Along with the diversification of China's timber import market and the rising domestic demand for timber, the Chinese timber import market is very likely to bid farewell to being overstocked and become active again.

A timber promotion activity jointly held by a dozen Brazilian timber producers recently in Shanghai attracted hundreds of timber enterprises in east China.

Not only China's timber importers are interested in the remote tropical forests in South America, but also the domestic market is calling for more timber reserves as well.

Since launching a campaign to protect forests in 1998, China has reported a short supply of timber. As a result, many enterprises blindly imported large quantities of timber from Europe and Russia. However, a lack of market awareness on the part of the importers led to a slackening of the domestic market.

It will be hard for a certain kind of timber to dominate the entire market in the future, an expert in timber said, adding that diversified demand for different timber has provided Brazilian timber producers with greater opportunities.

China produced 46.73 million cubic meters of commercial timber last year, about 14 percent less than the previous year.

However, experts pointed out that China is mainly short of timber required for indoor decoration.

(Xinhua 04/26/2001)