KUCHING: China’s furniture export earnings have taken a hit due to tariff-related issues, although export volume has surged.
In the first six months of 2025 (6M2025), China exported nearly US$34.92 million worth of furniture, down 6.72 per cent from 6M2024, although export volume rose by 5.98 per cent, according to data released by the China National Furniture Association.
“And influenced by tariff-related factors, export value declined noticeably in April and May, reaching US$6.133 billion and US$5.983 billion respectively, representing year-on-year drops of 7.01 per cent and 9.18 per cent,” said the association, as quoted by the Global Timber Index (GTI) – China Index in August 2025.
Last month, the GTI-China Index registered 50.8 per cent, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from July. It rose above the critical value (50 per cent) after one month, indicating that the business prosperity of the leading timber enterprises represented by the index expanded month-on-month.
Although the domestic market in China contracted last month, both production volume and export orders showed slight growth compared to the previous month.
As for the 12 sub-indexes, nine of them (production, export orders, existing orders, inventory of finished products, purchase quantity, purchase price, inventory of main raw materials, delivery time, and market expectation) were above the critical value of 50 per cent, while the remaining three indexes (new orders, imports, and employees) were below the critical value. Compared with July, all 12 sub-indexes rose, with gains ranging from 0.8 to 10.0 percentage points.
The main challenges faced by GTI-China enterprises last month were: (i) struggling with insufficient orders; (ii) intense competition in market prices for products; (iii) an unfavourable global economic environment; and (iv) high raw material costs.
To mitigate these challenges, the enterprises suggested regulating practices in the timber industry, broadening financing channels, expanding into international markets to increase order volume, and calling for government support for timber enterprises.
Meanwhile, the Bank of China, National Financial Regulatory Administration, and National Forestry and Grassland Administration jointly issued a notice on August 29 regarding financial support for the high-quality development of the forestry industry.
The notice outlined 15 specific measures across five key areas: enhancing financial services for the reform of the collective forest tenure system; strengthening financial safeguards for major forestry strategies; increasing financial input for the high-quality development of the forestry industry; establishing mechanisms for financial support to realise the value of ecological products; and improving supporting policies and safeguard mechanisms — all aimed at promoting high-quality growth in the forestry industry.
