Last year, Vietnam exported more than 9.38 million tons of wood chips to the Chinese market.

Last year, China was Vietnam's largest woodchip export market.

By 2023, Vietnam exports wood chips to 13 markets. China, Japan and South Korea are the country's three main woodchip export markets.

In 2023, Vietnam exported more than 9.38 million tons of woodchips to the Chinese market, valued at more than US$1.43 billion, accounting for 65.1% of the export volume and 64.7% of the export value.

The average price of woodchip exports to the Chinese market declined from US$183-185 per ton at the beginning of last year to less than US$140 per ton in the middle of the year, followed by a small but stable increase in the following months. below $150 per ton.

In second place was the Japanese market. Woodchip prices fell by $36 per ton last year.

Specifically, woodchip exports to that market were $181 per ton in January last year, but fell to $145 per ton by December.

Woodchip exports to the South Korean market amounted to 548,590 tons, or $91.88 million, or 3.8 percent of the volume and 4.1 percent of the value of exports.

Similar to the Japanese and Chinese markets, export prices to the South Korean market declined by $27 per ton last year and fluctuated during the year.

The market averaged an export price of $200 per ton in January 2023, but prices continued to fall, bottoming out at $136 but rebounding to $172 in the final months of the year.

The Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (VTFPA) said that the demand for imported woodchips in the Chinese market will tend to continue to decline in the near future, leading to a drop in woodchip export prices in this market.

Overall, the structure of the woodchip export market will not change significantly in the near future.

However, the woodchip industry will continue to compete with the pellet industry for raw materials, especially in the northern provinces, as plantation timber is the main input for both industries in the region.

Therefore, companies and regulatory agencies need to consider investing in building sources of raw materials to ensure a stable supply for production and export.