The forest products industry is slowly recovering from the global economic crisis, with the Asia-Pacific region and particularly China taking the lead, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said yesterday.

"Global production of the main forest products grew by 1 to 4 per cent in 2011 compared to 2010," a statement said. "Countries are slowly coming out of recession."

Production of wood-based panels and paper in 2011 was above the pre-crisis levels of 2007 and "appears to be growing relatively strong in most regions," it added.

On the other hand, global production of industrial roundwood has not yet reached pre-crisis levels despite a year-on-year increase of 3 per cent in 2011.

In markets for pulp and paper, overall growth was "very modest" between 2007 and 2011, with growth of about one per cent a year, the UN agency said.

"However, this conceals major differences at the regional level, where pulp and paper production and consumption is increasing significantly in the Asia-Pacific region, but generally declining in Europe and North America."

The FAO noted that China had overtaken Canada to become the world's second largest producer of sawnwood after the United States.

"China has also increased its lead over all other countries as a producer of wood-based panels, paper and paperboard," it said. "In 2011, China produced 11 per cent of the world's sawnwood, 38 per cent of its panels and 26 per cent of its paper.

China is also playing a key role in international trade in forest products, being the largest importer of industrial roundwood, sawnwood, pulp and wastepaper and the largest exporter of wood-based panels.

"China is the fifth largest importer of paper and paperboard, despite a huge increase in domestic production since 2007. In 2011, China's imports of all forest products amounted to US$43 billion and account now for 16 per cent of the global total."

The FAO said a "high proportion" of Russian industrial roundwood exports previously went to China.

"However, the amount fell from 2007 to 2009 due to log export restrictions in Russia.

"Nevertheless, Chinese imports of industrial roundwood have recovered and some other major producing countries, including the United States of America, Canada and New Zealand, have expanded exports to China."