Five Year plan sees 1.4 billion cubic metre forest stock

The 13th Five Year Planning for China’s national forestry development has been released by the State Forestry Administration (SFA). According to the plan just over 33 million hectares of plantations will be established and tending of the current 40 million hectares will continue.

The plan envisages China’s national forest stock will reach 1.4 billion cubic metres, the forest cover will rise to just over 23% and the total value of forestry industry output will amount to RMB8.7 trillion.

During 12th Five Year Plan period output from the country’s forest industry grew by more than 20% to RMB5.94 trillion compared to output in the previous plan period.

The average annual production of wood-based panels in the 12th plan period was 250 million cubic metres and flooring output tipped 690 billion square metres.

Value of forest products trade in 2015

According to China Customs the total value of China’s forest products trade in 2015 was US$140 billion, a year on year decline of 1%, accounting for 3.1% of the total national commodity trade value.

The value of forest product exports amounted to US$75.3 billion, a year on year increase of 4%, making up 3.3% of the total national commodity trade value.

The value of forest products imports came to US$64.7 billion, a year on year decline of 6%, accounting for 3.85% of total national commodity trade value.

The trade surplus in forest products in 2015 soared over 200% to US$10.6 billion. The balance of trade surplus for forest products trade in 2014 was US$3.4 billion.

The output value of China’s wood products sector in 2015 fell 2% to US$104.7 billion, accounting for 75% of the total value of national forest products trade.

Of the total, the value of wood product exports rose 3% to US$61.4 billion, making up 82% of the value of national forest products export, unchanged from last year.

In 2015 the value of wood product imports declined 8% to US$43.3 billion, accounting for 67% of the value of national forest product imports. The trade balance for China’s wood products was US$18.1 billion, a year on year increase of 57%.

The output of China’s non-wood forest products in 2015 rose 2% to US$35.3 billion, accounting for 25% of the total value of national forest products trade.

Of the total, the value of non-wood forest products exports rose 9% to US$13.9 billion, making up 18% of the value of national forest products export.

The value of non-wood forest product imports declined 2% to US$21.4 billion, accounting for 33% of the value of national forest product imports. The negative balance of China’s non-wood forest products trade was US$7.5 billion, a year on year decline of 18%.

Wood product imports in 2015

The performance of China’s timber imports in 2015 was the lowest for several years. Imports of wood products in 2015 declined 8% to US$43.3 billion.

The value of wood pulp, logs, sawnwood, waste paper, paper, paperboard and paper product imports dominated the trade in wood products in 2015. The value of these 6 major commodity groups amounted to US$39.2 billion, accounting for 90% of the total value of all wood forest product imports.

The average price for all wood product imports declined except that for wood chips. The average import price for logs fell the most dropping 21%.

The main reason for the over drop in imports was thesharp fall in the value of log imports.

(Source: globalwood.org)