Interview Records: Advantages and Applications of Broad-leaved Wood in the United States
On June 20, 2019, the 24th Annual Conference of the United States Broad-leaved Wood Export Committee in Southeast Asia and Greater China was held at Westin Hotel, Ningbo. During the meeting, Mike Snow, Executive Director of the United States Broad-leaved Wood Export Committee, Scott Seller, President of the United States Broad-leaved Wood Export Committee, and American Broad-leaved Wood Export Committee were held. Mr. Chen Xizhen, Director of Southeast Asia and Greater China (Hong Kong), Professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, USA, and Wood Products Specialist Scott Bowey, interviewed China Wood Industry Network and other media to discuss the impact of the Sino-US trade war and the application of American hardwood in the Chinese market. Exchange.
Application of American hardwood in Chinese Market
[Q]: Hello, I am a reporter from China Wood Industry Network. Now the market distribution of American hardwood in China, such as the proportion of buildings and decorative materials?
[A] At present, there is no exact statistics. Most of them are used in the furniture market, including furniture, wooden doors and floors. Now enough furniture is customized, not just a desk. So we have been developing so fast in the Chinese market for more than 20 years.
[Q] What is the overall form of American hardwood exports to China in 2018? It's mainly wood products.
[A]: The main thing is the board, logs, graded boards, wood products secondary processing is not much, so the proportion is not large. Because we export mainly raw materials, the amount of re-export after some processing is very small.In 2018, the export volume of American hardwood to Greater China market was nearly 1.9 billion US dollars.
Q: just now, speaking of different tariffs on different tree species, China is the largest market for hardwoods in the United States. What kind of tree species are more popular in China? Can you give me a brief introduction?
[A] There are three most popular tree species in the Chinese market: the first is red oak. Red oak is very popular with consumers. On the one hand, it has a very good color, and the wood grain is unique, especially attractive. The second one is white wax wood. White wax wood has good grain, high quality and high yield, so white wax wood has become a favorite tree species for Chinese consumers. The third is cherry wood. We have observed that cherry trees have become popular among Chinese consumers since the beginning of 2018. So these three tree species are the favorites of Chinese consumers.
[Q] Affected by tariffs, Chinese enterprises are already docking some other timber, such as Canadian timber and Russian timber. What are the competitors of American hardwood in the Chinese market? What are our advantages over our competitors?
[A] In the last slide of President Scott Seller's speech, there are corresponding data. The proportion of American hardwood exports to the Chinese market has dropped from 31% to 19%. The lost part is mainly stolen by Gabon and Russia.
Let's take a look. First of all, Gabon is mainly a tropical tree species, so its use is very different from that of American hardwood. The second is Russia, where cork stocks are much larger than hardwood. In addition to the less abundant storage capacity, the hardwood species are also limited. As far as I know, it should be the birch tree species, relatively speaking, it is a kind of tree species that can meet the commercial needs of large volume production. But the first point is that the hardwood itself is not very good in quality and light in weight, so its use is limited. The second point is whether harvesting is legal. American hardwood must be able to ensure that it is legally harvested, but in Russia and Gabon, to be honest, illegal harvesting is still quite a lot. I don't mean that all their timber is illegal, but if we want to use their timber responsibly, we should always ask more questions to see how it came about and whether the logging process is legal. The third point is that the quality of hardwood in the United States is consistent, thanks to our board grading rules. Because of the grading rules, before the container departs, Chinese importers can know with certainty what the quality of the sheets I received and how much the yield can be achieved.
What are the advantages of American hardwood
[Q]: In recent years, China's furniture market has developed very rapidly. Today, the domestic market demand is expanding constantly, and it has also become one of the most popular furniture exporters in the world. With the global trend of vigorously promoting the concept of environmentally friendly home furnishings, what are the advantages of American hardwood to win the favor of China and the global market?
