Yep, China is buying up stocks of everything, and balsa is still one of the best insulators for LNG carriers. Not sure if it is still used on crude tankers, but shipping eats a ton. I suppose Hanno Graupner was very wise in the sixties when he bought a Costa Rican balsa plantation just to support his model kit production.

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Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."