Paper Consumption in China

- Paper is no longer a globally abundant resource; global deforestation is occurring at a record pace

- Environmental effects have surfaced from rising consumption of paper products in China

- China's growing demand for wood and paper products increasingly fuels the destruction of virgin forests in parts of Asia and Africa, and strains resources in other parts of the world

- Paper manufacturing takes place in large, energy intensive paper mills

- Demand for paper products in China is expanding at a faster rate than paper production and imports

Growing Pulp and Paper Industries

In the first half of 2007, the imports of pulp and paper products to China amounted to 2.2 million tons worth US$2.172 billion.

During that time, total exports of paper, paperboard, paper products were 2.98 million tons valued at US$3.1 billion.

From 2005 to 2006, paper product exports from China to the US increased approximately by 177 percent in volume, and were valued at an estimated at $224 million in 2006.
www.globalwood.org

Forest Trends www.forest-trends.org released their environmental report on China earlier this month, detailing China's use of paper products. "We have seen the Chinese pulp and paper industry grow from being really quite small, relatively insignificant in world terms, to being the second largest in the world, second only to the United States," he said. "So it is now an enormously significant user of forest resources. If this rapid rate of growth continues, then it is bound to exert pressure on forest resources in the region."

According to Tamara Stark, the China's Forests Campaign Coordinator of Greenpeace, there are about 200,000 Chinese importers and manufacturers of pulp and wood, but only about 300 are certified by the council. This means that many of China's paper sourcers are operating beyond the scope of environmental regulations, possibly even obtaining wood products from threatened and unsustainable natural resources.

China's imported paper pulp comes mainly from Russia, Indonesia and the US. Indonesia is a country where illegal logging threatens to wipe out rain forest regions within the next decade. Greenpeace in April accused the country of importing thousands of cubic meters of illegal tropical hardwood from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Forest Trends also says that China has built two new large mills for producing wood pulp without arranging adequate sources of local wood, ensuring that pressure on foreign forests will continue.

China sources local and foreign forests to produce waste paper and wood pulp

Wood Pulp
In August 2007, Wood pulp imports to China were 4.2 million tons worth US$2.6 billion, up 2.5% and 25.4% from the same period in 2006.

Waste Paper
In August 2007, waste paper imports to China were 11.7 million tons worth US$ 1.974 billion. The import value for these three commodities reached US$6.79 billion, making up 59.4% of the total value for all wood products.

Additional Information

http://www.forest-trends.org/

http://www.global-production.com/wood-pulp-paper/news/index.htm

www.globalwood.org

http://www.woodconsumption.org/products/paper.pdf

http://www.chinapapershanghai.com/paperindustry.html

www.greengrants.org.cn

Chinese Demand Puts a Strain on Timber, Financial Times
www.ft.com/markets/commodities

US Commercial Service, China Commercial Brief
http://www.buyusa.gov/china/en/ccb032803.html

http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/Secretary_Gutierrez/2007_Releases/March/30_Gutierrez_China_Anti-subsidy_law_application_rls.html

http://hotdocs.usitc.gov/docs/pubs/industry_trade_summaries/pub3490.pdf

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