Nichimen to import RI logs

Nichimen to import RI logs

OSAKA (Nikkei): Nichimen Corp. will resume importing logs from Indonesia, company sources said Friday, according to The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Saturday morning edition.

The transaction will be the first Japanese trading firm to do so in 13 years, the newspaper said.

In compliance with International Monetary Fund demands for economic liberalization, Jakarta has cut its export duty on raw lumber to 30 percent and allowed local firms to export. The duty will be further reduced in stages, to 10 percent by 2000, the newspaper reported.

Nichimen expects to import 12,000 cu. meters of logs in October and November. The f.o.b. price of 60cm circumference logs will be $115-120 per cu. meter; smaller logs will average $90-95, according to the newspaper.

Indonesia once supplied 50-60 percent of Japan's imports of logs from Southeast Asia, but banned exports of raw lumber in 1985. In 1992, Jakarta lifted the export ban but imposed an export duty of several hundred percent.