The changing Chinese wood products consumer : opportunities and challenges for the NZ forestry sector.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Forestry
Degree name
Master of Forestry Science
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2003
Authors
Tsang, Kenneth Ko Fung
Abstract

The Chinese wood products market represents a significant opportunity for the New Zealand forestry sector, especially in the coniferous roundwood and sawn timber market. Despite the Sino-Russian agreement on wood products trade, which allows Russian suppliers have to only pay half of the normal value-added tax for their exports to China, New Zealand wood products still show competitiveness in the coniferous wood products market. However, lack of warehousing facilities and subsidiaries in China limit New Zealand's ability to access many small domestic industrial wood consumers. In addition, the exclusion of New Zealand pine from the current Chinese building and fire codes, prevents the use of New Zealand pine for wood framed residential housing. Moreover, the use of coniferous timber species is still not widely accepted in the domestic market in relation to the housing construction, interior decoration, and furniture sectors. In order to promote New Zealand pine effectively, this study found that "Price" and "Environmental Issues" are the most important factors which will influence the Chinese industrial wood consumers to adopt a new wood-based product. Most respondents in this study indicate that the general managers and plant managers are final decision-makers in adopting a new wood product. Wood consumption behaviour of the industrial wood consumers varies by sector. Most respondents indicate that they are dependent on the domestic Chinese importers as their main sources of supply. It had previously been found that the apparent consumption per capita of most wood-based panel products increase as the real GDP increases as in international market. This study does not have any statistical evidence to show whether the apparent consumption per capita of industrial roundwood and sawnwood increases with the Chinese real GDP. Furthermore, the apparent consumption of most wood products tends to be inelastic with respect to the adjusted average import and export prices. Other macroenvironmental drivers are likely to influence the demand of wood products in China.

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Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
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