Plywood bodies to cut exports to Japan

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)