Import/Export Wood Purchasing News - August/September 2022

Business Trends Abroad
Trends Abroad
Vietnam– Vietnam plans to grant licenses under the Voluntary Partnership
Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Program (VPA/
FLEGT) to wood and wood products exports in 2025.
This FLEGT schedule was announced at a recent workshop held jointly by
the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST), the Vietnam Timber and
Forest Products Association (VIFOREST) and the Association of Handicraft and
Wood Industry of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA).
At the event, the co-chairs pointed out that despite an annual double-digit
growth rate, the country’s wood industry is still facing numerous challenges.
Apart from the pandemic, escalating political tensions have created more challenges
to supply chains, soaring logistics costs and material prices have resulted
in higher input costs.
Furthermore, inflation in key export markets has led to a drop in demand. Accusations
of material origin fraud also threaten industry development.
To cope with these challenges, the Vietnamese government urged domestic businesses
to adhere to international market regulations, enhance their capacity, and
improve competitiveness to maintain their foothold in wooden furniture exports.
Echoing this view, a HAWA spokesperson said that compliance with regulations
on sustainable forestry development is vital to the wood industry, not only
for Vietnam but also global markets.
At the workshop the HAWA platform for proving and tracing wood origin was
launched. With support from the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme since May 2018,
HAWA has worked to remove obstacles in wood origin validation.
This is a necessary step to prepare Vietnamese timber and wood products to
access international markets, especially the EU. By applying HAWA system,
users can search for information to help verify the material origin.
Europe–According to a statement by European Environment Commissioner
(EC) Virginijus Sinkevičius when he met with the European Parliament ENVI
Committee recently, "the proposed regulation on deforestation will be one of the
top priorities for our cooperation in the coming months."
Commissioner Sinkevičius said, "Global events and alarming deforestation
rates in the greatest rainforest of the Earth remind us of the urgency of the task
and I know that this Committee and this Parliament as a whole, share the sense
of urgency."
Commissioner Sinkevičius went on to express the hope that "once both
co-legislators have finalized their positions we can launch the trilogues under the
Czech Presidency of the Council and reach an agreement as soon as possible."
Note: the Czech Presidency of the Council is held between July 1 and December
31, 2022. Trilogues are informal tripartite meetings on legislative proposals
between representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
Their purpose is to reach a provisional agreement on a text acceptable to both the
Council and the Parliament.
From the EC perspective, Commissioner Sinkevičius expressed a desire for
“an agreement, which allows us to effectively tackle the [deforestation] problem
and which, therefore, needs to be ambitious and needs to retain the core features
of our proposal: the due diligence obligations for operators and large traders, the
strict traceability, the coverage of legal and illegal deforestation, and the benchmarking
system."
Other developments related to the proposed deforestation regulation include: a
comprehensive summary of the draft legislation, the starting positions of the European
Council and European Parliament, and the positions of key stakeholders.
Austria–Austria's Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig recently commented
on the logging report for 2021 by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
Regions and Tourism (BMLRT). With an increase in logging by 9.7 percent to
18.42 million cubic meters, there came a decline in the proportion of damaged
wood by 32.8 percent (-32.2 percent).
26.6 percent of the felling was wood for energy use. The share of sawlogs was
56.6 percent, that of industrial roundwood 16.8 percent. The proportion of softwood
in the total logging was 85 percent in 2021, that of hardwood 15 percent.
In small forests, the felling amounted to 10.85 million cubic meters, which
corresponds to an increase of 17.3 percent compared to 2020. The proportion of
small forests in the total logging was 58.9 percent. The Österreichische Bundesforste
AG increased the felling by 4.5 percent to 1.84 million cubic meters. The
share of federal forests in the total felling was 10 percent. For the other holdings
with a forest area of 200 hectare or more, the total felling fell by 0.8 percent
compared to the survey year 2020 to 5.74 million cubic meters. The share of the
total felling was 31.1 percent.
Gabon– TotalEnergies and Compagnie des Bois du Gabon (CBG) have
joined forces to develop a forward-looking model of sustainable and responsible
forest management that combines sustainable harvesting, biodiversity
conservation, and long-term carbon storage. TotalEnergies has become CBG's
leading partner after acquiring 49 percent of its capital from Criterion Africa
Partners.
CBG is a key player in Gabonese forestry, recognized for its responsible and
sustainable management of 600,000 hectares of forest, certified to the highest
international standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and for its
ongoing contribution to protecting biodiversity.
The forest management model applied by the partners will make it possible
to develop a new balance between, on the one hand, the harvesting and local
processing of sustainable wood combined with carbon storage and, on the
other, the production of related carbon credits thanks to the reduced impact of
forest operations, reforestation, agroforestry and conservation of natural forests.
This new model is in line with the “Green Gabon” vision of the Gabonese
authorities – the country’s development strategy to sustainably manage its
natural resources for the benefit of the population – as well as Gabon's climate
policy.
"We are pleased to join forces with CBG to support the evolution of Gabonese
forestry. This is a key economic sector for the country, and we will
help develop its carbon sequestration capacity in compliance with the highest
international standards. This is an innovative partnership both by nature and
ambition," said Nicolas Terraz, President of Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies.
"We are also particularly delighted to extend our activities in Gabon
to sustainable and responsible forest management, after more than 90 years of
investment and economic activity in the exploitation of the country’s hydrocarbon
resources."
Indonesia–U.S. imports of hardwood flooring cooled in April (the most
recent data available) and fell 29 percent from a strong March report. Imports
fell across the board with imports from Indonesia and Malaysia falling by more
than one-third and imports from China and Brazil falling by about 20 percent.
Total imports from all countries remain up 11 percent year to date despite the
tumble, while imports from Indonesia remain more than double that of 2021
through April.
Imports of assembled flooring panels held up somewhat better, falling only 4
percent in April due to strong imports from China. Imports from China rose 81
percent in April, the strongest month for the year. Imports from China in April
were 30 percent higher than the previous April and are now ahead of 2021 year
to date. Imports from Canada, Indonesia, and Vietnam all fell in April by about
10 percent but remain well ahead of 2021 year to date.
U.S. imports of hardwood moulding decreased by 11 percent in April, pulling
back from their highest level in nearly five years. However, April imports
outpaced those of April 2021 by 44 percent.
Imports from Malaysia fell by 24 percent in April while imports from
Canada were off by 16 percent. Despite the decline, year-to-date imports from
Canada are up 43 percent while imports from Malaysia are ahead 30 percent.
Overall imports are up 42 percent year to date. n
Read Every Issue Online
millerwoodtradepub.com
Page 32 Import/Export Wood Purchasing News n August/September 2022
Import/Export Wood Purchasing News n August/September 2022 Page 33