The National Planning and Design Academy for the Forest Products Industry under the State Administration of Forestry and Grassland and the China National Forest Products Industry Association has released an analysis of China’s particleboard and fibreboard industry.
Particleboard
The report says an additional 16 particleboard production lines with a production capacity of 3.09 million cubic metres per year were in operation nationwide in 2020. There were 329 particleboard production enterprises and 348 particleboard production lines distributed in 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China by the end of 2020, with a total production capacity of 36.91 million cubic metres per year, down 3.5% from the end of 2019. The average single-line production capacity further increased to 106,000 cubic metres per year.
The top ten provinces in terms of particleboard production capacity are Shandong (7.41 million cubic metres per year), Guangdong, Hebei, Guangxi (3.25 million cubic metres per year), Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Fujian provinces.
The total production capacity of particleboard in China experienced rapid growth for four years in a row and then decreased slightly as the number of enterprises fell. About 92 particleboard production lines nationwide were closed or suspended production in 2020, eliminating some 5.8 million cubic metres of production capacity.
By the end of 2020, a total of 1,123 particleboard production lines had been shut down, dismantled or stopped production and some 27.72 million cubic metres of production capacity had been eliminated. China had in production 3 new production lines for oriented particleboard in 2020 with an additional production capacity of 850,000 cubic metres per year. By the end of 2020, China had 26 oriented particleboard production lines with a total production capacity of 4.16 million cubic metres per year – an increase of 18% from the end of 2019. These mills are distributed in seven provinces and regions, including Shandong, Hubei, Guangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.
25 particleboard production lines were being built in early 2021, with a total production capacity of 6.75 million cubic metres per year. There are particleboard production lines under construction in the seven main regions (east China, south China, central region, southwest, north China, northeast and northwest regions), including 18 continuous flatpressed production lines with the total production capacity of 5.72 million cubic metres per year, accounting for 84% of the particleboard production capacity under
construction.
The particleboard production lines under construction will be put into operation from 2021 to 2022 and it is estimated that the national particleboard production capacity could exceed 40 million cubic metres per year by the end of 2021.
Fibreboard
China’s fibreboard sector is characterised as follows: 15 fibreboard production lines were built in 2020 adding 2.76 million cubic metres per year of capacity. There were 392 fibreboard manufacture enterprises, 454 production lines in China distributed across 25 provinces, cities and regions by the end of 2020. Total production capacity was 51.76 million cubic metres, down 1.3% from the end of 2019. The capacity per production line rose to 114,000 cubic metres per year.
The top ten provinces in terms of fibreboard production capacity are Shandong (7.98 million cubic metres per year), Hebei (5.66 million cubic metres per year), Guangxi (5.35 million cubic metres per year), Jiangsu, Guangdong, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
The total production capacity of fibreboard in China declined slightly after two consecutive years of growth showing a general trend of the number of enterprises, the number of production lines. China shut down, dismantle or stopped production in about 118 fibreboard production lines in 2020 eliminating about 7.88 million cubic metres of production capacity per year.
A total of 781 fibreboard production lines had been shut down, dismantled or stopped production by the end of 2020 eliminating 33.16 million cubic metres of production capacity per year.
There were 136 continuous flat-pressed fibreboard production lines in China by the end of 2020 with a total production capacity of 26.92 million cubic metres per year, accounting for 52% of the national total fibreboard production capacity. Mills are distributed in 19 provinces (regions), with the top seven being Shandong, Guangxi, Hebei, Hubei, Anhui, Guangdong and Henan.
22 national fibreboard production lines were being built in early 2021 with the total production capacity of 4.86 million cubic metres per year, and fibreboard production lines are under construction in the East China, south China, central China, northwest, north China and Northeast regions except southwest region. The fibreboard production lines under construction will be put into operation from 2021 to 2022 and it is expected that the national total fibreboard production capacity will reach 55 million cubic metres per year by the end of 2021.
Source: International Tropical Timber Organization Tropical Timber Market Report
