Demand and Supply of Tropical Wood Products in China Towards 2020

China

This project is a follow up to ITTO PD 25/96 Rev.2 (M): "China's Consumption of Forest Products and Its Demand for Them from the International Tropical Forest Products Market by the Year 201 0". At present China not only has become the largest importer of tropical logs in the world, but also is a global timber processing center and important exporter of tropical wood products. China plays an increasingly important role in the global processing and trading chain of tropical wood products. With the rapid development of the wood processing industries and housing starts, China's demand for tropical wood products will continue to increase and this will certainly affect world timber market. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze and forecast future supply and demand of China's tropical wood products. The project will give a whole picture of China's demand and supply of tropical wood products by 2020 through in-depth investigations on productive capacity of tropical wood products processors and the end uses of imported tropical logs and consumers'_preference, and analysis of regulations and policies related to wood products trade. This project is aiming to provide reliable information on China's tropical forest product market which could be used as reference either by tropical log exporting countries in making market strategies or by domestic related authorities in making policy decisions, so as to promote close cooperation between ITTO producers and consumers and contribute to sustainable development of the global tropical wood product market.

Progress report

The first installment of ITTO funds for the project was disbursed to the implementing agency in February 2010, after it had submitted its Inception Report with a detailed workplan and a notification of commencement. The project implementation started in March 2010. Since the commencement of the project implementation, the following progress has been achieved:

• The first progress report was submitted on 16 September 2010;
• The second installment of ITTO funds was disbursed on 8 November 2010;
• The first PTC meeting was held on 12 November 2010;
• The second progress report was submitted on 25 February 2011;
• The third progress report was submitted on 29 August 2011

To date, progress towards the achievement of project outputs is as follows:

• A qualified international consultant has been recruited, 12 specially invited correspondents have been recruited and the regular exchange mechanism had been established. The international consultant visited China in October 2010 and the forecasting model for the supply and demand of tropical wood products, questionnaires for enterprises and consumers and the framework of main report were revised.
• Information and materials on tropical wood production, consumption and trade had been collected for analysis and compilation. A consulting meeting had been held to collect stakeholders’ opinions and suggestions.
• The framework of the main project report was drafted and discussed with the international consultant. The survey questionnaires for enterprises and consumers were also developed and disseminated to target groups.
• The two analysis reports and an investigation report, including the analysis reports on the productive capacity of Chinese tropical wood processing enterprises and the end uses of the imported tropical log were finalized.
• The seminar on “Opportunities and Challenges Faced by Chinese Tropical Wood Processing Enterprises” was held in Beijing in December 2010.
• Six domestic investigations have been carried out in Guangdong, Sichuan, Liaoning, Hainan, Shangdong and Xinjiang provinces respectively.
• The questionnaire for consumers’ preference was disseminated to target groups and 560 feedbacks were received. The statistical analysis had been conducted. The questionnaires for enterprises had also been disseminated to targeted enterprises.
• Based on the framework of the main report as reviewed by international consultant, the project team has begun writing the main report. The forecasting model for supply and demand for tropical wood products has been developed and became operational with the forecasting results being reviewed by experts in this field.
• The feedback from consumers and wood enterprises has been analyzed using the software SPSS, and two investigation reports had been drafted.
• The draft of the analysis report “Conflict issues and policy trends on China’s trading of tropical wood products” has been prepared.
• Seventeen issues on China Wood Products Market Information were compiled and published both in Chinese and English.
• The implementation of this project is well on track and in accordance with the approved workplan.