 Softwood
Export Council Newsletter
December 2007
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Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year
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New SEC Membership |
Two venerable lumber organizations are
joining the SEC beginning January 1st to
help promote and maintain market
access for US softwood lumber products
in international markets.
Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers
Association (NeLMA)
will be promoting Eastern White Pine
and Eastern SPF (US) to both
European and Pacific Rim markets.
The premier grading and marketing
agency for New England lumber
manufacturers, NeLMA has been
supporting the industry for nearly
75 years.
American Lumber
Standards Committee, (ALSC)
will be carrying the codes and
standards banner where it comes to
softwood lumber grading and grades
acceptance, plant health issues and
other cross industry standards in
the international marketplace.
ALSC administers the grading
accrediation program for all North
American softwood lumber as well as
programs for treated lumber and wood
packaging materials under IPPC
international standards
Welcome aboard.
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EXPOCIAHC |
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By Fernanda Vale Garcia
 ExpoCIAHC
TRADESHOW, an annual show and its XIX
edition, took place in Centro Banamex on
October 16th -20th,
2007. The tradeshow gathers the
industrial people that manufacture all
types of products, offer different kind
of services related to the construction
industry. This show represents the best
forum to show the most recent technology
and machinery for the construction
sector.In Expo CIAHC tradeshow there
were around 650 companies exhibiting
different products for the construction
sector, located in 634 booths in Centro
Banamex. During the exhibiting days
there were 150 seminars of the
technology related to the construction
sector and around 90 " do it yourself"
shops of the correct uses of the
different materials used in the
construction. EXPO
CIAHC is considered the most important
international tradeshow in Latin
America. Unfortunately the quality of
contacts is not a good compared with
other tradeshows as well as the size and
cost of the show.
This year, ExpoCIAHC,
highlighted the construction of
sustainable housing. During the
tradeshow there were three
prototypes of housing: rural,
economy and media superior. The
objective of this is to show,
analyze and diffuse the positive
impact that could represent to apply
the technology of design and the use
of alternative energy sources in a
sustainable housing model.
It is important to
highlight that during this
presidential term of the President
Felipe Calderon it is called period
of the infrastructural and housing.
The reason for this is that during
these 6 years, there will be
investments in the construction
sector of about 422 million pesos.
It represents 6 million credits (45%
bigger than during the last
presidential term). 50 % will be
focused in low-income houses; also
it is being considered to have
private investments in the real
state sector such as hotels,
shopping malls, and offices among
others.
Last year during Expo CIAHC
tradeshow there were around 60,000
people that attended and around the
same number of attendees were
expected this year. Most of the
attendees are architects, engineers,
manufacturers, distributors,
professors, and interior designers.
Also there was a pavilion from China
and a small one from Spain.
On the treated lumber side,
designers, and decks installers,
docks, playground were looking
for different lumber treatments
as ACZA and would like to use
treated lumber for different
projects that they have in Los
Cabos, La Paz, Puerto Peñasco,
Acapulco, as well as, to use
Treated lumber for Posts.
Treated lumber used for
exteriors had a great success
among attendees since a lot of
people like to use it for
outdoors, especially in beaches
and in humid climates. Projects
such as building boxing rings,
playground, sports facilities
and offices.
This yera
American Softwoods had a
designed "American
Softwoods" booth and by
using the new booth, we
realize that having a new
booth using US softwoods
products in this show was a
great tool to target new
markets that before couldn't
be reached previously, as
well as the markets that we
have been able to reach by
showing the uses of our
materials.
American Softwoods and its
members will continue to
participate in this show, as
it is the biggest show that
gathers the largest and the
most important companies of
Architects and Engineers in
Mexico regarding the
construction sector.
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Japan Home & Building
Show |
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By Tomoko Igarashi
 The
Japan Home and Building Show was
held November 14 - 16, 2007.
American
Softwoods had four booths at Japan Home
and Building Show 2007. In the SEC
booth was displayed the floorings made
with Ponderosa Pine donated by Shingu
Shoko this year. And also,the booth had
the cabinets made with Ponderosa Pine,
round tables made with DF and PP, Stock
rooms made with brushing Douglas Fir
plywood and Red Cedar plywood as well as
Ponderosa Pine round table, Douglas Fir
round table, the SP flooring, and SP sap
grade counter table.
For
other species, American Softwoods held
the two story Southern Pine Deck made
with SP treated lumber and glulams.The
total number of participation was 91,982
for 3-day trade show.( Including other 3
other shows; Home Security Show, Eco
Energy Show, and Stones & Ceramics for
Construction Show)
During
the show, five researchers from
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
conducted the survey. . As a result,
there were nearly 100 replies.
In addition, American Softwoods booth
staff assisted with some translations
for EBPA members.
American Softwoods booth received the
inquires about the characteristics of
U.S. species, strength, sizes, area, the
systems of forest management in the U.S.
In 2007, the price of Western Red Cedar
went higher than other species for
decking such as California Red Wood.
