China’s timber sector maintains upward momentum in October

The machine for making wooden doors in a small-scale Chinese wooden door manufacturing company

19 November 2024: There were indications in October that the Chinese timber market is continuing to recover, 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.

China’s GTI was at 50.9% in October, the second consecutive month it has exceeded the 50% threshold (thus indicating an upward trend in the sector). The arrival of the traditional peak season for China’s timber sector has seen an uptick in both production and new orders.

The timber markets of GTI-participating producer countries were relatively sluggish in October, however, with GTIs for the Congo (48.1%), Ghana (48.0%), Thailand (44.2%), Brazil (43.2%), Gabon (35.4%), Mexico (33.9%) and Malaysia (22.8%) all below the 50% threshold.

GTIs for all three African pilot countries (Gabon, Ghana and the Congo) increased in October, indicating an easing in the overall downward trends in their timber sectors. Notably, the Congo’s timber market showed signs of stabilization in both supply and demand.

In other news, the GTI-Producers Index, a specialized index for timber production, was at 43.7% in October, and the GTI-WBP Index, a specialized index for wood-based panels, stood at 46.1%, indicating that both subsectors declined in October.

The GTI report also highlights indicators of progress towards sustainable forest management in pilot countries. For example, the Malaysian state of Sabah recently exported its first batch of European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)-compliant plywood to Poland. According to Sabah Forestry Department Chief Forest Conservator, Datuk Fred Kugan, Sabah is preparing to enhance its timber legality assurance system and to fully integrate EUDR requirements by February 2025.

On 15 October, the Government of Ghana announced that it had submitted a new legislative instrument to Parliament designed to revoke the LI 2462 regulation, which permits mining activities in certain forest reserves.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that Mexico leads Latin America in its transparency of forest information, with the Government of Mexico taking many actions in this regard. For example, the country’s National Forestry Commission has made metadata, microdata and supplementary documents from its national forest and soil inventory publicly accessible in the FAO Microdata Catalog for Food and Agriculture.

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.

The workshop in a small-scale Chinese wooden door manufacturing company.