In recent years, under the continuous changes in the downstream consumer market and the continuous influence of the epidemic, the structural adjustment of the demand-led industry has continued to accelerate, especially in 2021, due to factors such as the epidemic, property market regulation, and rising factor costs, domestic timber The market moves in ups and downs.
As the hardwood species with the largest market demand, rubber wood has also begun to shift from economies of scale to efficiency under the background of accelerated industrial restructuring. Facing huge challenges, the market operation pressure is unprecedented.
According to the investigation and understanding of China Timber Price Index Network and Timber Kingdom reporters, the import volume of rubber wood gave the most direct response to the market conversion. According to industry data, the import volume of Thai rubber wood in Guangdong has remained at 7,000-8,000 units per month in the first two years, but after entering 2021, under the disturbance of factors such as the global epidemic and weak real estate, domestic timber consumption has weakened significantly. , the import volume of rubber wood market has also declined by 20-30%.
As we all know, rubber wood has a wide range of applications, mainly used in beds, wooden doors, dining tables, bathrooms and other fields. During the period from 2013 to 2018, the domestic property market, hotels and other industries developed rapidly, which led to the "spring" of furniture, bathroom and other industries, and the market demand for rubber wood continued to rise.
However, with the accelerated pace of industry structure adjustment, the market advantage has weakened, and the application scope of rubber wood has also undergone tremendous changes. The erosion of custom home (wood-based panels), the market demand is shrinking. Some business operators reported that bathrooms, dining tables, wooden doors, and sofas are the main demand sides of rubber wood, accounting for more than 70% of the rubber wood market demand. However, in recent years, the shrinking market demand for sanitary ware and other markets has brought a huge impact on the rubber wood industry. The result is that the production capacity of rubber wood panel factories has shrunk, the demand for rubber wood has declined, prices have fallen, and profits have been continuously compressed. The days are getting more and more difficult, and even forced to close down.
Under the cover of this negative atmosphere, finding new breakthroughs in the rubber wood industry has become one of the important development directions that many dealers need to think about urgently. Some marketers pointed out that many dealers have not thought about the new breakthrough in the rubber wood industry, and some dealers have also taken action, such as applying rubber wood in the field of handicrafts, but the effect is minimal. After all, handicrafts use less wood, and it is difficult to drive the sales of rubber wood to rise.
"The breakthrough of the rubber wood industry, a high degree of customization may be a direction." Some wood merchants reported that the development of the custom furniture industry has been in full swing in recent years, and most consumers will give priority to custom furniture when decorating. However, there are many disadvantages of custom furniture. For example, the materials are mostly artificial boards such as particleboard and medium fiberboard, which are slightly less durable, and compared with solid wood furniture, the environmental protection performance is also slightly insufficient. Therefore, if rubber wood can enter the field of custom furniture, it can well solve the pain point of the environmental protection problem of custom furniture, which is more conducive to the physical and mental health of consumers.
"It is worth mentioning that if rubber wood is to be used to make custom furniture, it must be made into a specification board (1220 × 2440 × 12m, etc.) like wood-based panels, but it is only necessary to make rubber wood into a specification board. At this stage, There are still some technical difficulties, such as rubber wood is prone to cracking and deformation in dry areas in the north.”
"In fact, it is difficult to deal with the problem of rubber wood deformation, but it is not impossible to overcome. More importantly, the production of rubber wood into specification boards is currently a blank in the domestic market, and it is a breakthrough with considerable development potential. , after all, it can perfectly solve the current environmental protection problem of customized furniture, well meet the needs of downstream high-end consumers for the environmental protection of furniture, in addition, it can also break the 'magic' that solid wood cannot realize customization, and provide other materials for the follow-up. It is a good example to achieve customization. More importantly, with the continuous development of the economy, the upgrading of consumption and the change of consumer groups, downstream consumers will have higher and higher requirements for the living environment. The demand for personalized and differentiated consumption such as high customization and high customization has gradually emerged, and rubber wood customized furniture can just meet the needs of this part of consumers well, and the future development potential is good."
Of course, three feet of ice is not a cold day. Any success is not achieved overnight. If rubberwood wants to make a difference in the custom furniture industry, it is not enough to rely on one or two companies to promote it. What we need more is the control of the entire rubberwood industry in the supply chain. , as well as more breakthroughs in the fields of processing technical problems and product promotion. Only in this way can the rubber wood industry hope to break the existing market and walk out of a new road.