Written by Gordon Hoekstra
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 |
As B.C.'s lumber exports continue to climb in China, Forests Minister Pat Bell believes they may even eclipse shipments to Japan this year.
While the 714 million board feet of lumber shipped to China in 2008 did not meet Bell's hopeful forecast last year of one billion board feet, it continued a trend of several consecutive yearly increases. With another 413 million board feet already shipped to China this year, Bell believes his ambitious target of of seeing four billion board feet of the province's lumber in China by 2011 is not out of reach.
"When I first set a goal of delivering four billion board feet by 2011, everybody kind of looked at me like I was kind of crazy," said Bell on Tuesday. "It's not looking so unrealistic anymore. If we can get to a billion and a half this year, by 2010, 2.5 billion is not unrealistic, which would have us right on target for four billion by 2011."
If B.C. was to reach the 1.5 billion board foot market into China, it would account for about 15 per cent of its exports at today's reduced lumber production. A housing collapse in the U.S. has significantly reduced lumber production in the province.
Bell even believes the volume of lumber shipments to China in 2009 could exceed that to Japan, traditionally B.C.'s No. 2 market. It's unlikely the dollar value of shipments to China will surpass that to Japan, as Japan is a market for high-end lumber. For example, the dollar value of shipments to Japan in 2008 was $719 million, while the value of shipments to China was $177 million.
The U.S. remains the No. 1 market for B.C. lumber, accounting in 2008 for $2.2 billion in sales, a 61-per-cent dollar share of the B.C. export market.
Expanding markets into China has been part of a long-term course Bell has charted as forests minister in the past year. Also on the list are better utilizing timber to foster a bioenergy sector, using more wood in commercial construction and growing better trees faster.
While analysts have pointed out that increases into China have been incremental and largely based on low-grade lumber, Bell argues the province's industry is finally having success selling higher-grade lumber in targeted areas. One example has been B.C.'s success at modelling wood trusses for use in the numerous multi-source apartment blocks in China. The province used a demonstration project in Shanghai last year to prove lumber suitability and cost competitiveness.
This year, the province is aiming to make a similar move into the use of lumber in partition and in-fill walls in apartment buildings.
Bell said he believes success has also been built on learning from mistakes, for example, learning not to tell the Chinese what they should be using lumber for, but finding existing markets B.C. lumber producers can win over. Bell also pointed to the approximately 40 people that B.C. and Canada have on the ground in China marketing forest products.
The B.C. industry also has people in China.
Bell singled out Canfor's president and CEO Jim Shepard as being a "real leader" in expanding lumber shipments to China.
While Canfor does not release specific statistics on its shipments to China, company spokesman Dave Lefebvre said they expect to see a 50-per-cent increase in shipments this year compared to 2008.
Canfor is seeing increases in all of its lumber segments, including home construction, industrial applications and concrete forming.
Lefebvre said there's a chance the company's lumber shipments to China could outstrip those to Japan this year.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 June 2009 )
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