Multi-million-dollar mahogany problem – illegal exports rival legal exports
The 42% rise in illegal logging activities reported inside the Chiquibul Forest in western Belize may finally get Government’s attention now that a dollar figure of $15 million has been put to the amount of illegal exports of mahogany and cedar leaving the country for next-door Guatemala.
FEDERAL WAY, Wash., USA, Aug 01, 2011 - Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced it has completed the sale of its hardwoods business to American Industrial Partners.
Total proceeds from the sale will be approximately $108 million.
Assets included in the transaction are located in Tuscumbia, Ala.; Elkhart, Ind.; Grand Rapids and Lewiston, Mich.; Brainerd, Minn.; Coos Bay, Eugene and Garibaldi, Ore.; Titusville, Pa.; Arlington, Centralia and Longview, Wash.; and Dorchester and Onalaska, Wis.
EU tropical hardwood log imports fall to lowest level ever
The latest EU trade data indicates that imports of tropical hardwood logs into the region have continued to fall during the course of 2010. Overall imports during the first nine months of 2010 amounted to only 253,300 cu.m, 22% down compared to the same period in the previous year. The big decline in imports from Gabon following the country’s log export ban imposed from May 2010 has been only partially offset by increasing imports from other countries in the Congo basin.
Hardwood pulp capacity expansion in Asia will put prices under further downward pressure
BOSTON, MA, Dez. 17, 2010 (RISI) - The pulp market has come off the boil in recent months, with the bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) market clearly weakening more than the softwood (BSK) market.
According to the office of Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China had decided to remove tariffs on 4,762 commodities imported from 33 of the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Commodities with zero tariffs include wood products. The zero tariff treatment came into effect on 1 July 2010.
The countries involved are 26 African countries and 7 other countries, including Ethiopia, Benin, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Jul 01, 2010 – Seattle, USA. June, 2010. Eucalyptus pulplog prices in Brazil have been very stable in the local currency and they have hardly changed at all since 2006, as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly. In US dollar terms, on the other hand, wood fiber costs have increased substantially because of the strengthening of the Brazilian Real.
The price of Brazilian Eucalyptus has risen 25 per cent in the past year, bringing it nearly level with the global average hardwood fibre price index.
A steady balance of supply and demand for logs of the commodity has resulted in a stable value in the local currency, the Brazilian Real. A steady strengthening in the currency, however, has resulted in the rising dollar costs.
An isolated First Nations region on the northern British Columbia coast is emerging as a new economic powerhouse, leading the rebirth of the forest industry in that part of the province.
Hardwood fiber costs for the global pulp industry increased over 15% in 2009
Seattle, USA. February 2010. Pulp markets have been remarkably strong during 2009 despite the global financial crisis. From April through December, the softwood market pulp price (NBSK) jumped 45%.
