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.