The Trump administration’s tumultuous relationship with China is proving to be a major issue for some companies in Alaska’s forest products industry. That includes in Haines, where a timber sale that was supposed to kick off this spring has stalled amid China’s ban on U.S. log imports.
China announced the ban in March, citing concerns over pests like bark and longhorn beetles in U.S. shipments. The move came the same day that China imposed retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S. agricultural products amid President Donald Trump’s global trade war.
The decision has had sweeping effects on companies that harvest logs in Alaska and ship them overseas.
“We're severely impacted by it. There's no doubt about that,” said Eric Nichols of Alcan Timber, a Ketchikan-based company. Nichols also serves as vice president of the Alaska Forest Association, a Southeast nonprofit.
Nichols said about half of his company’s volume typically would go to China. As a result of the halt on imports, he said, the company has had to shut down at least one of its operations and make a range of other changes.
Those include shipping to other markets, including Washington, South Korea and Vancouver, British Columbia. Alcan has also shifted its focus away from harvesting areas that are best suited for the Chinese market.
Those changes have come at a steep cost.
“We're at pretty big losses on going to other markets, just because of the transportation differential from what we're used to,” Nichols said.
In Haines, meanwhile, Oregon-based company NWFP Inc. had been planning to move forward with a sale in May that’s been under contract since 2021. The so-called Baby Brown sale would be the area’s first major timber sale since the 1970’s.
But the company could not move forward with the sale this spring due to the loss of the Chinese market, Haines State Forester Greg Palmieri said in an email. He added that the company is seeking other markets for the sale, both within the U.S. and overseas.
“I expect that as soon as they have the ability to market the timber, operations will move forward with the sale currently remaining under contract,” Palmieri wrote Tuesday afternoon. “They are continuing the processes to obtain the required permits from State and Federal agencies to move the logs to markets as originally planned.”
The trade disputes have also hit Canadian lumber company Transpac Group. The company in March largely shut down its site on Afognak Island, just north of Kodiak, citing the ban and failed efforts to divert its product to other markets.
“We’ve been trying very hard since the announcement,” Transpac CEO Charles Kim said in an interview at the time. “And it has all failed.”
A spokesperson confirmed this week that the situation hasn’t shifted in the time since.
Nichols, of Alcan, says his company will have to weigh similar decisions if nothing changes.
“We have to make decisions, you know, a little bit like Afognak, whether we're going to stay in business or not,” Nichols said. “The question is how long can we hold these logs before we have to sell them and generate the losses they’re going to generate here.”
