Evolution and Development Path Analysis of China’s Wood-Based Panel Import and Export Pattern in 2025

Overall Import and Export Pattern Shows Structural Characteristics In 2025, China’s wood-based panel import and export trade continues the basic trend of export dominance and import concentration. Meanwhile, driven by the adjustment of the global economic pattern and industrial transformation, it presents distinct structural changes. As a major global producer and trader of wood-based panels, exports remain an important driving force for the industry’s development, while imports form a specific supply pattern affected by resource supply and geopolitics. On the whole, the trade surplus of wood-based panels remains stable, but both import and export ends are facing the dual challenges of demand changes and cost pressure, and the industry is moving towards a transformation stage from scale expansion to quality improvement.

High Concentration of Import Markets Hides Supply Chain Risks A prominent feature of the import side is the high concentration of source countries, especially a high dependence on a single country for core panel types. The formation of this centralized pattern is closely related to the adjustment of wood processing policies and price advantages in some countries. It effectively makes up for the supply gap of relevant domestic products in the short term, but hides the risk of unstable supply chains in the long term. External factors such as geopolitical changes and trade policy adjustments may trigger supply fluctuations. Therefore, the diversification of import sources has become an important direction urgently needed to be promoted by the industry. At the same time, the import pattern of different panel types is differentiated, and the import sources of some high-end panel types are relatively scattered, reflecting the differences in resource endowments and industrial advantages of different markets.

Diversified Expansion of Export Markets Accompanied by New Competitive Challenges The export market presents a positive trend of diversified distribution, which effectively reduces the risks caused by fluctuations in a single market. Neighboring countries and regions remain the core export destinations, and certain breakthroughs have been made in the expansion of emerging markets. The export market positioning of different panel types has its own characteristics: some products have formed stable demand in the European and North American markets, while others have shown growth potential in the Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern regions. It is worth noting that the competition in the export market is transforming from price competition to quality competition. The phenomenon of increasing output but decreasing prices of some low-end products highlights the drawbacks of homogeneous competition, while the export growth of high-end characteristic products points out the direction for industrial upgrading.

Trade Barriers Intensify Export Pressure on the Industry In 2025, against the backdrop of global trade protectionism, the challenges of trade barriers faced by wood-based panel exports have further intensified. Anti-dumping measures in some major export markets have imposed obvious restrictions on the export of relevant products. Such trade barriers not only directly increase export costs and weaken price competitiveness, but also may trigger a chain reaction, leading to the loss of part of the market share. At the same time, the stricter supervision on the source of raw materials in some markets has also put forward higher requirements for the supply chain traceability of export products, bringing additional compliance pressure to the industry’s exports.

Industrial Upgrading Leads High-Quality Development of Imports and Exports Faced with the dual challenges of domestic and foreign markets, industrial upgrading has become the core driving force for promoting the high-quality development of wood-based panel imports and exports. On the export side, the industry is accelerating the transformation from low-end capacity expansion to high-end product research and development, and environmentally friendly and functional products have become the key to exploring high-end markets; on the import side, it is gradually advancing the strategy of diversifying sources, actively expanding potential supply channels in Southeast Asia, Europe and other regions, and reducing dependence on a single market. At the same time, the integration of technological innovation and the concept of green manufacturing not only enhances the international competitiveness of products, but also conforms to the trend of global sustainable development, laying a foundation for the long-term stable development of import and export trade.