It is estimated that over the past five years China’s imports of sawn rubberwood and rubberwood products from Thailand remained stable and accounted for about 3% of China’s total import of goods from Thailand.
According to data from China Customs, both the imported volume and average cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of sawn rubberwood from Thailand showed a decreasing trend from 2017-2022.
China imported 3.97 million m3 of sawn rubberwood, with the average CIF price reaching the lowest at US$250/m3 in 2022. China’s sawn rubberwood imports fell to 3.97 million m3 in 2022 from 4.82 million m3 in 2017.
The average CIF price for China’s sawn rubberwood imports fell to $250/m3 in 2022 from $316/m3 in 2017.
The supply-side reform of China’s rubberwood industry has accelerated since 2018 with the elimination of low-end production capacity and products, the resilience of the supply chain increasing and the industry moving to higher quality development.
The import volume of sawn rubberwood is the largest single category of sawn hardwood imported from Thailand, accounting for around 40% annually in recent years.
Thai rubberwood is widely used in China. At present, the end products are mainly furniture, wooden doors, bathroom cabinets, floors, kitchenware, custom home ware.
Now, China’s home furnishing market is changing to the direction of personalisation and customisation which constantly leads the development of rubberwood industry. New products based on Thai rubberwood emerge, the supply capacity of high-quality products is constantly improved, and the industrial structure is further optimised.
Source: ITTO