Therefore, we received inquires about
the suppliers for CRW as well. |
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European Market Report |
By Eddie
Pearce
UK
In the UK,
house building has slowed
down slightly but overall
construction continues to be
very active. Despite this
slowdown, the future for
housing continues to be
positive. The UK government
has announced that it will
change the regulations with
regard to the planning
application process. These
changes are designed to
speed up the process
resulting in a shorter time
scale between submitting a
planning application to the
actual point when building
starts. The government is
also looking at legislation
to release more land for
building purposes thereby
creating the conditions to
achieve the target of
building 2 million new
houses by the year 2012. At
present the annual build
rate is around 230,000
units. To achieve this goal
the house building industry
will have to build at a rate
of at least 500,000 units
per year, double the present
rate. This target , together
with the UK government
promoting eco-friendly house
construction, houses built
using wood frame
construction is viewed as
being the preferred method
of build, provides a very
positive situation for
increased use of wood in the
UK.
The timber
consumption in the UK is
forecast to rise over the
next couple of years at the
following rate: 10.1m m³ in
2007 and 10.37m m³ in 2008.
Domestic softwood production
in 2006 was 2.85m m³. The
forecast for 2007 is 3.065m
m³ and to 3.215m m³ in 2008.
Imports of softwoods are
expected to grow to 7.45m m³
in 2007 and to 7.50m m³ in
2008.
Although UK
had very bad Summer this
year, timber decking still
continues to progress,
albeit at a slower pace, the
installers using Southern
Pine are all very busy.
GERMANY
The building
and construction industries
in Germany continue to slow
down. This has led to a down
turn in demand for sawn
timber. This is in spite of
the fact that the German
sawmilling is increasing its
output to 24,700m m³( mainly
Spruce). This led to a drop
in prices for sawn timber.
However the
demand for Pine has
increased due to higher
demand from the garden and
landscape sector. This
explains the high level of
interest that was shown at
the trade show, Branchentag
Holz, recently attended by
American Softwoods in
Cologne, for treated
Southern Pine.
BENELUX COUNTRIES
Belgium and
the Netherlands are
experiencing a downturn in
house building levels. This
in turn will lead to a down
turn in the demand for sawn
timber.
However,
there is one positive trend
that is occurring in Belgium
and that is an increase of
wood frame construction as a
method for building. This
activity may offset the
downturn in timber demand.
This is potentially good
news for Douglas fir
producers because houses
built in Southern Belgium
have traditionally been
built using 10" x 10" and
12"x12" timbers which have
for many years, been
supplied from mills in the
USA.
IRELAND
Forecasts for
new residential building in
Ireland are for a reduced
number of units to be built
in 2008. In 2007, 82,000
units were built, in 2008 it
is anticipated that this
will fall to 76,000 units.
This will result in a drop
of 4.7% in timber
consumption.
FRANCE
The
sawmilling organisation
representing the producers
of French Douglas fir are in
discussion with a US west
coast grading agency to
grade their production
against ALS rules. The
purpose of this activity is
to get French Douglas fir
more internationally
acceptable, particularly for
the Japanese market, in
competition with US Douglas
fir.
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China office highlights |
By Xu Fang
China State Council
Issues Directive on Affordable
Housing for 586 Cities
China's State Council
has issued a directive on the need to
expand systems of affordable rental
housing in 586 cities throughout the
country, in response to the increasing
un-affordability of urban housing for a
growing number of residents. The rapid
overall increase to urban property
prices and the cost of urban living
generally has been a source of hardship
for many current residents, and with
rates of urbanization set to continue
increasing the State Council is
(rightly) worried about how new migrants
to cities will afford to live. According
to figures from the Ministry of
Construction, of the millions of
households identified as "poor" and
participating in the national welfare
system, the problem of housing has only
been resolved for 6.7% of them, leaving
a large amount of room for expansion of
this program. The Ministry of
Construction is also an advocate of
rapidly expanding the supply of housing
in order to tame price growth. The State
Council did not issue specifics about
how it envisioned expanding the coverage
of affordable housing programmes, and
the eventual release of such information
will certainly be well publicized for
political purposes.
Significance:
At the end
of June, 586 of China's 656 cities
reported having established some sort of
affordable housing rental programme, on
which a total of 7.9 billion yuan
(US$1.04 billion) will be spent during
2007. However, this level of spending
and the coverage of such programmes is
seen as far too low, and during the
upcoming National People's Congress the
housing question is sure to be high on
the agenda. The message behind the State
Council's message here is that it wants
to avoid the urban slums and resulting
social instability that it notes has
occurred in other emerging market
economies around the world .
Chinese Government to Tie Local
Officials' Promotion to Energy Targets
Provincial officials
who fail to meet central government
targets for energy efficiency and
emissions control will be viewed
unfavorably in the next round of
leadership promotions, warned China's
top economic planner. In a recent
statement made to the national
legislature on China's energy
conservation and environmental
protection work, Ma Kai, minister of the
National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC), noted that the
current performance evaluation conducted
by many regional governments still
places greater emphasis on officials'
ability to achieve economic growth than
on promoting energy conservation and
emissions reduction. Ma noted that China
still faces a "grave situation" in
energy conservation and environmental
protection, despite limited progress
made during the first half of this year.
