DHA® eNews - Chinese Hardwood Flooring Company Builds First U.S. Plant, Trade Fallout With China Could Harm U.S. Hardwood Exports
China has threatened retaliatory tariffs that could reach 25% on U.S. hardwood lumber and veneer exports and 20% on hardwood logs. AHEC's Mike Snow notes that the U.S. shipped $1.6 billion in hardwood lumber, $800 million in hardwood logs, and $260 million in veneer to China last year. The Chinese announced that the tariffs will be implemented "immediately" if the U.S. implements the proposed next round of tariffs on $200 billion on Chinese goods, scheduled by the Trump administration to take effect October 1.
A Chinese hardwood flooring supplier, Complete Flooring Supply, will invest $30 million to build a manufacturing plant in Georgia. The new facility will hire 100 workers.
The Department of Commerce has determined that two Chinese flooring companies received countervailable subsidies related to their U.S. exports.
The Forest Stewardship Council announced that wood flooring importer DuChateau will be banned from FSC certification indefinitely. A thorough investigation, triggered by the Sierra Club, showed that DuChateau knowingly sold large volumes of flooring labeled "FSC 100%" that had not been certified.
More than 30 professional associations and building standards organizations have joined to create the International Fire Safety Standards (IFSS) Coalition to develop new fire safety standards for buildings.
HPVA Laboratories® now offers ISO-17025 accredited ASTM E1354 cone calorimeter testing. This test determines the ignitability, heat release rates, mass loss rates, effective heat of combustion, and visible smoke development in a wide range of materials and products.
In addition, HPVA Laboratories® provides a full complement of Steiner Tunnel tests that check for compliance with U.S. and Canadian building codes as well as accredited ASTM E84, ASTM E2768, CAN/ULC S102 and CAN/ULC S102.2 testing for wood products, flooring, insulation, coatings, plastics, and more. For more information or request a quote, see the HPVA Laboratories® website.
Vistage's CEO Confidence Index Survey indicated that 72% of CEOs expect revenue to increase this year.
Due to the lack of housing supply, the U.S. housing market is underperforming by 4.2% or 256,000 seasonally adjusted annualized sales.
In June, total U.S. housing starts fell 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units. Permits dropped 2.2% to 1.27 million units, the lowest level this year.
In June, Canadian housing starts rose 248,140, a 28% increase from May and more than 16% increase vs. one year ago.
The "new normal" in California forestry - forest fires burning every month of the year - has been attributed to Obama-era environmental regulations and mismatched priorities, such as spending ten times more on electric car subsidies than on clearing dead trees.
Source: Canada Free Press
Papua New Guinea, China's largest supplier, provided 29% of China's imported tropical timber in 2016. A new Global Witness report reveals that a large number of PNG logging operations violate the law despite holding government-issued permits. China has no regulations to prevent illegal timber from entering its borders.
Two Sides reports the net forest area in the U.S. has been stable since the early 1900s and has increased from 754 to 766 million acres between 2005 and 2015. Canada's forest area of 857 million acres has been stable for the past 25 years. Globally, only 10% of the world's forests are certified.
The Sarawak government has stopped issuing new timber licenses to protect its remaining indigenous virgin forests.
About 80% of the wood processing plants in Myanmar have stopped operations as a result of the drastic reduction in log harvests.
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the rate of forest loss has slowed in recent years, although the world's forest area decreased from 31% to 30% between 1990 and 2015.