KUCHING: Chinese timber companies are struggling in their businesses due to insufficient orders for their products amid a weak global market.
They have complained about poor demand in the timber market and intense competition in terms of product prices.
Adding to their woes are rising raw material costs, according to the key challenges reported in the Global Timber Index-China Index (GTI-China Index) report in November 2025. The report was prepared by the Global Green Supply Chain Initiative (GGSC) in collaboration with the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO).
To mitigate the challenges, Chinese enterprises suggested the need to expand into international markets to increase the volume of orders for their products, and called for government policy support for their operations.
Other suggestions included regulating practices in the industry and broadening financial channels for timber enterprises.
Meanwhile, after nearly eight months of suspension of log imports from the United States (US), China lifted the suspension on November 10, marking the reopening of Sino-US log trade.
On November 7, China’s General Administration of Customs issued its decision to repeal the March announcement on the halt to US log imports.
In October 2025, China’s total import volume of logs and sawnwood amounted to 4.19 million cubic metres (cu m) worth US$829 million, both showing a year-on-year decline.
Back home, China reported strong domestic retail sales of furniture, reaching 17.9 billion yuan in October, a 9.6 per cent increase from a year ago, according to data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. In contrast, retail sales of building and decoration materials amounted to 14.4 billion yuan, down 8.3 per cent year-on-year in October.
Analysts believed that the policy of trading in old consumer goods for new ones, coupled with the holiday economy, jointly drove the uptick in furniture consumption, while the building materials market lagged in recovery due to overall weakness in downstream real estate demand.
In November 2025, the GTI-China index registered 49.6 per cent, an increase of 4.0 percentage points from October and below the critical value of 50 per cent for the second consecutive month, indicating that the business prosperity of the superior timber enterprises represented by the index shrank from the previous month.
However, the total volume of new orders reported by Chinese sample enterprises increased in November, and the enterprises were relatively optimistic about the outlook of the country’s timber market over the next six months.
As for the 12 sub-indexes, five — new orders, export orders, purchase quantity, imports and market expectation — were above the critical value. The production index was at the critical value, while the remaining six — existing orders, inventory of finished products, purchase price, inventory of main raw materials, employees and delivery time — were below the critical value.
Compared with October, the indexes for production, new orders, export orders, existing orders, purchase quantity, purchase price, delivery time and market expectation increased by 0.5 to 9.3 percentage points, whereas the indexes for inventory of finished products, imports, inventory of raw materials and employees fell by 0.1 to 8.5 percentage points.
In a related development, China reported a robust export market for its particleboard, which surged by 67 per cent in volume to 619,000 tonnes valued at US$267 million (up 28 per cent) in the first nine months of 2025 (9m2025) compared with 9m2024.
South Korea became the largest export destination for China-made particleboard, with volumes climbing to 106,000 tonnes, up 1,253 per cent from 9m2024. Particleboard exports to Vietnam and Peru also grew strongly, by 149 per cent to 55,000 tonnes and 303 per cent to 33,000 tonnes respectively year-on-year, according to the ITTO Tropical Timber Market Report (December 1-15, 2025).
China has been selling particleboard to markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America, aided by the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
As demand for lower-cost particleboard in Asia, Africa and Latin America has increased, this has driven China’s exports to these countries in recent years.
On the other hand, China slowed its particleboard imports, which fell by 19 per cent in volume and 12 per cent in value to 467,000 tonnes and US$224 million in 9m2025 from 9m2024.
Brazil, the largest supplier to China, reported a nine per cent decline in exports to China to 113,000 tonnes (accounting for 24 per cent of the national total), while Thailand’s exports to China fell by a hefty 53 per cent to 90,000 tonnes during the same period. China’s particleboard imports from Malaysia were down one per cent to 21,000 tonnes.
As the China-Europe freight train route has become a strong bond for China-Europe trading cooperation, this resulted in China increasing its imports from Germany by four per cent to 43,000 tonnes and from Italy by 35 per cent to 22,000 tonnes in 9m2025.
