1999 Tropical Timber Imports to Japan by Region

1. Logs

Imports of tropical hardwood logs in 1999 totalled 3.4 million m3, increasing 6.6% compared to 1998 imports, which were 39% less than 1997 imports.

This was the first increase in 10 years, but only a minor increase, due to bankruptcies by Japanese plywood manufacturers and a transition to use of tropical veneer or conifer logs rather than tropical hardwood logs as a raw material for plywood production.

Housing starts also increased slightly (1.4% increase in total number, and 5.5% increase in total floor space compared to 1998)

By region, log imports increased 92.4% from Indonesia, which ended its ban on log exports in an agreement with the IMF in 1998, and imports from Sabah, Malaysia also increased 55.1%. Log imports from Sarawak increased only 1.9%, partly due to a reduction of the export quota from 45% to 40% of total production since July of 1999.

2. Plywood

Plywood imports increased dramatically (+24% compared to 1998) to 4.8 million m3. Imports of Malaysian plywood reached an all-time peak of 1.6 million m3 due partly to instable supplies of Indonesian plywood. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that plywood imports from China, which overtook Japan to become the world's number one importer of tropical hardwood logs in 1998, increased to 3 times the 1998 level.

Meanwhile, plywood manufactured in Japan is shifting towards use of conifer wood. Conifer plywood and composite plywood (with alternating layers of tropical and conifer veneer) together accounted for 41.5% of total production of ordinary plywood, increasing 5.0 points from 1998. The increase in conifer plywood was particularly high, whereas composite plywood production declined. Siberian larch accounted for 71%, and radiata pine from New Zealand and Chile accounted for 20% of the conifer wood used as a raw material for plywood.

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