China's logs, lumber and woodchips imports have been ascending rapidly and reached very high values. Between 2012 and 2017, the country's imports of logs (both softwood and hardwood) went up by 42%.  At the same time, hardwood chips imports increased by 59%, while the imports of lumber rose by 81%, during the mentioned period.  According to WoodWeek, over the past 15-20 years, the excessive and often very wasteful surge in construction activity in China was made possible by lax lending standards, including the rise of the “shadow banking” sector, corruption between banks and ...