Plywood bodies to cut exports to Japan

JAKARTA (JP): Four plywood producer associations from Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan have agreed to reduce plywood supplies to Japan to a maximum of 7.2 million cubic meters a year to support the declining price of the commodity.

The agreement was clinched on Monday by the Indonesian Wood Panel Association (Apkindo), the Malaysian Plywood Industry Association (MPMA), the Japanese Plywood Association (JPMA) and the Japanese Lumber Importers' Association (JLIA), according to Antara.

Apkindo chairman Abbas Adhar said that under the agreement, Indonesia would cap its plywood exports to Japan at about 2.5 million cubic meters a year, Malaysia at 1.35 million cubic meters, while Japanese producers would limit their domestic supply at 3 million cubic meters.

The remaining 0.35 million cubic meters supply was expected to be filled by producers from other countries, he added.

The agreement was very important given the fact that Japan was the main market for Indonesian and Malaysian plywood, Abbas said.

Abbas, as well as representatives of the other associations, refused to provide figures of plywood supplies to Japan in the previous year.

"In 2000, it was more than 7.2 million cubic meters," JLIA's representative Norio Sakuma said, following the sixth meeting of the working committee formed by the four associations.

Sakuma said that the move would raise plywood prices from the current low of US$250 per cubic meter.

Sakuma said that his association would also ask its non-member Japanese importers to limit their imports, adding that currently, about 50 percent of Japanese plywood importers were not yet members of JLIA.

Apkindo said Indonesia's plywood production reached about 10 million cubic meters a year, while Malaysia, according to MPMA chairman Dato Sheikh Othman Rahman, produced about 3.4 million cubic meters per year.

According to Sakuma, Japan produced about 3.2 million cubic meters annually. (05)