The expansion of pulp production in China continues and the lack of domestic wood fiber sources has resulted in record imports of wood chips in 2011

Chinese pulp mills increasingly have to rely on imported wood chips for their wood fiber needs. In 2011, record volumes are being imported mainly from hardwood plantations in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Imported wood chip costs from Vietnam have gone up 40 percent in two years and are closing in on costs for chips shipped to Japan, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly.Seattle, USA. With the lack of sufficient quality and quantity of domestic wood fiber supply, new pulp mills in China are looking to expand importation of wood chips from plantation-rich countries in Southeast Asia to