This year by now has seen a sharp drop in the volume of imported broad-leaved wood through waterway: Indonesian timber has been by and large out of stock; the import of African wood also has decreased with a price hike by 15% to 18% on average. The jump of price in the international timber market will certainly accelerate the price rise in the domestic timber market. If the timber price keeps climbing, most of the wood flooring manufacturers will not be able to withstand the pressure of higher cost, the market will fluctuate, and the price advance of flooring will be a necessary trend. In this way, the 8^th lunar month is to become a watershed of the market.

Timber Price Keeping Going Up

This is a comparatively slack season for decoration market in Xiamen. Although timber price is going up continuously, the price of many well-known wood flooring hasn’t been raised and the sales volume is also steady by now. According to insiders, raising price will make any retailer bear more stress and even take risks in this off-season because of intense competition. At present, retailers have to maintain the status quo temporarily to weather through the low season.

Some flooring manufacturers said that their raw materials mainly depend on import, but today the price advance of timber has been a global trend and some countries even limit the export of timber. So it is necessary to raise the price of flooring with the increasing cost of flooring manufacturing.

Price Advance Coming First in the Solid Wood Flooring Market

With the continuous rise of timber price, that of flooring will go up soon. The solid wood flooring market will see such price hike firstly due to its greater material consumption. In addition, the higher the grade of flooring, the more its price rises, though price of flooring of all grades goes up compared with that of last year. For instance, the price of teak flooring has risen from last year’s RMB225-255/m² to the present RMB360-400/m²; that of Red Incienso has increased by as much as RMB180-200, from RMB380-400 to RMB480-530/m². The price advance of wood flooring varies mainly with the producing area of its material. Some solid wood flooring made from imported rare wood is quoted at RMB600-700/m², and some even at as high as RMB1000-2000/m². According to a flooring dealer, the price of solid wood flooring has increased a lot, for some brands even by 20%, since the end of last year.

(Selected from: China Wood Monthly Market Report June 2007. To learn more about it, pls contact Rain at nl@chinawood.org  for  China Wood Monthly Market Report.)