International Wood Markets VP to speak about latest intelligence, trends and risks on China's log and lumber market at ForestWood 2010 conference in Wellington, New Zealand

Michelle Rivera

WELLINGTON, New Zealand , October 7, 2010 (press release) – One of the international keynote speakers at next week’s ForestWood 2010 conference in Wellington will outline the risks and opportunities for exporting New Zealand Radiata logs and lumber to China at the one-day ForestWood 2010 conference at Te Papa.

Prime Minister John Key will open the conference on Tuesday. The key players in the forestry industry – growers, processors, manufacturers and contractors – have joined forces to host this, their first joint conference.

Gerry Van Leeuwen, who is Vice-President of Vancouver-based, International Wood Markets Group, has visited many of China’s major log and lumber importers recently and will provide the latest intelligence on China’s log and lumber market, delivered log costs, current import trends and the outlook for New Zealand Radiata pine log exports.

Among the questions covered by his presentation are:

What does soaring Chinese demand for logs and lumber in the next five to ten years mean for New Zealand exports?

What impact will rising wood demand in China likely have on global log and lumber prices?

With growing domestic demand and consumption forecast for the next five to ten years, where will China find competitively priced softwood raw material (logs and/or lumber)?

Van Leeuwen has in-depth knowledge and experience in all aspects of the forestry and sawmill business. His experience includes log and chip trading, global wood product markets, new product development, grade and value recovery.

Background

China is the world’s fastest growing producer, importer, exporter and consumer of wood in the world. China is the largest producer of plywood, MDF, blockboard and furniture in the world. China has become the world’s third largest producer of softwood lumber (after the U.S. and Canada) and the world’s second largest importer of wood products (mainly logs and lumber). China needs to continue to increase log and lumber imports in order to continue to meet growing domestic demand for wood products and to continue to increase exports of finished wood products.

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