Okoume exports to China rose
Suppliers in West Africa indicated that the anticipated increase in African timber prices in the Western Hemisphere has not yet materialized. According to Cameroon News Portal, the export output was adjusted throughout the third quarter because the factory needed to match the supply of containers.
Chinese consumers are trying to ensure the number of deliveries under the circumstance of declining production. For the Chinese market, the price of Okoume sawn timber is rising. West African exporters are also facing the same container problem in the Middle East market, and the reduction in export output may eventually affect prices.
Regular routes to China have been suspended
European importers report that African hardwood production is affected by safe work agreements, which is increasingly affecting production and delivery cycles.
As Maersk, MSC, CMA and CGM cannot provide enough containers, transportation to all destinations has been disrupted and interrupted, and even transportation to the Philippines is under pressure. According to reports, CMA and CGM have more available resources, but their prices are also higher.
Regular shipments to China and the Philippines have resumed in September, but to make the cost reasonable, the shipper must have at least 12,000 cubic meters. Compared with sawn wood, the problem of transporting logs by traditional ships is much smaller, but because the plastic packaging of sawn wood will soon fail, it is difficult to apply to the current difficult nautical transportation.
Transportation issues have begun to undermine efforts in South Africa. Finger-joined Okoume doors and panel products competing with Indonesia have affected the export market of South African timber due to lower prices in Indonesia.
Equatorial Guinea exports a large amount of cheap Pakistani flowers
However, Equatorial Guinea's kevazingo and African safflower pears [bubinga] continued to be exported in large quantities. These large quantities of Bahua and African safflower pears exported to Vietnam disrupted the entire African timber export market through price cuts.
Cameroon is affected by heavy rains, logging and once again strengthen supervision
According to reports, in August and September, timber logging and planting in Cameroon were disturbed by heavy rains. However, according to local statistics, as of September, Cameroon's log exports to China are currently stable.
Obtaining legal timber is still a major constraint on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Cameroon’s timber processing industry. A note recently published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its FAO-EU Flegt program reveals this.
"The proportion of sawn timber from legal sources supplied in the domestic market is estimated to account for only 27% of the total timber in circulation in major cities across the country. Therefore, the remaining 73% represents the share of illegal timber supplied to the domestic market and its operators," the note shows.
As of September 15, Cameroon has 35 operators and 142 small and medium enterprises, timber secondary processing operators and forest community members have received training on the legal requirements of the industry.
The issue that worries timber traders is that the Cameroonian authorities have once again taken severe measures on truck loading, and are strictly checking floor scales to ensure that the trucks transporting timber do not exceed the maximum of 25 tons.
Third-party regulations affect Gabonese timber deliveries
Since the forest department has formulated strict timber management regulations and added a third-party inspector to the enforcement regulations, companies that supply logs to the Gabon Special Economic Zone factory must be inspected by the private company TRACER to ensure that the logs delivered to the Special Economic Zone factory come from legal channels. .
At the same time, passing the TRACER test requires payment for the inspection service, and it is also stricter on whether the supplier and its subcontractors pay taxes and social security in a timely manner. This indirectly caused a reduction in timber exports and an increase in timber costs.
There are reports that recently some companies’ deliveries have been hindered during inspections, which has also disrupted the log supply chain and caused economic losses to suppliers. This situation has been alleviated after receiving instructions from the local forestry department.