The Chinese government has set an
ambitious target for 2010 of reducing
the energy intensity of per unit GDP by
20% and major pollutant emissions by 10%
from 2005 levels. In 2006, however, the
country missed the annual target for
both energy conservation and emissions
reduction by a very large margin.
Significance:
Local
governments' defiance has long been
considered a major obstacle in the
central government's efforts to make
China's economy greener. Indeed,
strong resistance from local
governments has forced the central
government to halt the release of
China's 2006 green GDP report, which
shows the environmental cost to
regional economies. While there has
been lots of talk on linking
officials' performance evaluation
with their energy conservation and
environmental protection efforts,
little has been done so far. This
latest statement by the NDRC
minister signals that the government
is finally taking some concrete
steps in this direction, although a
mechanism ensuring its consistent
enforcement is still absent.
High Housing Prices Seen as "Strike"
at Consumer Spending
The most recent consumer confidence
index tracked by Xinhua Finance
shows that during the month of
August, Chinese consumer confidence
"slid" by 100.7 points to 1.3-the
lowest level in five months. The
corresponding figure from the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
for August has not yet been
released, though the NBS reported a
0.8-point decrease during July. This
slide during August was attributed
to the dual impact of rising food
prices and housing costs on consumer
sentiment. Additionally, this figure
has been interpreted as having been
diluted by the effects of a rising
stock market, implying that in the
absence of record highs on the stock
market that consumer sentiment would
have been more significantly
affected by rising prices. It should
also be noted that, according to
this index, consumer confidence for
households with annual income over
48,000 yuan (US$6,400) fell by more
than households earning less than
this figure, with 1.8-point and
0.6-point respective declines
reported. Also noted in this most
recent report that it appears that
consumer sentiment in Beijing is
increasingly burdened by worries
over the "post-Olympic disease" in
the regional economy.
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Japan office highlights
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By
Tomoko Igarashi
Market Briefs
According to MLIT, housing starts in
October 2007 were 76,920 -unit. It
decreased 35.0.% compared to the rate of
October 2006. Due to the confusions of
the revised Japanese building standard
code started in June, 2007, the number
of housing starts was still very low.
However, compared to the
rate of the previous month
(63,018-unit), it recovered. The
annualized figure after seasonal
adjustments in October was 851,000-unit.
The wooden house ratio
was 59,7% ( 45,930-unit ) in October
2007.
The revised Japanese
building standard code for the
structural calculation was applied for
the three-story wooden houses and
condominiums. Therefore, the ratio of
the wooden house which was generally for
the second -story seemed hight. - 59.7%.
The
number of housing starts by Post and
Beam system was 34,624-unit minus 6.9%
down compared to October 2006. Plat form
system (2x4) was 9,721-unit which 0.3%
up
compared to the year of October 2006.
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2007 Exports thru September |
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Exports m3 |
Exports $ |
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China |
57,599 |
$24,646,000 |
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Taiwan |
29,962 |
$11,000,000 |
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Italy |
14,467 |
$7,426,000 |
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Mexico |
344,717 |
$90,679,000 |
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Spain |
35,654 |
$15,597,000 |
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U.K |
84,361 |
$27,792,000 |
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The Bahamas |
102,411 |
$11,078,000 |
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Philippines |
53,226 |
$24,796,000 |
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Dominican Republic |
109,397 |
$22,104,000 |
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Japan |
118,202 |
$43,165,000 |
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Upcoming Trade Shows |
January
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ExpoMobiliario Furniture Supply
Trade Show, Jan 23-26 Mexico City,
Mexico
February
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Dubai Wood Feb 5-7, Dubai UAE
(SOLD OUT) Waiting list
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India Wood Feb 29- March 4
Bangalore, India
March
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Architecture and Construction Show
March 4-7 Tokyo, Japan
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The Timber Show, March 11-13 London,
U.K.
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Saie Spring March 12-15 Bologne,
Italy
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Interzum China March 27-30
Guangzhou, China (FILLING QUICKLY)
April
- USCB
Spring Sales Mission
May
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Veteco Windows Show, May 6-9 Madrid,
Spain
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Carrefour du Bois Wood Industry Show
May 28-30, Nantes, France
June
- Tecno Meuble Furniture
Suppliers Show, June 5-8,
Guadalajara, Mexico
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Softwood Export Council-
Promoting the expansion of export
markets for primary and secondary
softwood products manufactured in
the United States.
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Softwood Export
Council Phone: 503-248-0406
520 SW 6th Ave,
Suite 810 Fax:
503-248-0399
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Softwood Export Council | 520 SW Sixth Ave,
Suite 810 | Portland | OR | 97204
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