Reduced activities in the housing construction sector in China decreased importation of softwood logs and lumber in late 2011, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. Despite the decline in the 4Q, total imports during 2011 reached a record high, making China the largest importer of logs and lumber in the world.
The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, today addressed representatives of Canada’s forest industry at a luncheon speech at PaperWeek 2012 in Montreal.
The Minister highlighted the importance of partnerships, innovation and market expansion to the future of Canada’s forest industry in helping to sustain jobs in rural communities across the country.
Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA) said the timber industry here is facing a shortage of raw material due to over logging in the past and lack of sustainable forest management program.
In a statement yesterday in conjunction with this year’s Chinese New Year celebration, STIA president Datuk James Hwong said the critical situation has forced STIA members to depend on other means to sustain the industry.
Maine Governor Paul LePage signed an executive order directing that “any new or expanded state buildings shall incorporate green building standards that give certification credits equally to forest products grown, manufactured and certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, American Tree Farm System and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems.”
ICTORIA - The B.C. government says lumber exports to China have gone through the roof.
It says in the first 11 months of last year, the province had shipped 4.2 billion board feet of lumber to China, exceeding a goal of four billion set four years ago.
Exports are up 200 per cent from 2009, and their value has hit more than one billion dollars.
Jobs Minister Pat Bell calls the numbers astounding, saying about two dozen sawmills across B.C. have re-opened or added shifts partly because of the boost in exports to China.
With weaker demand for lumber around the world, sawlog prices fell in a majority of the 21 markets tracked by the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). The Global Conifer Sawlog Price Index (GSPI) declined in the 3Q for the first time since the 1Q/09.
With a few exceptions, prices fell in both local currencies and in US dollar terms. The only region that saw any substantial price increase in the 3Q was British Columbia, where prices were up 5-7 percent from the 2Q. This region has benefited from higher lumber exports and production has gone up during 2011.
Over the past few decades, tropical timber production in many Asia–Pacific countries has been akin to the symmetric logistic distribution curve, or ‘Hubbert Curve’, observed in the exploitation of many non-renewable resources—a rapid increase in production followed by a peak and then decline.
The popularity of certain timber construction techniques appears to be spreading, with cross-laminated timber (CLT) proving to be particularly sought-after.
CLD is produced in a factory and involves industrially-drying quick-growing timber boards, before stacking them at right angles and gluing them together. The boards are glued across their entire surface, and one product will usually use three, five or seven layers of timber.
The global demand for timber resources has been highlighted by Tanzania's Minister for Natural Resources, who has called on international investors to entrust more of their money to alternative funds such as timber funds.
Ezekiel Maige told a gathering of international businessmen in the East African nation that the national demand for timber and its byproducts had reached 5 million cubic metres, while the nation's timber farms currently only had the capacity to produce 1.2 million cubic metres.
