In recent years, the scale of export of wooden furniture in Beijing has continued to expand, and the annual export volume has basically stabilized at about 400 million yuan. Export destinations include more than 60 countries and regions such as the United States and the European Union. However, with the increasingly fierce competition in the international furniture market, the slowdown of the domestic economic growth, and the successive development of a series of policies and regulations to suppress the import of wooden furniture, the overall prosperity of the wooden furniture industry is relatively low. Small and medium-sized furniture companies sometimes The failure has caused a certain impact on the overall healthy development of the furniture production industry.
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At present, the operating costs of furniture production and processing companies are rising, the prices of wood raw materials in the international market are rising rapidly, and the salary levels of front-line employees of enterprises are constantly increasing, which makes companies face huge cost pressures. In addition, the continuous appreciation of the renminbi has further compressed the profit margins of enterprises. Coupled with strict foreign access standards, high tariffs and vicious competition from domestic peer companies, the export value of furniture manufacturers has continued to decline. To help enterprises better cope with foreign technical trade barriers, the Beijing Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has investigated some furniture export enterprises in its jurisdiction and conducted detailed research and analysis on the risks of various technical trade measures it faces.
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First of all, Russia imposes restrictive tariffs on log exports, which has led to a surge in production costs. In recent years, Russia has increased its export tariffs on logs twice: from July 2007, the tariffs have increased from 4 euros per cubic meter to 10 euros, and from April 1, 2008, to 15 euros per cubic meter. Although affected by the deepening of the global financial crisis and economic crisis, the Russian government suspended the plan to increase the tariff plan to 50 euros per cubic meter from January 1, 2009, but it still does not rule out the possibility of Russia strengthening its log export restrictions. Since 70% of China's imported logs come from this country, once the strengthening policy is implemented, domestic furniture manufacturers will face pressure to increase costs significantly.
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Secondly, the promulgation of the "Formaldehyde Standard Act on Composite Wood Products" in the United States has caused a great negative impact on China's composite wood product export enterprises. In July 2010, US President Barack Obama signed the "Formaldehyde Standards Act for Composite Wood Products", which came into effect on January 3, 2011. The "Formaldehyde Standards Act for Composite Wood Products" stipulates the formaldehyde emission limit requirements for particleboard, MDF, hardwood plywood and other wood products sold and wholesale throughout the United States, and is known by industry insiders as "the most stringent" formaldehyde emission standards in the world. Taking MDF as an example, China's current national standards are formulated with reference to the EU's limit standards. The highest formaldehyde emission must not exceed 8mg / 100g or 80ppm, while the MDF formaldehyde emission required by the new US law must not exceed 0.11ppm, several hundred times higher than in China.
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The implementation of this standard makes it necessary for exporting furniture companies to order raw materials separately for products exported to the United States. Because sheet metal companies have a minimum order requirement, they will face huge stock pressure. At the same time, the testing costs of enterprises will also increase, and the difficulty of supply chain control will be further increased. The "Formaldehyde Standards Act for Composite Wood Products" of the United States on the surface looks at particleboard, MDF, hardwood plywood and other raw materials, but in the actual inspection process, because the inspection object is damaged finished furniture, if the manufacturer uses Unqualified auxiliary materials such as paint, glue, plastic, and packaging materials may also lead to unqualified test results. For enterprises, not only to ensure the quality of their own products, but also to spend a lot of energy to test the products of upstream enterprises, the operation is difficult, and various expenses will increase.
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Although the "Formaldehyde Standard Act on Composite Wood Products" is now in effect, the Act has not been fully implemented in the actual export process. At present, most raw materials for furniture companies exporting to the United States are still stocked according to the original standards, and the export of wooden furniture has not been significantly affected. If the United States "finds the bill" for the release of formaldehyde from wood products, China's export companies will face huge claims, and business operations will be more difficult and even destroyed.
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Finally, the European Union's "Country of Origin" Act and the US "Lacey Act" amendments have come into effect will further affect the furniture companies to expand the international market. The EU's "Law of Origin Country" came into effect on March 3, 2013. The law requires that wood products exported to the EU market must obtain an “identity cardâ€, which proves that the wood purchased by the production enterprise is produced in a legally developed forest. At present, it appears that the "Country of Origin Country" has little impact on large enterprises that are operating norms and can successfully pass the "FSC certification" (forest certification), but it has a significant impact on small and medium-sized wood product export companies. Most of the logs and timber products purchased by domestic small and medium-sized wood products companies come from Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. These countries have more or less certain illegal logging problems, and it is more difficult to obtain forest certification. If so-called logs with “identity cards†are purchased from European and American countries, most small and medium-sized enterprises will lose their price advantage and find it difficult to gain a foothold in the market. At the same time, the complicated certification process of "FSC certification", the high certification cost and the certification cycle that needs to be certified once a year have also overwhelmed many SMEs.
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Small and medium-sized export enterprises that cannot obtain FSC certification can only abandon the EU market and resell to other regions. It is particularly worth noting that, as long as someone reports, the EU has the right to investigate the legality of all sources of furniture wood in the enterprise, and even penalize. In order to compete for the market, some companies may report maliciously to legally operating companies, subjecting them to lengthy investigations and seriously affecting their production and operations.
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On April 1, 2010, the U.S. Lacey Act extended coverage to all wooden furniture products. It requires all wooden products to issue a “legal†certificate of origin of wood when they enter the United States. If the company is prosecuted or investigated for the use of suspicious wood, both the exporter and the buyer will face the risk of the goods being confiscated, fined, or even imprisoned. The Amendment of the Lacey Act is worthy of attention by domestic enterprises. There are three main points: First, prohibit the trade of plants and forest products illegally derived from US states or other countries, such as furniture, paper, and sawn timber; second, require importers to report the composition The species name (Latin name), country of origin, import value and import quantity of the timber imported from its forest products; third, the establishment of a punishment system for violating the Act.
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The amendment of the Lacey Act has a huge impact on China's furniture export enterprises. First, it makes it more difficult to export related products. Obtaining information on the source of wood raw materials is very complicated and requires high costs. This will lead to a surge in transaction costs. Some weaker SMEs will lose the international market share they have obtained and may even be eliminated; secondly, companies face severe penalties. risk. Most domestic enterprises have a low level of understanding of the Act. In addition, the legal proceedings in different US states are different and there is no unified standard. The law enforcement unknown to enterprises during the export process is very unknown.
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In the face of severe forms, the inspection and quarantine department should follow up on the implementation of the amendments to the "Formaldehyde Standard Act on Composite Wood Products", "Law of Country of Origin", and "Lacey Act", and conduct in-depth research and analysis of the relevant US new laws. Content, and pay close attention to the follow-up measures that other countries may take to promptly alert companies to risks. In addition, the promotion of foreign technical trade barriers should be further strengthened, and the supervision of key nodes such as raw materials, production processes, and finished product quality of enterprises should be strengthened. The raw and auxiliary materials that require safety, health, health, and environmental protection The toxic and hazardous substances that may appear in the system are subject to strict testing, and the limit is checked from the source to reduce the company's future operational risks. Enterprises themselves should actively respond, strive to improve production technology and testing levels in accordance with the requirements of the new regulations, continuously improve competitiveness, and gain a place in the fierce international market competition. (Editor: Peter)
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