One of the main reasons for this is the scarcity of local wood resources, said associate professor Guangping Han from Northeast Forestry University, in Harbin, China.
“As you know, we have a shortage of wood resources. We do have some in the north-eastern part of China, but most of the natural forests are reserves and we can’t cut them down. So, we had to think of alternative resources.
“Bamboo is one of the most important. We call bamboo the second forest resource in our country. This shows how important it is,” she said yesterday during a question-and-answer session on the first day of the Sarawak Grand Timber Expo & Conference 2013 which is being held concurrently with Sarawak SME Expo 2013.
Han said bamboo was widely used in China as a substitute for wood. China has 5.4 million ha of bamboo resources and has the biggest production base of bamboo products.
She told delegates that bamboo has high mechanical properties and is good for the production of composite panels and products such as plybamboo, LVL, reconstituted bamboo lumber, veneer, and charcoal.
Among its applications are for bamboo floors, furniture, and footpaths.
Han also briefly highlighted the growing use of agricultural residues such as straw in the production of wood composite panels.
She noted that China is in a unique situation where its economy is growing very fast, but resources are not able to keep up so they have to think out of the box to find solutions.
Earlier, Han delivered a presentation on “Market Potential and Outlook on Timber Products in China”.
She spoke about the rapid growth and development of China’s wood industry as well as the difficulties it faced in terms of technology, equipment and small production capacity.
She also pointed out that high value-added products were in urgent demand even though there were a variety of wood-based panels in the market.
