As per the BIS Quality Control Order (QCO) the BIS certification and ISI mark will be mandatory on MDF, Particle Board and Block Board with effect from 10 February, 2025 and for Plywood, Shuttering Plywood and other panel category based materials is going to be mandatory from 28 February, 2025.
Due to the order the challenges have begun and its impacts are visible on the import orders of panels. The new orders of Wood based Panel products are going to affect many countries and they are requesting to dispatch their materials as soon as possible to many countries considering their travel time.
Birch ply is imported from Russia which is very popular in the Indian market. As per report, the new orders to Russia have stopped by the importers in November month. The importers say that the travel time from Russia to India is nearly 60 to 90 days, so they are unable to place new orders to Russia in December.
The Birch plywood from Russia is very popular among Indian consumers and a number of traders are importing it as they get good response from the market. It is to be noted that India is a good market for plywood consumption. Its calibrated feature is very useful when it comes to overlaying new polishes in machines or processing it with the help of modern furniture making machines. It is estimated that the import share is approximately 10% of the total MDF market in India which majorly comes from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia. As per the report from the importers, their last orders will go in December month of MDF and Particle Board. They would place their last order before 20 December 2024 because the travel time for goods from these countries to India is nearly 25 to 30 days. In hard conditions it may increase to 45 days, so importers are not going to take any risk. One of the industry leaders in MDF had said that the domestic product market would recover, and people will understand the advantages of Indian brands because of the services, product profiles, and various offerings, as well as the belongingness and care, even taking care of the product before selling it to the end users.
The QCO implementation deadline for plywood is 28 February 2025 so there is a talk among the plywood importers going on and all are in hurry because they keep pressure on Vietnam based companies to supply as quickly and there new orders are supposed to till January 2025. The importers are requesting their overseas vendors to dispatch their orders before 15 January, 2025 so that they can receive their ordered materials on time.
Experts say that post QCO the imports of core veneers will increase and veneering at the port area will increase to support the domestic manufacturers.