly came from
 Indonesia and Malaysia. China imported 140,000 m3 of
 plywood from Indonesia, valued at USD 81.40 million,
 down 37.8% in volume and 28% in value from last year.
 Plywood imports from Malaysia totaled 100,000 m3,
 valued at USD 46.93 million, down 13.8% in volume and
 up 14% in value from last year. Of the total volume of
 imported plywood, Indonesian plywood accounted 45.8%,
 while Malaysian plywood amounted to 32.7%.
 Regarding other wood-based panels, fiberboard importstotaled 900,000 m3, valued at USD 169 million in 2007,
 down 5.5% in volume and 13.7% in value from last year.
 Particle board imports amounted to 525,000 m3, valued at
 USD 106 million in 2007, down 3% in volume and 4.5%
 in value from 2006 levels. Finally, veneer imports were
 98,000 tons and valued at USD135 million in 2007, down
 2.9% in volume and up 14.7% in value from last year.
 1.1.4 Pulp and waste paper In terms of value, pulp is the largest imported forestproducts. Pulp imports totaled 847 million tons, valued at
 USD 5.55 million in 2007, up 6.5% in volume and 26.3%
 in value from last year.
 
 China is the largest importer of waste paper in the world.
 Waste paper imports totaled 22.56 million tons in 2007,
 accounting for 45% of the world total imports, valued at
 USD 4.042 million, up 15% in volume and 47.1% in value
 from 2006.
 1.1.5 Paper, paperboard and waste paper Paper and board imports totaled 3.99 million tons, valuedat USD 3.52 million in 2007, down 9.5% in volume and
 up 2.9% in value from last year; paper product imports
 totaled 214.7 thousand tons, and valued at USD764
 million in 2007, down 7.3% in volume and up 6.1% in
 value the previous year.
 1.1.6 Wooden furniture China imported a total of 2.48 million pieces of woodenfurniture in 2007, valued at USD220 million, up 92.3 %
 and 87.4 % respectively over the last year.
 ¡¡ 1.2. Exports 1.2.1 Sawnwood Sawnwood exports were 747,500 m3, valued at USD389million in 2007, down 7.5 % and up 10.2 % respectively
 from last year. In addition, 16,000 m3 of sleepers were
 exported, valued at USD2.74 million in 2007. Sawnwood
 was mainly exported to Japan, Korea and the US.
 
 China¡¯s sawnwood was exported mainly through suchports as Dalian (283,000 m3), Qingdao (169,000 m3) and
 Nanjing (142,000 m3), which accounted for 79.3% of the
 total exports.
 1.2.2 Plywood Plywood exports totaled 8.78 million m3, valued atUSD3.58 million in 2007, up 5.8% in volume and 23% in
 value from last year. Plywood was mainly exported to the
 USA, Japan and UK, etc.
 
 Plywood was exported mainly through Nanjing, Qingdaoand Shanghai ports, other ports like Guangdong, Tianjin
 and Dalian were also the important ports to export
 plywood.
 1.2.3 Fiberboard Fiberboard exports totaled 2.29 million tons, valued atUSD1.08 million in 2007, up 56.3 % and 70.7 %
 respectively from last year. Fiberboard was mainly
 exported to Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia.
 North America, Korea and Russia were also the important
 destination areas.
 
 1.2.4 Wooden furniture
 China exported a total of 284.2 million pieces of wooden
 furniture in 2007, valued at US$10.685 billion, up 14.5 %
 and 21.7 % respectively over the last year.
 
 The US is the major importer of China¡¯s wooden furniture,
 with China¡¯s exports to the US valued at USD5.14 billion
 in 2007, accounting for 48.1% of China¡¯s total exports.
 Other important countries and regions which imported
 China¡¯s wooden furniture in 2007 were the UK (USD873
 million, 8.2%), Hong Kong SAR (USD752 million, 7%)
 and Japan (USD713 million, 6.7%).
 
 1.2.5 Paper, paperboard and paper products
 
 Paper and board exports totaled 4.23 million tons, valued
 at USD3.16 million in 2007, up 38.5% and 41%
 respectively from last year. Paper products export totaled
 2.58 million tons, valued at USD3.94 million, up 19.9 %
 in volume and 24.8 % in value over the last year.
 
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