[A]: Mr. Snow mentioned it in his speech before.Life cycle analysis,This is also a science-based research that the American Broad-leaved Wood Export Commission made great efforts to do a few years ago, and in the transmission of information, the results of our academic research are to convey these information to the public in a very easy-to-understand way. Because it's not hard to understand, we cut down from the forest throughout its life cycle, go to the sawmill for kiln drying, and finally transport, possibly thousands of miles from the United States to China's ports, whether in Ningbo or Qingdao.All the energy consumed and the carbon released during the whole life cycle, combined with American hardwood, can be used as a negative carbon material.This kind of information fits in with the increasingly strong demand for environmental protection in China's entire household market. We also hope that through our media friends, these information will be more widely transmitted to the market and consumers.
On the other hand, some consumers now have different ideas when choosing furniture because of the price of solid wood. They want to choose cheaper materials to make furniture. But let's imagine that if we don't choose solid wood, we choose plywood made by gluing and adding chemicals, then the furniture in the whole room is filled with plywood, which is filled with all kinds of chemicals, and the air we breathe is filled with these chemicals. By contrast,If the furniture is solid wood, it means that the air we breathe is pure natural, which is also very effective for us to build healthy home features and advantages.
In fact, we are very happy to see more and more Chinese consumers pay attention to the environmental protection and health of household and building materials. More and more Chinese household consumers are advocating environmental protection and paying attention to environmental protection. It is good for us. We hope to see this trend.
I would also like to emphasize that in my speech, I mentioned that American hardwood is produced under a very strict quality assurance mechanism, in which kiln drying is a link closely related to quality. If a material is not properly and correctly kiln-dried in the production process, it may be that the manufacturer does not kiln-dried the wood sufficiently for the sake of cost saving or energy saving. Ultimately, the material will have a negative impact on the environment. So we can't give up food because of choking.為In order to make the whole production process consume less energy and neglect its quality, American hardwood board must be able to kiln drying and production according to strict quality assurance.
[Q] Can I provide some specific data and examples to show the environmental sustainability of American hardwood in the present and future decades?
[A] There is an analysis of forest storage in forest land management in the United States. Through the analysis of forest storage, we can see how much harvesting is and how much growth rate is.Just now, we have introduced the forest storage and inventory analysis. 20% of the sample forest land will be sampled every year. In five years, we have seen the whole picture basically.So through this method, we can basically understand the annual growth, harvesting and natural death of woodland in the United States, which provides us with very scientific data.
In addition, with the development of technology, especially satellite technology, scholars who study the forest and forest services and panel industry in the United States have more technical support. For example, now we can see the relevant data of woodland below the tree crown, its diameter is what, the information obtained is more real-time. therefore With the support of technology, we know more about forest storage and forest than ever before.
Several professors at the School of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, USA, are doing their own research projects with the help of satellite technology. This year, the students they brought will go to the woodland to measure, for example, the diameter of the tree, and more data in it, and put the number of field measurements into it. Make a horizontal alignment with satellite data.
提To satellite technology, first of all, the technology itself has developed very maturely. In addition, before President Obama left office, he dedicated several military satellites originally used for military purposes to forests for data collection. These satellite technologies are very sophisticated because they are used for military purposes, field mapping and mapping. Such sophisticated technologies are now used in woodlands.We can see the number of trees under the crown, the stock of woodland, the size of each individual tree, and so on.
[Q] On the issue of environmental protection, environmental protection and health are the pursuit of all of us now. How can American hardwood achieve our sustainable goal of environmental protection and emission reduction through scientific management and wide application?
[A]: Actually, there are already answers to your questions. Through scientific management of forest land and some research reports based on scientific research, we can convey such information to more markets and end users, so that hardwood in the United States can make greater contributions to our common aspirations, environmental protection and health. Contribution, but also promote its application.
Every time we leave a positive impression on the Chinese market,Especially for Chinese consumers, they really want their living and working environment to be environmentally friendly and healthy. Such an appeal is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. I think this is a good thing.Consumers all over the world have such a long-cherished wish, Chinese consumers may be more prominent, they really hope that their purchase decisions are based on environmental protection, sustainability and health. When they make such a decision, they themselves are very happy and satisfied. So I think it's actually a good thing, whether it's Chinese consumers, importers or manufacturers, that there's a culture that's good for us, American hardwood.