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Plantation timber increasingly popular
06/02/2012
Preference in the timber market appears to be shifting away from native trees and towards certain plantation timbers.
This could be of benefit to timber investors in Brazil, where firms are growing large spreads of sustainable timber plantations. But for other regions of the world this could represent a problem.
Tasmania, for example, has seen its export market to Japan almost collapse as the buyers' preference has shifted away from woodchip and towards plantation timber, which supposedly makes better pulp.
ABC correspondent Felicity Ogilvie observed that this is creating problems for other Tasmanian industries, such as the saw mills around the area, which have been forced to close down due to the lack of demand.
In the future, things may well start to shift, especially as China's booming market grows further in size. The Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings told the news agency that the country is “hopeful that we will be able to sell woodchip to China” in the future, but at the moment is does not look very likely that sufficient volumes will be sold to sustain the business.
This could be of benefit to timber investors in Brazil, where firms are growing large spreads of sustainable timber plantations. But for other regions of the world this could represent a problem.
Tasmania, for example, has seen its export market to Japan almost collapse as the buyers' preference has shifted away from woodchip and towards plantation timber, which supposedly makes better pulp.
ABC correspondent Felicity Ogilvie observed that this is creating problems for other Tasmanian industries, such as the saw mills around the area, which have been forced to close down due to the lack of demand.
In the future, things may well start to shift, especially as China's booming market grows further in size. The Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings told the news agency that the country is “hopeful that we will be able to sell woodchip to China” in the future, but at the moment is does not look very likely that sufficient volumes will be sold to sustain the business.
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