A growing, consumer-driven middle class, a burgeoning furniture industry and stepped up efforts to protect its own forests are driving the growth of wood product shipments to China from the Port of Charleston and other U.S. markets, a panel of global business experts said Monday.
The panel discussion, part of the Southern Forest Products Exports Conference in Charleston, highlighted the top current and emerging markets for the forest industry in the southeastern United States. Those countries also include India, Turkey and the European Union. While EU countries are facing uncertain economies as they wait for Brexit to play out, China’s growth appears unstoppable, panelists said.
China is the world’s fastest-growing import market for forest products, with roughly one-fourth of all wood exports from the U.S. going to that country. Forest products are the No. 1 commodity leaving the Port of Charleston, with $1.5 billion in annual exports. China is the top customer for those exports, according to the State Ports Authority.
“The two fastest-growing product sectors are hardwood lumber and softwood logs,” Anna Ashton, director of business advisory services for the U.S.-China Business Council, said during the opening day of the Southern Forest Products Exports Conference in Charleston.
China produces 40 percent of the world’s furniture, Ashton said, fueling the need for wood that it often can’t obtain domestically because of a government ban on logging in large parts of the country’s forests. The ban is part of China’s efforts to increase its forest cover and become more environmentally friendly. It’s just one example of industrial and societal shifts transforming the communist nation.
From The Post And Courier: https://www.postandcourier.com/business/industry/south-carolina-s-forest-products-industry-seeks-to-grow-exports/article_20fbe89a-948e-11e6-9084-8bedb8be4436.html