From 28th March to 31st March, Swedish Wood participated in the China International Machinery and Furniture Raw Materials (CIFM) Interzum Guangzhou Fair along with representatives from the following member companies: Bergkvist-Insjön, Callans, Gösta Jacobsson, Holmen, Martinsons, Norra Timber, Norrskog Wood Products (NWP), SCA Timber, Setra Group and Södra.
The fair gave a good opportunity for the Swedish sawmill representatives to meet both new and old customers from all parts of China. The Swedish representatives experienced a big interest for Swedish wood at the fair and they specially recorded an increased interest for Swedish pine.
The Swedish Wood booth displayed samples of Swedish sawn pine and spruce, furniture in Swedish pine designed by Chinese top designers as well as wood samples of different surface treatments.
During the fair, Swedish Wood also held a seminar covering topics like the role Sweden plays in the global wood trade, inspiration of modern furniture design using Swedish pine, as well as technical information about the Swedish wood species pine and spruce. Both fair visitors and Chinese media were invited to the seminar. Speakers at the seminar were Olle Berg, Chairman of Swedish Wood’s Advisory Board and Market Director at Setra Group, Charlotte Dedye Apelgren, Director of Interior and Design at Swedish Wood and Per Esbjornsson, Project Coordinator at Swedish Wood.
The city of Guangzhou is situated in the Guangdong province in the South-East of China. The province is a base for Chinese furniture design and production, and an important hub for timber import and export business in China.
Facts about sales to China
China is a highly interesting growth market for Swedish sawn wood products and the trade organization Swedish Wood has since 2013 worked actively to support the Swedish sawmill companies on the Chinese market. 2013 Sweden exported 400,000 cubic metres of sawn wood products to China, three times more than in the previous year. In 2016 exports from Sweden to China set a new record at around 800,000 cubic metres.
