Japan continues to reign as the largest destination for B.C. exports but China is responsible for most recent growth of B.C. exports to Asia.
B.C. exports to China grew 325% between 1999 and 2009. That compares with shrinking B.C. exports to Hong Kong (-20%) and Japan (-22.5%) during the same time frame, according to BC Stats.
Back in 1999, a comparatively small $582 million worth of B.C. products were sent to the world’s most populous nation. That grew to $2.48 billion in 2009. Japan continues to be the top Asian destination for B.C. products given that it imported $3.46 billion worth of those exports in 2009.
But, while the percentage of total B.C. exports that go to China has quintupled from 2% in 1999 to 9.9% in 2009, Japan has seen its share of B.C. exports dwindle from 15.4% of total exports in 1999 to 13.8% in 2009.
Pulp and paper products remain the biggest category of B.C. exports destined for China but energy and wood product exports are the fastest growing export categories.
Almost one-third (32.9%) of B.C.’s exports to China were pulp, newsprint, paper, paperboard and other products in the broad pulp and paper category in 2009. Back in 2000, those products held a dominant 60.6% share of the total value of all B.C. exports to China.
B.C. energy exports to China have come from nowhere to be almost one quarter (23.1%) of all of the province’s exports. These exports include natural gas, coal, electricity and other energy sources.
B.C. didn’t export any energy to China until 2003 when it shipped $37 million worth of coal to China. Rapid growth has since followed year after year.
Wood products, such as lumber, cedar shakes and shingles, plywood, veneer and logs have been another real driver for B.C. export growth to China in the past decade. That category’s exports have grown 595% from $15 million in 2000 to $362 million in 2009.
Japan, in contrast, has more than halved the amount of wood products that it imports from B.C.
In 2000, Japan imported $2.13 billion worth of B.C. wood products. That shrunk to $763 million in 2009. Energy exports to Japan have risen, however – jumping 147% to $1.41 billion.
Taiwan and South Korea have been other notable growth markets for B.C. exports.
B.C. exports to South Korea more than doubled, – growing $125% from $737 million in 1999 to $1.662 billion in 2009.
B.C. exports to Taiwan have not kept pace with that incredible trajectory but still jumped a respectable 31.5% between 1999, when $352 million worth of B.C. exports were shipped to the island nation, and 2009, when $463 million in goods made the voyage.