The global shortage of raw wood raw materials endangers the building materials industry
Release time：2025-09-09 17:13 / page views：
It is understood that the main import trading countries of China's raw timber and downstream products are Malaysia, Indonesia, the United States, Russia, and Thailand. Among them, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand are all victims of the tsunami. These countries will need a large amount of raw timber for their own reconstruction, and the export volume will be affected, and the price of raw timber will also be affected.
However, industry insiders believe that the tsunami is just "the last straw that overwhelms the camel". One raw timber trader said that the impact of the tsunami on raw timber imports is first and foremost psychological. Most domestic manufacturers have stocks last year, but they are worried that the import volume of raw timber will decrease in the future, and exporters will raise prices.
In fact, since the Spring Festival in 2004, the price of flooring raw materials has generally risen, with an increase of about 10% in a year, and some varieties have even reached more than 20%. "After years of excessive deforestation in South East Asia, under the pressure of environmental protection, governments around the world have begun to implement policies to restrict the production and export of precious raw wood," the trader pointed out. Take Indonesia as an example. In order to protect the ecological environment and maintain the price of plywood and other raw wood processing products, the government has temporarily banned the export of logs since January 2002, and has banned the export of logs forever since June 8, 2002. After the tsunami, due to reconstruction, log smuggling has been severely affected.
Lu Weiguang, chairperson of Shanghai Anxin Flooring Co., Ltd., which has acquired 1,000 square kilometers of forest resources in Brazil and has a firm grasp of upstream resources, said that this year the price of raw wood will be a threshold to distinguish between companies with resources and those without resources. "I estimate that 40% of domestic flooring companies will close down, but for Anxin, the rise in raw wood prices is good news," Lu Weiguang said with a smile.
At present, 70% of Essence's raw timber comes from Brazil, 15% from Indonesia, the remaining 10% from Russia, and Africa and Myanmar together account for 5%. The tightening supply of South East Asia can no longer meet China's growing demand for raw timber imports, but success stories like Lu Weiguang are still rare.
It is reported that raw wood from Australia, Europe, Africa and America has entered China a few years ago, and the current import volume is increasing. In Lu Weiguang's view, "whoever grasps the upstream resources can win the market". The current dilemma of domestic raw wood prices may be a good inspiration. It is also necessary to disperse procurement channels while grasping resources.