Malaysia's timber exports likely to jump
By OOI TEE CHING
November 22 2005
MALAYSIA’S timber exports are likely to climb another 5 to 10 per cent from 2004 and exceed RM21 billion in value, thanks to buoyant plywood and log prices.
In 2004, data from the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) showed that the timber industry achieved a remarkable performance of RM19.78 billion in export receipts, which was a 21.3 per cent jump from RM16.3 billion in 2003.
The sector recorded a good performance in 2000 with exports worth RM17.7 billion. Its performance, however, shrunk by 21.5 per cent to RM13.9 billion in 2001 before increasing 10 per cent to RM15.3 billion in 2002.
“This year, we expect our timber exports to perform very well,” Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said.
“We think it can exceed RM21 billion. Plywood and log prices are still holding up from last year and so far, from January to June exports amounted to RM15.92 billion,” he told Business Times after launching the MTIB’s ‘e-services’ portal in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The Malaysian timber players can submit their applications for export approval electronically, thus speeding up procedure to 30 minutes from a day previously.
The RM1.5 million online and real-time application portal, which is only accessible to registered members, was planned two years ago.
Chin also presented excellence and loyalty awards to MTIB staff, some of whom had been working for the agency for more than 30 years.
As the world sympathises with the Katrina, Rita and Wilma hurricane victims of southern shores of the US and earthquake victims in Pakistan, timber producing countries stand to gain from their rebuilding efforts being undertaken there.
“We should see the demand picking up in the last quarter when countries that had recently suffered from natural calamities like the US and Pakistan assess the amount of plywood, mouldings and joineries that they need to buy to rebuild homes.”
The minister also indicated that Malaysia’s timber exports to Thailand increased in the first half of this year, after the disaster struck in December 2004.
“Demand went up because tsunami victims had to buy plywood to reconstruct their homes and properties,” he said.
Source: Business Times
