KL seeks RI's help to support plywood price

KL seeks RI's help to support plywood price

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's top resources official
yesterday looked at Indonesia for help in stabilizing the price
of plywood following a sharp fall in revenue from the commodity.

"As the world's largest exporters of plywood and tropical
timber products, Indonesia and Malaysia should step up
cooperation in marketing to prevent ourselves from being dictated
(upon) and divided by the buyers," Primary Industries Minister
Lim Keng Yaik said.

Lim, addressing a forestry meeting between the two nations at
northern Malaysia's Langkawi Island, said plywood importers in
the region were benefiting from drastic price falls in the
commodity at the expense of exporters.

"Gone are the days during a good part of last year when prices
for plywood made significant gains much to the benefit of our
exporters and national economies," Lim said in a speech made
available to AFP in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesian forestry minister Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
represented Jakarta at the meeting.

Plywood exporters here had claimed in August that their
Indonesian counterparts were responsible for the poor price
fetched by the commodity as they had unilaterally slashed prices
to undercut Malaysian markets.

Malaysian producers said prices of exported plywood to China
-- Kuala Lumpur's main plywood market -- fell by 27 percent in
July from a high of US$600 per cubic metre to $440 after a price
slash by the Indonesian Plywood Association.

Indonesian exporters also caused prices of plywood shipped to
the European Union -- another important Malaysian market -- to
fall by 16 percent in July, exporters here said.

Lim, who avoided commenting on the rift between exporters of
the two countries, said both Malaysia and Indonesia could resolve
the price problem by exchanging relevant information and
understanding markets and supply management.