Aggregate expansion and cluster development



Q: what are the overall characteristics of plywood industry development in China?



A: at present, China's plywood industry is showing a trend of total expansion and cluster development. According to the statistics of the State Forestry Administration, China's wood-based panel output increased rapidly in 2009, reaching 115million cubic meters, an increase of 22.71% over 2008, of which the plywood output was 44.5124 million cubic meters, accounting for 38.55% of the total national wood-based panel output. From a national perspective, production is mainly concentrated in Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces and regions, and some important industrial clusters have been formed, namely, Hebei Industrial Cluster centered on Xingtai and Langfang, Shandong industrial cluster centered on Linyi, Shandong, Subei industrial cluster centered on Xuzhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang industrial cluster centered on Jiashan, The plywood output of the four major production areas accounts for 68%~70% of the total output of the country.





Single product structure and narrow profit space



Q: since the 11th five year plan, China's plywood industry has been booming and the number of enterprises has increased sharply. What are the outstanding problems that deserve attention?



A: the outstanding performance is that the enterprise scale is too small and the product structure is single. For example, in Guanhu Town, Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, an important plywood production area in China, before the financial crisis in 2008, there were more than 1600 plywood enterprises, but only 350 enterprises with an annual output of more than 50000 cubic meters. Most of the enterprises mainly produce core boards in family workshops. For these small enterprises, the process of capacity expansion and capital accumulation is very slow. They often act in their own way and are mostly processed by other foreign trade companies. It is very difficult to achieve economies of scale. Once the demand changes, it is very difficult for enterprises to deal with it calmly.



In addition, the management level and means of plywood enterprises can not be in line with international standards, and can not reach the international advanced level. Most enterprises have little R & D investment, weak brand awareness, insufficient publicity and marketing planning. Many enterprises do not even have marketing departments. Many enterprises are still in the production state of extensive operation, backward management and low efficiency. At the same time, the single product structure, low technical content and added value, and the lack of famous brand products are also common problems. Plywood produced in China mostly belongs to medium and low-end products in the international market. Although it can occupy the international market through the advantage of low price, enterprises are only maintaining a low level of repeated production, and it is difficult to improve the competitiveness of products through innovation. Product prices cannot be improved, the profit space of enterprises is narrow, and the ability to resist risks is insufficient.





Raw materials restrict the international competitiveness of products



Q: most plywood enterprises in China use fast-growing forests as their raw materials. Does this have any impact on their products?



A: the lack of good raw materials leads to the lack of good products, which is an important reason why China's plywood lacks sufficient competitiveness in the international high-end market. The source of raw materials directly affects the quality of plywood. At present, most of the raw materials of plywood in China are fast-growing poplar, and the quality cannot be compared with that of foreign large-diameter wood. The core board, which has an important impact on the quality and service life of plywood, is not satisfactory. It has always been the bottleneck of the development of plywood in China. The quality of the core board is low. The veneer splicing and embryo assembly process rely solely on the manual production of workers, which seriously affects the strength and service life of plywood.





Relying on foreign markets and being controlled by others



Q: at present, the international market has increased anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on Chinese products. What is the situation facing China's plywood export?



A: due to over reliance on foreign markets, many enterprises closed down after the 2008 financial crisis. In the final analysis, it is because the domestic market is not well grasped. Moreover, the plywood export market is highly concentrated. The exporting countries and regions are mainly the United States, the European Union, Japan and ASEAN. In 2007, the above four markets accounted for 63.8% of China's total exports, of which the United States market alone accounted for almost 30%. After the outbreak of the financial crisis, the market demand of the United States, Japan and other developed countries decreased, and the import of plywood from China decreased significantly, which had a huge impact on Chinese enterprises.



With environmental protection and green consumption, the quality requirements of developed countries for imported forest products are extending to safety, health, environmental protection, health and other aspects, and the requirements for the technical threshold of products are becoming higher and higher. In the past, traditional physical indicators such as product specifications, apparent defects and bonding strength that Chinese enterprises paid attention to have been unable to meet the new quality requirements of the international market. More and more western countries begin to require forest certification for plywood. On may22,2008, the United States formally passed the provisions on plant protection in the amendment to the rice act. In july2010, the composite wood products Standard Act signed by US President Barack Obama, including plywood and other products, was implemented on january3,2011. It was proposed on the basis of us carb certification and is regarded as the most stringent formaldehyde limit regulation in the world. All these have posed great challenges to the export of plywood in China.


Give full play to the role of the association and speed up adjustment and upgrading

Q: in what areas do you think China's plywood industry needs to accelerate structural adjustment and industrial upgrading to maintain healthy and sustainable development?

A: first of all, at present, the wood supply required for plywood production in China is uncertain. As the most important primary production factor, wood resources are very important to the development of plywood industry. The acquisition of wood resources should first be based on domestic and actively develop foreign markets. The government should issue preferential policies to support the construction of fast-growing and high-yield forest bases, strive to improve the construction quality of artificial forests, realize the transformation from domestic timber supply to artificial fast-growing forests as soon as possible, and reduce the dependence on imported logs.

Secondly, the government should support a number of plywood enterprises to become bigger and stronger, and use these enterprises to drive the upgrading of the entire industry and strengthen industrial agglomeration. The research shows that the more enterprises belonging to the same industry accumulate in a region, the more specialized resources such as labor, capital, energy and transportation are required, the production cost of the whole industry will decline, the production efficiency will be improved, and the enterprises in the cluster will be more competitive.

Third, enterprises should strengthen technological R & D and innovation, and introduce foreign advanced production technology to improve product quality. In the development strategy of plywood, on the one hand, the enterprise should increase the development of the existing domestic and foreign markets, and improve the product share of the existing market; On the other hand, efforts should be made to find and develop emerging international markets, optimize the spatial layout of plywood exports, and disperse foreign trade risks.