Wood Market Report From Japan

¡¾2002.05.08¡¿

Dantani Corporation, the building materials manufacturer listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, filed for voluntary bankruptcy on April 19th. Total liabilities totalled yen 34.5 billion yen for the group.

Dantani was a pioneer in the plywood industry in Japan. It was the first company to build an overseas plywood mill, the first in Singapore and had provided technical know-how to the Indonesia plywood sector. The company was once one of the largest tropical log importers when the tropical hardwood plywood business was booming.

Plywood Market Bottoming Out

The market for imported concrete formboard and sheathing plywood is rebounding with inventories starting to fall after a long time because of higher import costs and depressed domestic market prices. Now importers have little choice but to place orders despite higher export prices because domestic production is very.

Export prices for Indonesian 12 mm JAS concrete formboard are firm at about US$265 per cubic metre C&F with some bullish offers of US$275. Long sheathing prices are up US$5 from March at about US$245.

Domestic prices for imported 12 mm concrete formboard yen 770-780 per sheet delivered. Yen 10 higher than last week and some importers are asking yen 800. Long sheathing is also up by yen 10 at yen 670-680 with indications of firming prices as supply tightens.

The domestic plywood market had been dormant up until mid April, particularly as softwood plywood prices were weak. It was at this point that suppliers started to cut back on production. Seihoku, for example, is now proposing higher prices on the orders after April 20. New prices are yen 680 on 12 mm softwood structural panel prices, yen 30 up and yen 800 on 12 mm concrete formboard, yen 20 up.

Because of tighter inventories and price increases some speculative demand among dealers is seen as they try to secure low cost items before the prices are raised.

Current prices of domestic softwood 12 mm structural CD grade are yen 630-650, yen 30-40 lower than March but new orders are now yen 670-680 so the downward trend is easing. DD grade is yen 670-680. Domestic concrete formboard prices are yen 770-780, yen 20-30 lower than March.

Indonesia's Log Export Ban

Indonesian embassy officials in Japan have indicated that Indonesia is likely to continue its ban on log exports as it tries to stop illegal logging activities. Indonesia announced the recent log export ban in October last year saying it was a temporary measure for six month. The embassy officials say now that there is no set term for this ban and it will continue until the protection of the forest can be ensured. Log imports to Japan from Indonesia Japan were 59,000 cubic metres in 1999, 36,000 in 2000 and 164,000 cubic metres in 2001.

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