In October, the GTI-Woodbased Panel (GTI-WBP) Index registered 46.1%, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from the previous month, was below the critical value (50%) for seven consecutive months, indicating that in the GTI pilot countries, the overall business prosperity of wood-based panel industry represented by the index shrank from last month.

On the demand side, the demand for wood-based panels was still declining in pilot countries. This month, both new orders index (46.6%) and export orders index (43.5%) registered below the critical value of 50%, indicating a month-over-month decline in the overall performance of such orders. And data for the past three months reveals that the business pressure of wood-based panel industry mainly come from the downturn in the international market.

On the supply side, the downward trend in wood-based panel production had lasted for seven months. This month, the production index registered 45.3%, a decrease of 4.1 percentage points from the previous month, still below the critical value of 50%. While reducing the production of wood-based panels, the sample enterprises also cleared their inventory of finished products to alleviate pressures from capital shortages, rising production costs, and not enough warehouse space.

In terms of prices, the purchase price index for raw materials registered 61.3%, above the critical value for 4 consecutive months, indicating a continued upward trend in raw material prices, which was mainly due to inconvenient transportation, increased logistics costs, and raw material shortages in some countries. Timber enterprises’ cost pressure was particularly prominent in Ghana, Mexico, and Malaysia, as raw material prices in these countries had been rising for several months.

Main updates related to the wood-based panel market include: recently, Sabah exported its first batch of EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation)-compliant plywood to Poland, which may open up new market opportunities for Sabah's timber sector. In September, Brazil’s exports of tropical plywood reached US$1.6 million in value and 2,700 m3 in volume, representing a year-on-year growth of 33% and 35%, respectively. On 11 October, the European Commission announced that it decided to initiate an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of hardwood plywood originating in China, and the product subject to this investigation is plywood consisting solely of sheets of wood other than bamboo and okoumé, each ply not exceeding 6 mm thickness, with at least one outer ply of tropical wood or non-coniferous wood, of species specified under subheadings 4412 31, 4412 33 and 4412 34.

GTI-Woodbased Panel (GTI-WBP) Report - October 2024.pdf