Wood pellets and wood chips are a bright spot in the shipment of forestry products, said head of the Wood Chip Section under the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Viforest) Thang Van Thong.

Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that wood chip exports brought home 1.1 billion USD in the first seven months of this year while wood pellets earned 380 million USD.

Following the heated growth in the last half of 2022, the average export price of wood pellets decreased by nearly 3% to around 157 USD per tonne in the first half of this year.

The Republic of Korea (RoK) and Japan have been the two major importers of wood pellets from Vietnam, accounting for nearly 100% of the total volume and value of Vietnam’s exports to all markets since 2019.

During January-June, Japan spent over 195 million USD on importing more than 1.16 million tonnes of pellets from Vietnam, up 5.65% in volume and 28.88% in value year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the RoK imported over 840,000 tonnes of pellets valued at nearly 116 million USD, down over 33% in volume and almost 43% in value annually.

For wood chips, China and Japan were the largest importers of this product from Vietnam, making up nearly 95% of the total volume and value of Vietnam’s exports in 2022 and over 90% in the first half of this year.

China consistently accounts for over 60% of Vietnam’s total export value. However, there has been a significant decrease in demand in China this year while Japan also experienced a slight decline, leading to a drop in the export prices of wood chips.

In September, Vietnam’s total forestry product exports surpassed 1.28 billion USD, up 7.3% after a prolonged period of decline. As a result, the overall decrease in forestry product exports was reduced to 20.6%, with a total value of 10.44 billion USD in the first nine months of this year.

Thong noted with delight that following the direction of the Prime Minister and with the drastic actions by the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Taxation and local tax authorities, businesses in the wood industry, primarily those involved in wood chip and pellet processing, have been refunded 2 trillion VND in value-added tax (VAT).

This will provide capital to support their operations in the coming time and ease the challenges faced by the wood industry due to limited orders, he said.

VNA