KUCHING: Malaysia’s exports of fibreboard to China have leapt by 683 per cent to 1,400 tonnes in the January-September 2025 period (9m2025) from a year ago.
Year-on-year, China increased the imports of fibreboard by 16 per cent to 45,000 tonnes, according to China Customs’ data quoted by International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) in its latest tropical timber market report.
New Zealand was the largest supplier of fibreboard to China, jumping 95 per cent to 22,000 tonnes in 9m2025, followed by Thailand and Germany, with their shipments to China, however, fell by 26 per cent and 20 per cent to 5,000 tonnes and 4,400 tonnes respectively.
Also reporting a big increase in its exports to China was Spain, with shipment of 1,500 tonnes or up by 34 per cent year-on-year.
On the other hand, China had sharply increased its exports of fibreboard to 2,620,000 tonnes in 9m2025, up 35 per cent from 9m2024.Exports to Vietnam, the largest overseas market, soared by 126 per cent to 501,000 tonnes while shipments also jumped to Saudi Arabia to 275,000 tonnes (+10%), Mexico to 229,000 (+24%), United Arab Emirates to 129,000 tonnes (+26%) and Canada to 106,000 tonnes (+20%).
However, China cut exports to the United States of America (US) to 106,000 tonnes (-9%) and Nigeria to 161,000 tonnes (-1%).
“China’s fibreboard exports to the vast majority of the top seven markets rose at different rates, resulting in an increase in the total national fibreboard exports,” said the ITTO report.
Meanwhile, China’s wooden furniture exports had been severely affected due to the impacts of tariffs imposed by the US. In 9m2025, the China Customs’ date revealed that exports receipts from wooden furniture fell by seven per cent to US$16.69 billion from a year ago.
Exports to US, the largest buyer for China’s wooden furniture plunged by 18 per cent to US$4.24 billion year-on-year and 25 per cent of China’s exports went to the world’s largest economy.
During the same period, China exported about US$1.2 billion worth of wooden furniture to United Kingdom (+7%) and US$1.1 billion furniture products to Australia (-4%).
“China’s wooden furniture is exported to more than 200 countries and furniture destinations are scattered. The value of exports to the top three countries — US,UK and Australia — at more than US$1 billion accounted for less than 40 per cent of the national total in the first three quarters of 2025,” said the report.
Malaysia was among the importers of China-made wooden furniture, spending US$445 million for the purchase in 9m2025, up 18 per cent from 9m2024.
While exports grew by double-digits, China’s imports of wooden furniture fell six per cent to US$461 million in 9m2025 from a year ago.
Italy was the largest suppliers of China’s wooden furniture imports, accounting for 46 per cent of the latter’s total purchase in 9m2025.But this was down nine per cent to US$214 million year-on-year.
China’s imports also fell from Germany to US$63 million (-14%), from Vietnam to US$34 million (-25%) and from France to US$12 million (-6%).
“In addition to being affected by the tariffs in the US, the total import value of China’s wooden furniture imports and the value of wooden furniture imported from the top suppliers significantly declined.”
In contrast, China’s wooden furniture imports rose from Thailand to US$13 million (+4%), from Slovokia to US$10 million (+43%) and Indonesia also to US$10 million (+1%).
