China's increased appetite for lumber is helping to fire up B.C. mills

[submarinesailor]

Found this in pne of my "today's reading material":

http://www.timescolonist.com/China+appetite+lumber+keeps+mills+loggers+busy/5121936/story.html#ixzz1SZM65Nfn


Bruce

[Meadows Miller]

Gday Bruce

Yeah I herd the Chinese are 40 Million ton down on what they need for this year  ;) This is mainly because of the Russians cracking it and  Putting a 80% duty on log exports out of there the other year as the Chinese where buying most of their logs out of Siberia now thats kicked on the export markets around the world but what alot of people dont' know thats happening is that the Russians and Chinese are plowing huge amounts of capital into Mills across that region that are still in commissioning stages once they come online the export bubble will most likely burst  as it will go back to a who can produce it cheaper game they are paying top dollar for logs out of Aust and NZ atm you should be rite overthere though as you are pretty competitive on price ;)

Regards Chris

[jim king]

I am chasing the China carrot full speed and it is looking good.  They have a severe lack of hardwoods for furniture and flooring  and are buying timber and timberland around the world as fast as they can find it.  Timber production in the Pacific region is way down and the growth they are seeing both internally and for export is simply out stripping the available supplies.  They want the highest quality and are paying for it.

If you can open this ITTO report that I recieved today and scroll down to China you can get an idea of what is happening.

http://www.itto.int/en/mis_download/

[Autocar]

Ive heard through the grape vine there looking at mills in Ohio here also. I know most of the logs I sell end up on the over seas market, but I am not sure all them owning forest land or mills here in the states. Seems to me we will end up with nothing but the wrong end of a stick some day.

[jim king]

Seems to me we will end up with nothing but the wrong end of a stick some day.

I am afraid you are right.  Americans have to stop only working with thier backs and start working with thier minds.  Open the doors folks !!!!!!!

[duke]

Just make sure that you get your money before the wood hits the dock??? proforma inviocing was what we used when we shipped supplies around the world. Worked well you got your money when they were notified that thier goods were at the dock awaiting unloading.
  \marcel

[jim king]

Payment for overseas shipments is always some thing to be cautious about.  When shipping to the US from a foreign country to one of the big box stores for example are many times without a bank gaurantee.  The payment gaurantee is based on the credibility of the customer which is the easiest way.  When you have banks involved in a gaurantee of payment they can drive you nuts very fast. If there is a spelling error in the L/C one must carry that spelling error thru the documentation of collection or the bank will reject payment until the issuing bank issues a correction and on and on.  What is really nice is that if there is more than one error the bank normally only advises of one at a time and the payment drags on up to weeks.

I have never understood why Western Union can get you money anywhere in the world in 5 minetes and the big banks are such a disgrace to work with.

The US and Canada both have government export insurance gaurantees to encourage exports and take the risk off the seller.  These allow open account shipments to qualified customers in foreign countries without risk to the exporter and is safer than selling across town.

In the case of the Chinese they buy with bank to bank letters of credit .  This gaurantees the payment against bill of lading of the shipping line but open one up to the problems of the big banks.  All said there are many methods of payment and the best is to suffer thru the incompetance of the letter of credit / bank mess until one has a good relation ship with the customer.  Once the customer knows you ship a quality product and the shipper knows and believes in the buyer a cash transfer once the goods are in the port is easiest.

There are many methods of payment , some depend on the country, all depend on the customer relationships and sorry to say all invole banks.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes Bruce, it's been in the works for several months. The traditional building over in China has not really been framing lumber. The BC mills have had delegates in China promoting softwood lumber for construction for quite some time now. It's like not putting your forest products in one basket market.  ;)

[Ianab]

China is a growing economy.

They need raw materials, like logs.

China and India buy significant amounts of NZ logs, in the millions of cubic meters. Being an import /export economy, this is a good thing for us.

We want flat screen TVs and Ipads, they want logs.... seems like fair enough deal to me.

Only thing to watch, Chinese investors also want to buy LAND, that's sort of like selling the Golden Goose. Once someone else owns the land, then any profits go offshore.

Work WITH them, don't sell out to them.

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Ian, they probably don't want NB. I haven't seen them buying much of anything here. ;)

But we seem to be buying some of their fish they probably caught off the 200 mile offshore limit in their factory boats.   :

[DanG]

Here's a little bright spot I heard about the other day.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Chopsticks-Carry-Made-in-America-Label-125740793.html

[Ernie]

Work WITH them, don't sell out to them.

Ian

I second that one Ian.  By the way, much snow at your place this morning.  It's 7 degrees here.  The joys of living coastal.

[Ianab]

By the way, much snow at your place this morning.  It's 7 degrees here.  The joys of living coastal.

About 3" on the ground here in Stratford - looking pretty white.

[Ernie]

We have a son on Kina Rd up near Wiremu Rd, they have about an inch and it is still falling. Pretty rare on that side of the hill.