Timber markets in Brazil and China pick up in September

31 October 2024: The timber sectors in Brazil and China showed signs of recovery in September, according to the latest edition of the Global Timber Index (GTI) Report, released today. The ITTO-supported GTI tracks the performance of the timber sector in diverse pilot countries.

The GTI indices for Brazil (52.3%) and China (54.2%) were above the threshold of 50% in September (up from 44.5% and 43.1%, respectively), thus indicating an upward trend in their timber sectors. Specifically, both countries experienced an increase in orders and production.

The timber sectors of most GTI-participating producing countries continued to contract, however, with the GTI indices for Thailand (49.1%), Ghana (46.7%), the Congo (44.9%), Mexico (37.1%), Malaysia (29.0%) and Gabon (26.3%) all below the 50% threshold.

The Congo, Malaysia and Mexico have all been below the threshold for several months, with timber enterprises in those countries facing considerable pressure on production and operations. With this in mind, GTI-participating enterprises in the three countries called for government intervention in September. Malaysian enterprises suggested that the government boost spending on buildings and infrastructure to increase the consumption of building materials; Congolese enterprises proposed that the government accelerate bridge construction and contribute to the maintenance of the road network; and Mexican enterprises wanted the government to regulate MDF imports.

In other news, the GTI-Producers Index, a specialized index for timber production, rose from 45.6% in August to 49.1% in September, and the GTI-WBP Index, a specialized index for wood-based panels, increased to 47.4% (from 40.7%), indicating that the contractions in those subsectors have eased.

Information on the operation of the GTI platform was released at the Global Legal & Sustainable Timber Forum, held in September in China, Macao SAR. In its first two years, the GTI has been piloted in ten countries—Brazil, China, Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand. Each pilot country has selected leading timber enterprises to report monthly for the GTI and share other information, with the number of participating enterprises increasing over the period from 160 to 260. Twenty-eight editions of reports have been published and two specialized indexes (the GTI-Producers Index and the GTI-Wood-based Panel Index) launched. At the release ceremony, representatives of GTI focal points presented certificates of recognition to two Chinese wood-based panel industry clusters (in Guigang, Guangxi Province, and Linyi, Shandong Province) to acknowledge their contributions to data collection and the launch of the GTI-WBP Index. Moving forward, additional multidimensional and value-added services will be provided to GTI enterprises that contribute data and information to the activity.

The GTI reports on significant indications of progress towards legal and sustainable management in the pilot countries. In September, for example, the Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister presented data indicating that forest fires and deforestation in Indonesia have declined dramatically in the last ten years—the area of forest burnt by fire dropped from 2.6 million hectares in 2015 to 200 000 hectares in 2022, and the area of deforestation fell from 1.09 million hectares in 2014–2015 to 100 000 hectares in 2023. Also, the Wildlife Conservation Society launched Africa’s first High Integrity Forest Investment Initiative project in the Congo in September with the aim of encouraging the maintenance of climate-regulation functions and biodiversity conservation in high-integrity tropical forests by providing forest managers with long-term funding.

The monthly GTI Report, GTI-Producers Report and GTI-WBP Report are available free at www.itto.int/gti.

Download the latest GTI Report, GTI-Producers Report and GTI-WBP Report.