ARGENTINA – Central Puerto, Argentina’s largest electricity producer, acquired the forestry company Evasa (owned by a Harvard University investment fund), which manages three companies: Empresas Verdes Argentina, Las Misiones and Estancia Celina. All of them are geographically located in the center of the province of Corrientes.

ECUADOR – The value of Ecuador’s particleboard exports (PB/MDP) reached USD 52.70 million in the first quarter of 2023 (1Q-2023).

ITALY – The Salone del Mobile.Milano – 2023 ended with a total of 307.418 visitors. Compared with the previous year, this is an increase of 15 percent.

BELGIUM – The International Woodworking Fair (IWF) in Atlanta, North America’s oldest and largest global woodworking technology and design trade show and conference, has established a Cooperation Agreement with the European Federation of Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers (Eumabois).

CHINA – interzum guangzhou 2023, Asia’s largest and most important trade fair for woodworking machinery, furniture production and interior design, which took place in Guangzhou from 28 to 31 March, was a complete success.

GERMANY – Despite the challenging economic environment, the German furniture industry increased its national sales last year by almost seven percent to EUR 20.97 billion (companies with 20 and more employees). The key region of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the companies in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) in particular made a significant contribution to this development: furniture industry sales in NRW rose by around six percent to EUR 8.4 billion, for OWL there was an increase of 8.4 percent to EUR 6.4 billion.

CHINA – According to the Academy of Industry Development and Planning under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) and the China Forestry Products Industry Association (CFPIA) there were 295 particleboard manufacturing enterprises and 314 production lines at the end of 2022 with a production capacity of 41.48 million cubic metres, up 6% year on year.