What Wood Building Materials Do Foreign Buyers Prefer at the Canton Fair? These Products Tell the Story

Walk through the Canton Fair’s building materials hall and you’ll see the same products flying off the shelves year after year. Plywood. WPC decking. Wooden furniture. These three categories have dominated export orders for the past three years running. The numbers back it up: China ships over 13 million cubic meters of plywood annually, WPC products are growing fast as buyers chase green credentials, and wood furniture exports hit 459 million pieces in 2024—a record high. We dug through customs records from 2023 to 2025 and spoke with dozens of exhibitors to find out what’s actually selling and why.

Plywood still moves the most volume

Plywood is the workhorse of China’s wood exports. It isn’t fancy, but it works. In 2024, China shipped 13.2 million cubic meters of the stuff—that’s $5.3 billion worth. Up 23% from the year before. Builders use it for concrete forms. Furniture factories use it for frames. Everyone uses it somewhere.

Particleboard is catching up fast

Exports jumped 35% in 2024 to 840,000 cubic meters. Why? Furniture manufacturing is moving to Southeast Asia, and particleboard is cheap, flat, and easy to cut. Fiberboard held steady too—about 3.8 million cubic meters, up 25%.

Construction plywood deserves its own mention. About 2 million cubic meters leave China every year for job sites in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. These places are building fast, and they need affordable formwork that holds up.

Flooring isn’t just wood anymore

The building material market has basically divided in half. Half the buyers want WPC, SPC, PVC—plastic stuff that looks like wood but won’t warp when it gets wet. China ships 4.7 million cubic meters of this, worth $5.1 billion. Growth is slowing (only 3% this year), but it still makes money. American and European buyers love that they can install it themselves and it doesn’t rot.

Real wood flooring isn’t dead though

Laminate still sells the most—830,000 cubic meters, mostly to the US, Canada, and Australia. Solid wood is for niche markets now. Only 74,000 cubic meters, but Japan and Korea pay top dollar for it. Bamboo is doing fine too. China moved 83,000 cubic meters last year, up 13%. Malaysia’s been ordering more.

Furniture had a crazy year

Wood furniture exports hit 459 million pieces in 2024—up 22% from the year before. Most of it (253 million pieces) got dumped into the “other furniture” bucket. Chairs and stools were another 113 million. Bedroom sets, office desks, and kitchen cabinets made up everything else.

The US took nearly 30% of the total. UK, Japan, France, and Germany came next. Wood doors are now an $807 million business, shipped to 197 countries. Cabinets and trim pieces are both up more than 10% too.

WPC is everywhere now

Walk the Canton Fair floor and you’ll see it in every other booth. Decking. Wall panels. Fencing. Buyers from Europe and North America are snapping it up. The numbers: 585,000 tons of decking, 450,000 tons of cladding, 280,000 tons of fencing and railings.

So why do they want it?

Looks like wood, lasts like plastic. No rotting, no splinters, no staining every summer. And when buyers ask how long it’ll hold up, Chinese suppliers have an answer—15, 20, 25-year warranties. The surface finish has improved too. Stand a few feet back and you can’t tell it’s not real wood.

Hang around any booth long enough and you’ll hear the same questions. FSC certification? Consistent quality? Price? Lead time? Nail all four and you’re getting the orders.

The US still dominates, especially for flooring and furniture. Europe cares more about paperwork—FSC labels, eco-credentials. WPC and certified solid wood do well there. Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa? They’re the ones actually growing. They need cheap plywood and formwork for construction happening right now.

Look at three years of Canton Fair building material products’ data and the pattern is obvious. Plywood isn’t disappearing—it’s cheap and it works. WPC keeps stealing share from traditional wood because nobody wants to maintain decking anymore and everyone wants green credentials. Furniture snapped back hard after COVID.For suppliers: get certified, figure out WPC if you haven’t already, and pay attention to developing markets. They’re building fast and they need cheap building materials.