A New Market for Hemlock?

Asia-Pacific: B.C. hemlock may break into Chinese market by pairing with bamboo

by Chuck Chiang

A researcher with B.C. ties is looking to open more doors for Canadian western hemlock in China’s construction sector by introducing a hybrid laminate material that combines the timber with bamboo. Brad Jianhe Wang, a UBC graduate who now heads Sino-Canada Low-Carbon in Ningbo, China, said his group is looking at the potential of a hemlock-bamboo CLT (cross-laminate timber) as a building material. The project, which has funding from both Canada and China, is in addition to existing efforts by the company to bring CLT made solely from B.C. hemlock to the Chinese market, Wang said. “We have built the first CLT pilot plant in China and made the first batch of Western hemlock CLT,” he said. “We have also built two CLT demonstration buildings in Ningbo using the hemlock CLT.”

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