UCHING: Sarawak will reduce its plywood production by 20% to 25% in the next two months due to a drop in demand from Japan.
The Sarawak Timber Association (STA), which announced the reduction yesterday, said this was a temporary measure to help stabilise the market.
The plywood market has weakened substantially since early this year because of a new housing law in Japan.
The Japanese Government has imposed more stringent approval procedures for housing with the approval time taking three months instead of two weeks, STAs panel products chairman Stephen Lau told a press conference.
As a result, he said, demand for plywood had dropped tremendously in Japan.
Japan is the biggest importer of Sarawak’s plywood. Last year the state exported 3.4 million cubic metres of plywood worth RM4.9bil, with two million cubic metres valued at RM3bil going to Japan.
Lau said that Indonesia, another major supplier to Japan, had also announced a reduction of production of 20% last month and 50% this month.
source:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi … sec=nation
i think it’s a good move to prevent cutting more trees and increasing the global temperature…they better starts planting trees from now on before its too late hehehe