China bought about 4.97 million tonnes of wood pulp exported by Brazil in the first eight months of this year, becoming the biggest buyer of such exports in that period, the Chinapaper.net website reports.

China is on course to import this year more Brazilian wood pulp than the 7.59 million tonnes it imported last year, when it bought 48.7 per cent of the wood pulp exported by Brazil, according to a report posted on the website on Monday.

Brazil has become an important source of raw materials for papermaking in China, having shipped 5.7 million tonnes of cellulose to China in the first 10 months of this year, over twice the amount it shipped in all of 2012, the Chinapaper.net website says.