Wood chip exports rank first in turnover

(Baonghean) - Every year, people exploit about 518,000 m3 of raw wood, mainly for wood chip processing. Along with that, some businesses have organized forest planting, purchasing and processing large volumes of wood chips in other provinces for export. Despite efforts to increase output to meet export orders, they have only met a part of the demand for wood chips in China.

NNghe An has only 2 enterprises planting forests, processing and exporting wood chips (Thanh Thanh Dat Co., Ltd. and LD Company planting and producing paper materials), but in 2013, it brought the export turnover to our province up to 105.8 million USD, accounting for nearly 30% of the total export turnover of the whole province. The increasing output of exported wood chips has created confidence for people and enterprises to boldly invest in developing the profession of planting raw materials forests.

Processing wood chips for export by Thanh Thanh Dat Company in Hoang Mai Town.

A representative of Thanh Thanh Dat Co., Ltd. said: "To promptly meet the demand for wood chip exports, in addition to linking to build raw material areas, the Company has invested in 10 wood chip processing factories in Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces, along with purchasing a fleet of river and sea transport vessels to transport goods for export... With a synchronous investment focus on this field, the enterprise has now been proactive in production and business and always meets large export contracts". Investments appropriate to the market have gradually improved the enterprise's capacity in the wood chip export market. In 2013, Thanh Thanh Dat Co., Ltd. exported goods worth more than 96.8 million USD and was the leading unit in the export sector of the local business sector. Or at Nghe An Paper Materials Planting & Production Company, which is also an experienced unit in the field of planting, processing and exporting wood chips, in 2013 the unit exported nearly 9.3 million USD worth of wood chips.

Mr. Nguyen Danh Hai - Head of Science and Technology Department of Nghe Tinh Port Company Limited said: "Most of the processed wood chips in Nghe An are exported by enterprises through Cua Lo Port. To serve enterprises exporting goods here, Cua Lo Port always creates favorable conditions in terms of yards, vehicles, equipment... to load and unload goods quickly. Therefore, in the first 3 months of 2014, Cua Lo Port had more than 75,000 tons of wood chips through the port, of which Thanh Thanh Dat Enterprise was 40,000 tons and LD Company planting and producing paper materials was nearly 35,000 tons". Because transporting wood chips requires large tonnage ships, but currently at Cua Lo Port, the channel in and out of the port is often silted and has not been dredged and upgraded in time, affecting the transportation of goods, especially the export of wood chips. Because of such difficulties, many businesses are hesitant to export goods through Cua Lo Port. Thanh Thanh Dat Company often exports goods through ports of some neighboring provinces (such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh).

Since the beginning of 2014, wood chip exports have been very positive and most of these products are exported to the Chinese market. According to statistics from the Department of Industry and Trade, in the first quarter of 2014, enterprises in the province exported nearly 190,000 tons of wood chips, most of which were the output of Thanh Thanh Dat Company Limited exported through Nghe An and neighboring provinces with a value of 17.4 million USD.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Lam - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: "Because the demand for wood chips for processing and paper production in China is very large and along with that, Taiwan, Korea ... also have a demand for consuming this item in large quantities, so the export market for wood chip products is relatively stable. However, a current problem is that businesses only export raw wood chips, so in the coming time, it is necessary to invest in depth in installing and purchasing modern processing equipment and technology to increase the value of goods". In recent years, although wood chips are the leading export item in Nghe An, it is clear that their value has not been highly appreciated, because they have only stopped at raw exports. The main market is China, so prices are very unstable.

Hoang Vinh