A boom in logging exports could mean wide-scale job losses for the New Zealand timber industry. Sources: NewstalkZB New Zealand radio, Fairfax NZ News, Stuff NZ, Scoop News NZ
The New Zealand Timber Industry Federation says high export demand for raw logs in China is creating a shortage of logs for processing in New Zealand.
The timber federation’s director Kevin Hing said that since 2008 New Zealand log exports have increased by 240%.
He said if a sawmill cannot get an adequate supply of logs there is no work for the timber processors, which could strangle the local industry.
“What’s happening is the unprocessed logs are being exported, and we believe that a lot of those logs … could be processed on shore here.”
So many logs are being exported to China that sawmills are finding it hard to meet the construction companies’ needs.
Demand from China for New Zealand logs is so strong that Kiwi millers are finding it difficult to match the price and are missing out on supply.
Many of Hing’s members were concerned to see logging trucks going past their gates to the ports “when they can’t get any logs themselves”.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the cause of the demise of the sawmills that have closed over the last five or six years, but it is an issue,” he said.
Labour leader David Cunliffe and other Labour MPs plan to meet Northland forestry representatives today to discuss the issue.
Labour forestry spokesman Shane Jones said it was “madness that in a country with large pine forests there is a shortage of logs”.
“Sawmillers have orders to fill but simply can’t do it as twice the number of logs processed here are sent overseas,” he said.
“Those logs are exported to China to be processed cheaply and often imported back to New Zealand for the Christchurch rebuild.
“That is completely idiotic, especially when New Zealand sawmillers mostly pay the same price as overseas buyers.”
Jones said there had been more than 3000 job losses in the New Zealand wood-processing sector since 2008.
“New Zealand sawmillers should be given priority for the Christchurch rebuild. That’s what Labour will do,” he said.
Hing said he did not blame local forest owners for taking advantage of strong export prices, especially as the harvest increased.
“We would never say all logs have to be processed onshore,” he said. “We know that’s not a viable proposal and we are also not into regulating exports either.
“But what we would like to see is some commitment from log owners to the local processing industry.”
The New Zealand Government needs to provide leadership in the forestry sector so that more value is added to our exports and more jobs are created for New Zealanders, Green Party forestry spokesperson Steffan Browning said.
The New Zealand Timber Industry Federation warned that “New Zealand sawmillers are being strangled by continuing log shortages” because raw logs are being sent overseas, rather than processed here.
“The National Government has failed to create value and jobs in the forestry industry,” Browning said.
“In the four years from 2008 to 2012, 3600 jobs were lost in the wood processing and manufacturing sector.
“Record amounts of wood are being harvested but the increased production is being sent overseas as raw logs without value being added here.
“We need government leadership in forestry to make the investments, in conjunction with iwi and other interests, that will see more of our wood processed and manufactured here in New Zealand before it is exported. That will create well-paying, sustainable jobs.
“We also need to ensure that exporters of raw logs are paying its full environmental and social costs including urgent methyl bromide recapture for log fumigations.
“When those costs are borne by raw log exporters, the balance will tip more in favour of processing and manufacturing wood products here, rather than sending unprocessed logs overseas,” he said.
