VANCOUVER - For the first time, B.C. companies are making more money from the wood they send to China than fromshipments heading south of the border.

May’s B.C. softwood lumber shipments to China, including Hong Kong, were valued at $122 million compared to $119 million in shipments to the U.S.

Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell said that while more wood — roughly 1.2 million cubic metres compared to 1.1 million — was sent to the U.S. in May, the Chinese exports were more expensive.

Bell said this puts to rest the criticism that Chinese buyers are only looking for cheaper wood.

“The Chinese are paying for high quality and they’re getting high quality,” Bell said.

“It’s such a wide variety of uses that it’s quite unlike the U.S. and makes it far more sustainable on that basis.”

Bell said most B.C. lumber sent to the U.S. is used in house construction, but in China it is used for apartment buildings, trusses, commercial buildings and furniture among other things.

From January to May this year, the province exported 2.8 million cubic metres of lumber to the world’s fastest growing economy, more than double the value and volume exported there during the same period last year.

The amount of wood is the equivalent of 76,000 standard shipping containers.

Shipments to all Asian countries in the first five months of 2011 were valued at $776 million compared to $464 million of lumber sent to the U.S.

These Asian exports represent almost half the total value of provincial lumber shipments so far this year, the ministry said.

“Who would have guessed just a couple years ago that the U.S. wouldn’t be the dominant market?” Bell said.

During the first five months of last year, Asian exports accounted for $464 million — a third of all lumber sales — while American exports were over half of all shipments at $851 million.

The minister credited the United Steelworkers union for reaching innovative agreements with the province’s forestry sector to get smaller sawmills back in operation to meet the new demand.

“There was no politics involved; it was just about making something happen,” Bell said.

“It really feels good to see people going back to work and sawdust coming off the end of those blades.”

mhager@postmedia.com

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