In March 2022, affected by short-term factors such as the spread of the COVID-19 in many places and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the pressure of China's economic supply shock, rising costs, shrinking demand and weakening expectations increased, and the overall economic growth rate slowed down. This month, China's PMI index registered 49.5%, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the previous month, operating in the shrink range (below 50%), indicating that the macro economy has slowed down. This month, the development of timber production and manufacturing industry also showed a declining trend. The new orders of most enterprises were less than that of last month, and the export orders decreased significantly. The GGSC-CN comprehensive index for March registered 44.6% ( 71.9% for last March and 70.7% for March 2020), a decrease of 8.3 percentage points from the previous month, and was below the critical value of 50%. It shows that the operation of the superior forest products enterprises represented by GGSC-CN index shrink from last month. See Figure 1 for more details.

Figure 1 GGSC-CN index trend from April 2021 to March 2022

Challenges

ØCOVID-19 has repeatedly appeared, the trans provincial transportation is inconvenient, and the transportation cost is high.

Products in short supply

None.

Commodity of which the price has been increased

Methanol, melamine, paraffin, waterproof agent and other chemical raw materials.

Commodity of which the price has been decreased

Miscellaneous firewood, Eucalyptus firewood, pine firewood,melamine, urea.

As for the GGSC-CN  index, in March 2022, two sub-indexes of GGSC-CN increase , three decrease.

The production index registered 50.0%, a decrease of 3.9 percentage points from the previous month. It shows that the production of superior forest products enterprises represented by GGSC CN is almost same as that of last month.

The new order index registered 33.3%, a decrease of 24.4 percentage points from the previous month, reflecting the ability of enterprises to obtain orders is worse than last month.Among them, the new export order index reflecting international trade registered 25.0%, a decrease of 21.2 percentage points from the previous month, showing that orders from abroad this month is decreased from last month.

The main raw material inventory index registered 58.3%, an increase of 16.0 percentage points  from the previous month. It shows that the raw material inventory of the superior forest products enterprises is more than that of last month.

The employment index registered 50.0%, an increase of 3.9 percentage points  from the previous month. It shows that the employment of the superior forest products enterprises is almost same as that of last month.

The supplier delivery time index was 41.7%, a decrease of 16.0 percentage points from the previous month. It indicates that the supply time of raw material suppliers of the superior forest product enterprises is much more slowly than last month.