The latest Wood Resource Quarterly has been published and it’s bound to make for some very exciting reading for anyone involved in the US or Canadian forestry industries.
According to the report, exports from the two countries to China will reach values as high as $2.6 million, or double the value of the exports in 2010. This is, of course, all based on the export levels from the first seven months of 2011 continuing for the remainder of the year, but there is no reason why this shouldn’t be the case. Analysts seem to expect the growth rates in China, and therefore the demand for timber products, to remain strong.
The statistics will be welcomed by Canadian and American forest workers and managers, although the fact that so much of the processing work involved in turning raw logs into workable planks is still done in China remains a bitter pill to swallow. Not surprisingly, Canadian sawmill workers would like more measures to be brought in to protect their jobs in advance of the demand for raw logs increasing even further.
UN-based research from Australia last week also predicted a good future for Canadian forestry, stating that within two years, China will become Canada’s top market.
Firms that are moving into the Canadian forestry industry – such as Greenwood Management, the sponsor of this blog currently establishing itself in Canada through a collection of plantations in the British Columbia region – are likely to reap the benefits of their good timing.
