Wood-processing industries face log supply shortage<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Wood-processing industries will face a log
\nsupply shortage of at least 14.5 million cubic meters per year
\nover the next five years due to forest fires, a forestry official
\nsaid yesterday.<\/p>\n
Director General of Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto said
\nthe fires, which mainly affected log producers in Kalimantan and
\nSumatra last year and over the past few months, would
\nsignificantly decrease the country's log production.<\/p>\n
Titus said the local wood-processing industries would need
\nabout 40.7 million cubic meters per year while the supply of logs
\nwould only reach 26.17 million cubic meters.<\/p>\n
\"Log supplies are only sufficient to fulfill about 65 percent
\nof the wood-processing industries' production capacity,\" he said
\nduring a speech at a seminar on improving the management of the
\nplywood industry.<\/p>\n
Titus said the national demand for logs would be about 40.70
\nmillion cubic meters in the 1998\/1999 fiscal year, consisting of
\n26.57 million cubic meters for the sawmill industry and 14.12
\nmillion cubic meters for the plywood industry.<\/p>\n
The amount excludes local demand from the pulp industry.<\/p>\n
He said demand in the 1998\/1999 fiscal year, which began
\ntoday, would come from 1,700 sawmill companies with an annual
\nproduction capacity of 13.28 million cubic meters and 103 plywood
\ncompanies with an annual production capacity of 7.06 million
\ncubic meters.<\/p>\n
Titus said the supply of logs in the Sixth Five-Year
\nDevelopment Plan would reach 30 million cubic meters per year.<\/p>\n
He said many forest concessionaires would reduce their annual
\ntimber cutting plan over the next five years due to the recent
\nforest fires which have destroyed their trees and a decline in
\ndemand for wood and wood-related products in the world market
\nsince the middle of last year, he said.<\/p>\n
The reduction in the timber plan is also due to the ministry's
\ncommitment to reduce the logging of the country's natural
\nforests.<\/p>\n
In the past five years, about 30 percent of Indonesia's supply
\nof logs has come from the country's natural forests. The
\nremainder has come from timber estates and clearing forests for
\nplantations and the government's resettlement programs.<\/p>\n
Titus said that to anticipate the decline in log production
\nfrom natural forests, the ministry has encouraged the development
\nof industrial timber estates.<\/p>\n
He said more than two million hectares of timber estates have
\nbeen developed since 1993. (gis)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wood-processing-industries-face-log-supply-shortage-1447893297",
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