In the landscape of the global wood processing industry, China's plywood manufacturing industry holds a pivotal position. As a type of man-made board widely used in construction, furniture, packaging and many other fields, the distribution of its production factories shows significant regional characteristics, and the production management also has unique features.
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In terms of factory distribution, China Plywood Factory are widely distributed in 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). The production capacity of plywood products in Guangxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei, Fujian, Henan, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places ranks among the top ten in the country. Among them, by the end of 2023, Guangxi had 1,430 plywood product manufacturers with a total production capacity of about 58.8 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 28.7% of the national total production capacity, ranking first in the country. As the largest plywood product production base in southern China, Guigang City has further increased its total production capacity to 24.1 million cubic meters per year, accounting for about 41.0% of the region, and Gangnan District has a production capacity of about 11.63 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 48.2% of the city. The vigorous development of Guangxi's plywood industry benefits from the local abundant fast-growing forest resources, which provide sufficient and stable raw material supply for plywood production.
Shandong follows closely, with 2,180 existing plywood product manufacturers and a total production capacity of about 53.7 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 26.2% of the national total production capacity. Although the number of enterprises in Linyi City has decreased significantly, its production capacity has slightly increased to 42.4 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 79.0% of the province, continuing to maintain its position as the largest plywood product production base in Shandong Province and even the whole country. Feixian County and Lanshan District have contributed 20.25 million cubic meters per year and 14.97 million cubic meters per year respectively, accounting for 47.8% and 35.3% of the city. Shandong's plywood industry relies on a mature industrial cluster, forming a complete industrial chain from raw material procurement, production and processing to product sales, with complete industrial supporting facilities and low logistics costs.
The number of plywood product manufacturers in Jiangsu Province reaches 1,270, with a total production capacity of about 29.4 million cubic meters per year, accounting for 14.3% of the national total production capacity, ranking third in the country. Xuzhou City and Suqian City have prominent production capacities, accounting for about 42.9% and 42.2% of the province respectively. Jiangsu, with its superior geographical location, is close to wood import ports, enabling convenient access to high-quality wood resources at home and abroad, thus providing strong support for plywood production.
In terms of production management, China Plywood Factory show diversified characteristics. In terms of production process management, most factories follow a standardized process from log preparation, peeling, veneer cutting, drying, adhesive preparation and coating, lamination, hot pressing, to edge trimming, polishing and finished product inspection. In the log preparation link, factories pay attention to the quality inspection of logs to ensure that their material, diameter, length, etc. meet the production requirements, so as to control product quality from the source. The peeling process directly affects the quality of veneers. Factories will regularly debug peeling equipment and timely replace worn blades to ensure uniform peeling. Veneer cutting and drying have a significant impact on the quality of plywood. During cutting, it is necessary to ensure that the veneers are of uniform thickness.
The selection of adhesives and coating technology are also crucial. Factories will carefully prepare adhesives according to different wood types, usage scenarios and environmental protection requirements, and at the same time adopt automatic gluing equipment to ensure that the thickness of the adhesive layer of each veneer is consistent, so as to improve the bonding strength and durability of plywood. In the lamination and hot pressing links, the operation process is strictly standardized, and the temperature, pressure and time of hot pressing are accurately controlled. A data acquisition system is introduced to monitor hot pressing parameters in real time to prevent problems such as interlayer degumming. Edge trimming and polishing determine the appearance and dimensional accuracy of products. Factories ensure product consistency by regularly maintaining and adjusting edge trimming equipment. Finished product inspection covers appearance inspection, mechanical performance testing and environmental protection index testing, and a sound sampling inspection and feedback mechanism is established to prevent inferior products from entering the market.
From the perspective of technology and equipment management, most small and medium-sized enterprises have a low level of equipment automation and still rely on a large number of manual operations, which to a certain extent limits production efficiency and the stability of product quality. However, some large enterprises and newly-built factories have begun to actively introduce advanced equipment and technologies. For example, a few plywood manufacturers are equipped with horizontal multi-layer presses with automatic loading and unloading devices, and even some enterprises are equipped with continuous flat pressing production lines for the production of formaldehyde-free plywood.
In terms of personnel management, since the plywood industry is a labor-intensive industry, there are a large number of employees. Factories pay attention to employee training, organize special training for different processes to improve employees' operational skills and safety awareness, and reduce equipment failures and product quality problems caused by improper operations. At the same time, some factories improve employees' work enthusiasm and stability by establishing incentive mechanisms.
Although China's plywood industry has made remarkable achievements in scale and output, it also faces many challenges.In the future, with the acceleration of industry integration, enterprises need to continuously improve production management levels, increase investment in technological innovation, optimize product structure, and develop in the direction of green, environmental protection and high-end, so as to enhance their competitiveness in the global plywood market.
