Forest Minister Bell Says Orders Coming For BC Wood In China
By 250 News
The BC minister of Forest Pat Bell says he is optimistic that several deals will be signed before the contingent of BC lumber producers he is heading on a mission to China leaves the country next week.
We hope to put a deal together with the National Building Material Corporation which could see our sales to China rise from 1 Billion board feet of lumber a year to 4 to 5 billion board feet.
Bell says while the Premier and others have made the trip to China in the past to try and promote our country, this is the first time that industry has joined together, rather than coming alone to sell wood products. The lumber companies say they have to come together to create a single market player.
We have been coming here for six or seven years Bell said but this is the first time all in a joint effort .
Asked what makes Canadian lumber competitive with Russian lumber flowing into the market Bell says there are three reasons
1 – Most of the population of China lives on the east coast, that puts them about the distance of Toronto to Vancouver via rail to get to those markets from Russia. We on the other hand are able to ship our product via sea , and that way of moving freight is much cheaper.
2- The Chinese say that they are interested in Canadian wood because of our reliability. They want to ensure that they have a constant supply when they need it and Canada provides that security.
3- Three of the largest companies in the world, Tolko, Canfor and West Fraser operate in BC and that gives them a feeling of security.
As present the Forest Minister said, we have been shipping 1 billion board feet of lumber into China, but little if any of that wood has been used as a building material. It has been mostly turned into furniture and roofing. The Chinese have had an opportunity to get a firsthand look at how a wood frame structure was able to withstand an earthquake and that has them looking very carefully at our building systems.
“I believe”, said Bell that we will be shipping 4 to 5 billion board feet of lumber into China by the year 2010 or 2011.” I am sure will be signing orders before we leave here”.
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Posted by: downnotout on November 14 2008 4:21 PM
companies need to be very careful when dealing with the Chinese. A few years back my Dad told me of deals that had gone wrong with his & other companies that dealt with China. That they simply refused to pay or found miniscule loopholes to wriggle out of contracts were fairly regular occurances.
Not to put a damper on future hopes, but in todays market place we need to be very careful of our trading "partners".