Director's notes

Dear EBPA Members,

​As we prepare for 2014 we are working on keeping our activities current and beneficial for both EBPA members and the construction professionals who attend our seminars in Japan and China.

​We hope that you can join us for the US-China Build Sales Mission to Beijing, Tianjin, and Wuhan. We have selected two major cities with easy port access with a fast growing inland market. This will be our first trip to Wuhan and we expect a good turnout of wholesalers and developers. Since EBPA started the US-China Build Program in 2002, it has generated over $300 million in reported sales and helped a number of companies identify distributors.

In Japan, we are working to develop new partnerships with industry associations to help us connect out mission participants and members with a greater number of medium and large developers, builders, and wholesalers. We continue to poll members of the construction community about topics of interest to help keep our seminars current. The fall 2013 mission focused on remodeling or reform and we are exploring other topics such as zero energy buildings and quality control methods used in the here in the US.

While the association gives provides access to programs around the world through it's partnership with the Softwood Export Council, EBPA is also looking at ways to expand it's geographic reach. We are planning a sales mission for members to Australia at the beginning of November. If you are interested in participating, please email EBPA.

To help you stay up to date with doing business around the world, we are including a market report about doing business in India In the Quick Links section (left column). The December and January Japan Wood Information Center reports are also included in Quick Links. The JAWIC reports not only include import statistics about Japan's housing starts by ownership, type, and construction method, and information about competition from other international suppliers.

As we continue to strive to make our programs current with your marketing plans, we appreciate your feedback. if you have geographic areas of interest, or questions related to international trade, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
Rose Braden
​Director, EBPA