Bureaus Exclusive

New technology developed to produce floor board

By Chen Qide (China Daily Shanghai Bureau)
Updated: 2011-03-23 13:38

SHANGHAI -- Zhejiang Sunyard Timber Company announced on Wednesday (Mar 23) it has developed a new technology to produce floor board with poplar instead of imports of timber.

"Adoption of the new technology aims to reduce cutting down forests, making contributions to developing the low-carbon economy," said Sunyard President Ni Yuezhong at the DACF 2011 show which is being held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

China is a country short of forest resource, which has only per capita 9 cubic metres of forest reserve. Therefore, it has to import 80 per cent of timber it needs from Southeast Asia, America and Africa to produce floor board.

The world is pushing forward the low-carbon campaign by reducing cutting down forests, which has resulted in the decrease of imported timber and the price rise of floor board, said Ni.

Poplar is a tree growing faster than other trees, but it is soft, easy to be deformed and unsuitable to decoration. Sunyard spent more than one year overcoming these weak points, making it possible to process poplar into floor board.

"Using poplar as raw material is a way out to replace imports and protect forests from decreasing," he said, adding that China has 8 million hectares of poplar forests, providing an abundant resource for the floor board production.

According to Xu Yanrui, assistant to vice president of Sunyard, the company which is located in Nanxun Town, Zhejiang province is expected to produce more than 600,000 square metres of poplar floor board this year.

"The increase of output will depend on the market demand, for the company has an annual capacity of producing more than 2 million square metres of poplar floor board," she said.