Global production of all major wood products continued to show steady growth in 2013 for the fourth consecutive year, according to new data published and released by FAO on Wednesday. "The production of industrial round wood, sawn wood, wood pellets and wood-based panels has fully recovered from the economic downturn in 2008-2009. Global production of pulp and paper stagnated in 2012-13 largely due to a decline in consumption in China, where electronic publishing is increasingly being used instead of traditional printing processes," the report added.
Wood production in 2013 exceeded the pre-recession level of 2007 in all product groups, except for sawn wood. Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean and Northern America have seen the fastest recovery in wood production. Recovery in Europe slowed down in 2012 and has yet to recover especially in western and southern Europe where production and consumption fell in 2012-13 for some products such as industrial round wood and wood-based panels.
Wood pellet production soared to an all time high in 2013, mainly driven by bio-energy policies and consumption targets in Europe, according to FAO's latest data. Global production of wood pellets grew by 12 percent in 2013, reaching 22 million tones. Over half of this (13 million tons) was traded internationally. In China, production of paper and consumption of pulp and wastepaper - the two main products used to manufacture paper - declined slightly (by one percent) in 2013 for the first time after 38 years of uninterrupted growth. The downturn in the world's largest producer and consumer of paper was largely responsible for the stagnation in global pulp and paper production in 2013.
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