China and Vietnam opened two temporary corridors crossing the border on Sunday to facilitate travel, trade and people-to-people exchanges.
The two corridors connect Babu Township and Yangwan Township in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province respectively with two locations in Vietnam's An Minh and Quan Ba counties.
"It's quite convenient and fast. Once we obtain our border resident certificates, we can just cross the border with them, and the customs clearance takes just a few minutes," said Zhou Jinchang, a villager in Yangwan Township.
"In terms of trade, it will bring income to businesses. For example, daily necessities, agricultural tools are all allowed to trade," said Xiang Minghe, another Yangwan resident.
In the first half of the year, Wenshan registered 386,000 entry and exit trips, up 385.4 percent year on year.
This growth is driven by surging trips of not only Chinese and Vietnamese residents and tourists, but also travelers from other countries, owing to China's expanding visa-free policies and thriving economic activities in the border areas.
China, Vietnam open two temporary cross-border corridors to facilitate trips, trade
With the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, log futures were listed on the Dalian Commodity Exchange at 09:00 on Monday. As of this morning's close, the main log futures contract (2507) recorded a trading volume of 67,059 lots and an open interest of 12,627 lots.
Log options will begin trading on Tuesday.
Three contracts for log futures were listed on Monday, all with a benchmark price of 810 yuan (about 111.86 U.S. dollars) per cubic meter. From the morning trading session, the market operated smoothly and met expectations.
Logs are cylindrical sections of trees formed after felling and cross-cutting. They can be categorized into two main types based on the tree species: softwood logs and hardwood logs.
The log futures listed on Monday focus on softwood logs, primarily used for construction lumber, building templates, engineered wood processing, and furniture manufacturing. In recent years, log prices have experienced significant fluctuations.
"The listing of log futures helps expand business strategies and enables companies to mitigate market risks. By leveraging market-driven mechanisms to allocate resources across the industry, it enhances industry scalability and promotes transformation and upgrading," said Liu Yuguang, director of Commodity Department of Dalian Commodity Exchange.
China is currently the world's largest importer of softwood logs. In 2022, the apparent consumption of softwood logs in China reached 54.78 million cubic meters, of which 31.16 million cubic meters were imported, accounting for 56.9 percent of the total. The main imported softwood species include radiata pine, spruce, and fir, with major source countries being New Zealand, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
China launches log futures, options at Dalian Commodity Exchange
