Large shipments of Chinese plywood are due to arrive in the UK, prompting warnings to panel traders to check exactly what they are dealing with.

Buyers have turned to China in the face of potential plywood shortages and price increases from Indonesia and Malaysia but there are concerns that some are ignorant about exactly what they are purchasing.

With the shipments due in the next eight to 10 weeks, the code of conduct committee of the National Panel Products Division (NPPD) of The Timber Trade Federation (TTF) has met to start drafting information for members.

TTF product manager Nick Boulton said: “There are a lot of different grades and glue lines around and people need to know what they are buying.”

A fax from an anonymous source has also been circulated in the trade. Entitled ‘Chinese plywood versus Far Eastern plywood’ it exhorts buyers to “check, check, check” on the glue, species, construction, quality and tolerances of Chinese plywood.

&#8220There are a lot of different grades and glue lines around and people need to know what they are buying”

Nick Boulton, TTF product manager

The fax also warns that in the past there have been instances where Chinese plywood has been passed off as Far Eastern plywood and says that the trade, as part of its own conduct, should only describe Chinese plywood as such.

Commenting on the fax Mr Boulton said: “The information in the fax is on the whole true but I don’t think the Chinese situation is any different to that in Brazil or other supply countries when they first started exporting to the UK.

“However, I don’t think this is a particularly useful way of sending out a warning. A better way would be through the NPPD.”