Canada's British Columbia reports record-high lumber exports to China

Canada's British Columbia said Friday that the value of the province's softwood lumber exports to China has set a new record.

By the end of October, the value of total softwood lumber exports to China reached 1.17 billion Canadian dollars (1.105 billion U.S. dollars), according to the provincial Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

The figure exceeds the previous record set in 2011, when softwood lumber exports to China totaled 1.1 billion Canadian dollars (1.03 billion U.S. dollars).

The province's October shipments of lumber to China also set a new record for monthly volume of 865,000 cubic meters and value of 145.5 million Canadian dollars (137.4 million U.S. dollars), it said.

The news came less than two weeks after British Columbia Premier Christy Clark returned from a visit to China, in which she tried to promote the trade between the province and the world's second largest economy.

"I'm especially thrilled that we've again hit a record high in China - it's a further evidence that all our hard work in that market is paying off," said British Columbia Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson, who led a trade mission of over 25 senior forestry executives to China in October.

According to the ministry, British Columbia's softwood lumber exports to China grew 1,500 percent to almost 1.1 billion Canadian dollars (1.03 billion U.S. dollars) between 2003 and 2011, and held steady in 2012.