Xiamen Port's import of wood chips exceeds 10 million tons

On February 28th, a Panamanian "First Angel" wooden chip transport ship successfully docked at the Zhangzhou Zhaoyin Port Terminal in Xiamen Port. 38000 tons of imported wooden chips were cleared and put into operation under the supervision of Zhangzhou Customs, which is under the jurisdiction of Xiamen Customs. This marks that since the first shipment of wood chips was imported in June 2023, Xiamen Customs has cumulatively supervised the import of wood chips from Xiamen Port, exceeding 10 million tons and reaching 10.027 million tons.

In recent years, the development momentum of Fujian paper industry has been strong, and the industrial chain has become increasingly perfect, showing a thriving and upward trend. In the context of this industry, a number of key project constructions are also being vigorously promoted, becoming a new engine for promoting regional industrial upgrading. Among them, the Fujian Forest Pulp Paper Integration Project located in the Chihu Industrial Park in Zhangzhou is a vivid epitome of this prosperous scene.

As the largest integrated forestry, pulp, and paper industry base in Fujian, this project will be fully put into operation in October 2025. It will use imported wood chips and local branch materials as the main raw materials, integrating the three links of "afforestation, pulp making, and papermaking". While ensuring the supply of production materials and saving production costs, it will also inject strong momentum into the high-quality development of the regional economy by promoting a green circular model. At present, the construction project has built supporting production lines with an annual output of 2 million tons of white cardboard, 400000 tons of cultural paper, 200000 tons of household paper, and 1.2 million tons of chemical pulp, covering a wide range of fields such as white cardboard and cultural paper.

Entering the production workshop of Liansheng Pulp and Paper (Zhangzhou) Co., Ltd., the automated production line is operating at full capacity, and the trend of resuming work and production after the holiday is sweeping across the face. Wood chips are the core raw material for producing paper products, with uniform fiber structure, stable physical and chemical properties, high paper strength, and delicate texture, suitable for producing a full range of products such as household paper. With the full production of the forestry pulp paper integration project, our annual demand for imported wood chips continues to increase, "said Lai Shuyi, Customs Manager of Liansheng Pulp and Paper (Zhangzhou) Co., Ltd.

Previously, the company relied heavily on domestic procurement or imports of wood chips from other ports, with a long logistics chain and multiple intermediate links, often facing challenges to supply stability. The efficient service of customs is a solid support for our stable production. Currently, our products have been exported to multiple countries and regions such as Malaysia, Argentina, and Chile. Since the beginning of this year, we have exported a total of 37000 tons of finished paper, a year-on-year increase of 126%. Among them, we exported 31000 tons of white cardboard, a year-on-year increase of 93%

Ensuring the biosecurity of our country's borders is of paramount importance in our supervision. We adhere to a dual approach of 'strict prevention' and 'guidance'. On the one hand, we strengthen the prevention and control of foreign harmful organisms and material identification to build a strong biosecurity barrier for our country's borders. On the other hand, we actively carry out FSC certification traceability research to guide enterprises to expand into countries with lower quarantine risks and FSC certification qualifications for raw material imports. ”With our help, the source countries for wood chip imports at Xiamen Port have expanded from Vietnam to five countries and regions including Thailand, Australia, Cambodia, and Chile, ensuring stable and diversified supply of paper product raw materials, "said Wu Yunru, the head of the Inspection Department of Zhangzhou Customs stationed at the China Merchants Bank Office

In response to the characteristics of large bulk volume and strong timeliness of wood chips, the customs actively optimizes the customs clearance supervision plan, conducts boarding inspections immediately after the ship docks, and promotes immediate inspection and unloading, 7 × 24 hour appointment inspection on the premise of ensuring quarantine safety, achieving synchronous unloading and inspection, compressing port detention time, and speeding up and increasing efficiency of the entire customs clearance process.