KUCHING: Japan has slowed down the imports of plywood to 124,969 cubic metres (cu m) in October 2023, down by about 11 per cent from the month earlier. The correction in import volume was recorded after two months of expansion, according to International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (December 1-15, 2023). Compared to October 2022, Japan’s plywood imports in October 2023 was off by nine per cent.
“Despite the October dip in imports, in the 10 months to October 2023, plywood imports rose almost 50 per cent from the same period in 2022.
“The volume of imports from the two top suppliers — Indonesia and Malaysia — were up over 50 per cent in the first 10 months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Imports from China rose over 80 per cent in 2023 from a year earlier.
“However, the volume of plywood shipped to Japan from Vietnam in the first 10 months of 2023 was little changed from a year earlier,” added the report. Meanwhile, according to Japan Lumber Report (JLR), although South Asian exporters have announced the price hike for South Sea (tropical) plywood, no contracts have been signed yet with the Japanese importers.
“Inventory of South Sea plywood in Japan is decreasing but there are not many orders for South Sea plywood from Japan,” stated JLR, its bi-monthly trade journal of which is reproduced in ITTO Tropical Timber Market report. On domestic lumber and logs, JLR said the price has recovered due to the short supply of logs.
“The price of cedar logs for posts and cypress logs for sills have skyrocketed in the middle of September and the prices are still high because there have been less logs.
“The log markets were held in October and November but there were not a lot of logs as usual and the log prices were very high. “In the beginning of November, the price of 3m cedar logs was around 17,000yen delivered per cu m, and it is 3,000yen more than the previous month.
The highest price was 18,000yen,delivered per cu m,” added JLR. On Japan’s imports of various categories of assembled wooden flooring in October, the ITTO report said HS441875 was the largest, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the country’s total value of assembled flooring imports. The main shippers of HS441875 assembled flooring for the month were China, the European Union, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The value of Japan’s October imports of assembled flooring (HS441871-79) fell by four per cent as compared to the value of September arrivals. Year-on-year, the value of October assembled flooring imports was down about 16 per cent. In the first 10 months of 2023, Japan’s imports of HS441871-79 assembled flooring was about 15 per cent below the same period in 2022.
