B.C. and feds sign lumber understanding with China, as province looks

British Columbia’s Forests Ministry has entered into a memorandum of understanding with China on modern wood construction, a development that the province hopes will bolster the provincial lumber sector as it seeks alternatives to the U.S. market.

The five-year, non-binding agreement with the Chinese government also involves the Canadian federal Department of Natural Resources and is among the first reached with Beijing after the arrival of Prime Minister Mark Carney in China this week.

On the other side is China’s housing and development ministry, with the memo agreeing to co-operation on the integration of modern wood construction into China’s urban renewal and rural revitalization strategies and exploring “practical approaches” for green developments.

University of British Columbia political ecologist and China scholar Juliet Lu said the MOU is “relatively low-hanging fruit” in Carney’s attempt to rebuild trade momentum with Beijing, compared to dealing with Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles or China’s levies on Canada’s canola.

Nonetheless, Lu said the potential for B.C. processed lumber to enter the Chinese market on a larger scale is positive, given China has traditionally relied on carbon-intensive concrete-and-steel construction for its large-scale highrise projects.

The MOU says a goal is to strengthen development of an “industrial chain” for wood construction, calling for exchanges and joint research on modern wood construction involving tall wood buildings and mass timber projects.

“(Chinese construction) is shifting away from mass production into moments when demand for different types of building structures is growing,” Lu said. “Past years of work on opening regulations to wood-frame construction have allowed for that.

“Plus, we have this new technologies of engineered wood that allow for building bigger buildings, like what we see in China, with wood construction. So, I think there is great possibility (for opportunity).”

She noted that previous MOUs had been signed between B.C. and China on wood-frame construction in 2010 and 2015, but Chinese building regulations had since opened up to allow for larger wood buildings in Beijing, Shanghai and the southern city of Haikou.

Lu also noted that a shift toward value-added products such as engineered wood and mass timber would provide an added boost to the provincial economy.

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