In early spring in Rizhao, the sea is blue, the sky is clear, and the tide is calm and broad. At Lanshan Port Area of Rizhao Port in Shandong Port Group, five cargo ships fully loaded with imported timber berthed and operated at the same time, while officers from Rizhao Customs under Qingdao Customs simultaneously carried out surface quarantine inspections on the timber.

Such busy and orderly scenes have become normal at Rizhao Port. As an important hub port for jointly building the Belt and Road, Rizhao Port has built a convenient channel for imported timber business with its gateway advantage connecting domestic and overseas markets. In 2025, Rizhao Port imported more than 10 million cubic meters of logs, accounting for about one-third of the national total, and continued to maintain steady growth.

The continuous import of timber has driven Rizhao to form an industrial chain of overseas import, storage and fumigation, land or inland river logistics, and park processing. The traffic brought by the port is gradually settling into industrial increment, upgrading Rizhao from an important gateway for log imports into fertile industrial ground for deep timber processing. At present, the local timber industry's annual processing output value has reached 15 billion yuan, directly driving employment for more than 20,000 people.

At local timber processing enterprises, every piece of wood is given a unique mission: large pieces are used to make furniture, small pieces become children's toys, and even offcuts can be made into wooden nails for fixing parts.

While division of labor is clear, processing depth and product added value are also continuously improving. When ordinary wood is integrated with creative ideas, it becomes a product popular with customers. Among cultural and creative products and toys, cute lucky cats carry good meanings, miniature excavators are in short supply, and children's toys such as rocking horse chairs are exquisitely shaped and especially eye-catching. Solid wood furniture such as tables, chairs, bookshelves, and standing coat racks made mainly from black walnut has a simple style and excellent quality, and has also gained a place in the mid- to high-end furniture market.

During industrial upgrading, many primary timber processing enterprises have proactively transformed, promoting the timber industrial chain to extend toward downstream deep processing and value-added products. Products cover multiple fields such as outdoor garden and ancient building materials, furniture, and home decoration materials. At the same time, enterprises actively align with larger and stronger partners and have established deep cooperation with well-known domestic and overseas brands such as IKEA of Sweden, Unique Furniture of Denmark, and YESWOOD.

Facing the growing business volume at the port, Rizhao Customs continues to strengthen customs-port collaboration, grasps enterprise import plans and vessel dynamics in advance, implements service measures such as appointment-based clearance, priority inspection, and rapid testing, and optimizes the two-step declaration clearance model for imported timber quarantine. This achieves seamless connection between port operations and customs inspections, effectively ensures smooth customs clearance of imported logs at the port, and greatly improves port operating efficiency.

Relying on technological means such as the Jianmu intelligent identification system, combined with facilitation measures such as two-step declaration and appointment inspection, Rizhao Port saves enterprises a large amount of time, attracts domestic and overseas timber merchants to gather here, and also drives the development of timber processing industrial clusters in surrounding areas such as Linyi, Weifang, and Lianyungang, said a relevant person in charge of the First Inspection Section of the Lanshan Port Office of Rizhao Customs. In 2025, Rizhao Port imported 35 types of logs from 30 countries and regions including New Zealand and Canada.

Rizhao's exploration in the timber industry is still deepening. Taking Beikuo Town in Lanshan District, where timber processing enterprises are concentrated, as an example, the local area is working toward the goal of building a national green and intelligent timber industry innovation cluster. It is implementing projects to strengthen and supplement chains, empower innovation, promote digital transformation, and expand brands overseas, driving industrial upgrading, improving deep processing levels, cultivating high-quality enterprises, and striving to build a domestically leading green intelligent manufacturing demonstration base for the timber industry. Data shows that in 2025, Rizhao Customs supervised exports of furniture and parts worth 967 million yuan, up 3.4. percent year on year.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed building a modern industrial system and consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy. Rizhao Customs will thoroughly implement the spirit of the plenary session, base itself on the port gateway location advantage and solid foundation of timber industry development, adhere to the development direction of intelligence, greenness, and integration, take proactive action and precise measures, and promote the deep transformation of the timber industry from transit circulation to rooted value creation. It will fulfill its responsibilities in extending industrial chains, enhancing product value chains, and improving industrial ecosystems, helping achieve mutual progress in industrial quality and efficiency improvement and people's livelihood enhancement, and injecting continuous momentum into high-quality local economic development.

Source: China Port Times