Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CEO Issue
    • Diversity
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2022 winners
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
January 04, 2010 01:00 AM

China's wood-plastic industry makes gains

Steve Toloken
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    China's wood-plastic composites companies hope that rising exports to Europe and a developing internal market will help offset slumping demand from North America, previously their mainstay market.

    For the time being, that's what seems to be happening. Despite a lack of hard data, industry leaders at a recent conference said demand from new regional markets has kept business solid for many of China's biggest composite profile extruders.

    “A lot of WPC [wood-plastic composite] plants, they have a really good export business and are not much impacted by the financial crisis,” said Toland Lam, president of the Wood Plastic Composites Committee of the Beijing-based China Plastics Processing Industry Association. “Most of them have more orders than they can produce, and a lot of them have to add capacity.”

    His Huizhou-based firm, Meixin Manufacturing Co. Ltd., has upped annual output this year to 39.7 million pounds, five times what it was two years ago, Lam said at the China Third International Forum of Wood Plastic Composites, held Nov. 19-20 in Shenzhen.

    Meixin's sales to North America have suffered, but European demand is picking up dramatically. Also, sales to customers in China are growing and now account for about 20 percent of Meixin's production, he said.

    Europeans, who were slower to take up wood-plastic composites products than North Americans, have started to buy more, said Lam, Meixin's chairman. Europe lacks enough of its own domestic plants to fill those orders, he said.

    “Even in the financial crisis, we have more orders than we can handle,” said Lam, who claimed that situation is also true for other large industry players in China.

    Wayne Song, president of QC Future Plastics Machinery Co. Ltd. in Baoji, said the Chinese industry is seeing wood-plastic composite demand rise worldwide. Mainland China, in particular, represents many potential, untapped markets, he said.

    “I would say it's the maturing acceptance of WPC around the world,” said Song, who also is president of Futuresoft Technologies Inc (USA) in Milburn, N.J. “Before, it was just the United States and Canada that accepted it, but now it's the Europeans and the Middle Eastern countries.”

    But Song, who sits on CPPIA's wood composites committee, also said the financial crisis has created space in North America for Chinese-made products, which are “still relatively cheaper.”

    In China, getting solid industry facts to back up assertions can be tough. But the committee estimates 60 percent of Chinese wood-plastic product exports are now bound for Europe — a switch from the a few years ago when most of them went to North America.

    China's wood-plastic composite production has roughly doubled in the past two years, to about 330 million pounds, and it remains very export-dependent, the committe said. At least 70 percent of the wood-plastic composite products made in China are exported, though that has fallen from about 80 percent a year ago as demand in China rises, according to committee statistics.

    The fast expansion in recent years also has left the industry with significant excess capacity. The committee estimates total capacity in China of about 1.1 billion pounds, suggesting capacity utilization is at only 30 percent.

    That has left some firms struggling for work, even as others are adding capacity to meet new demand, Song said. Still others get into the market just on the anticipation of future growth, he said. “In China, if people see opportunity, everybody jumps.”

    Song said many firms' profit margins remain low and companies, like his, that do a large piece of business with the U.S. could be hurt if the yuan continues to rise in value against the dollar.

    Lam and others said the wood-plastic composite investment is following the typical Chinese industrial pattern of massive growth leading to massive excess capacity — as now is the case in solar power equipment. Demand eventually catches up, they said.

    “This is a temporary overcapacity,” said Ji Jian Ren, a Meixin engineer. “The domestic requirement for WPC is increasing rapidly.”

    China's growing wood composite industry is much smaller than in the U.S., which has about five times China's annual production.

    But China has very strong domestic potential, Song said. He said his firm and several others have developed wood-plastic composite/aluminum frame windows for the local market, and are targeting interior applications.

    China's window and door market is growing 11 percent a year, he said. The country's window, door and wall panel market is the largest in the world, about four times that of Europe, he claimed.

    Copyright 2010 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Hillenbrand cites recycling as 'strategic growth' area with Herbold acquisition
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    IRS provides guidance for how excise taxes will impact resin pricing
    2
    California passes strictest plastics law in US, with EPR and recycling targets
    3
    Industry veterans plan nationwide network of PET recycling plants
    4
    Newell closing Coleman plastics plant in Texas
    5
    PS prices jump in June, more increases on horizon
    SIGN UP FOR TO RECEIVE THESE EMAILS AND ENEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Diversity
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2022 winners
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
        • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified