According to the statistics from the Academy of Industry Development and Planning under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and the China Forestry Products Industry Association (CFPIA), both the number of enterprises and production capacity of China’s plywood industry declined slightly in 2022.

There were more than 10,800 plywood manufacturing enterprises (down 14% year on year) at the end of 2022 with a production capacity of 208 million cubic metres per year, down 6.3% over 2021.

Shandong Province was the largest in terms of plywood production capacity and enterprise numbers in 2022. There were 3,550 mills with a capacity of 56 million cubic metres.

The production capacity for polyurethane adhesives, beanbased protein adhesives, lignin adhesives, starch-based adhesives, thermoplastic resin adhesive film and other formaldehyde-free plywood products increased.

The first continuous flat pressed formaldehyde-free plywood production line was operational in June 2022 marking a new stage of continuous plywood production in China.

Five plywood manufacturers in China had horizontal multilayer presses with automatic loading and unloading by the end of 2022.

By the end of 2022, there were more than 350 plywood manufacturers in China with an annual production capacity of more than 100,000 cubic metres including nearly 150 large manufacturers and enterprise groups with a combined production capacity of some 27 million cubic metres per year and accounting for 13% of the total production capacity.

Seven of these mills have an annual production capacity of more than 500,000 cubic metres.

At the beginning of 2023 around 2,000 plywood production plants were under construction nationwide with a total production capacity of about 26 million cubic metres per year. 25 provinces and autonomous regions had plywood production enterprises under construction except Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region. It is expected that the total production capacity of plywood in China will be close to 210 million cubic metres per year by the end of 2023.