KUCHING: Japan’s wooden furniture imports in July 2023 fell from the previous month due to the weakening of the yen against the US dollar, the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report said.
“Year on year, there was a considerable fall in the value of imports, if set against the yen exchange rate which has fallen from around 130yen a year ago to 147yen to the US dollar in September (2023), signals a significant downturn in wooden furniture imports,” it added.
In July 2023, the value of Japan’s wooden office furniture (HS940330) imports plunged 47 per cent from June and down over 40 per cent compared to July 2022. July shipments of wooden office furniture from China were worth about RM24.4 million and accounted for 75 per cent of all shipments of wooden office furniture valued at RM29.9 million, down from the 84 per cent share in the previous month.
Of the other 18 July shippers, Romania and the UK were in the top five suppliers.
There appears to have been a diversification of sources of wooden office furniture in July with several new shippers being identified in the import statistics. Indonesia, Finland and Poland stand out as accounting for around three per cent each of July arrivals. Malaysia is an insignificant supplier of wooden office furniture to Japan.
On kitchen furniture (HS 940340), Japan spent about RM41.6 million on imports in July 2023. The Philippines and Vietnam continued to dominate Japan’s imports for July and supplied RM20.2 million (48 per cent) and RM13.85 million (33 per cent) worth of the products respectively for the month.
However, the value of shipments by these two top suppliers was lower than the previous month, and therefore drove down the total value of arrivals of wooden furniture despite the rise in the value of imports from China, Malaysia and Indonesia. In July, China, Malaysia and Indonesia respectively supplied RM2.6 million, RM406,656 and RM715,240 worth of the products to Japan.
“Year on year, the value of wooden kitchen furniture imports dropped 28 per cent and month on month, there was a 12 per cent decline.
The value of Japan’s imports of wooden kitchen furniture was falling for four consecutive months up to July,” said ITTO report.
On wooden bedroom furniture (HS 940350), Japan’s imports for the month was valued at RM72.96 million.
But the import value has been on a steady reduction since April 2023. In July this year, there was an 18 per cent decline in the value of wooden bedroom furniture imports, and month on month, the decline was in the order of 12 per cent.
China and Vietnam are the largest suppliers of wooden bedroom furniture to Japan and they shipped RM40.6 million and RM24.2 million worth of products respectively, together accounting for around 90 per cent of Japan’s imports of this category of wooden furniture for the month.
“The decline in the value of imports from these two main shippers disguises the advances made in market share by some other shippers, such as Malaysia and some EU member states.”
Malaysia’s exports to Japan were valued at RM5.21 million in July. Malaysia is the third largest supplier of wooden furniture parts (HS 940391) to Japan in July 2023, accounting for 11 per cent (RM6.63 million) of Japan’s total imports for the month worth RM61.8 million.
Top suppliers China and Indonesia’s shipments to Japan were valued at RM27.3 million and RM13.1 million respectively.
According to the ITTO report, year on year, the value of Japan’s imports of wooden furniture parts dropped 14 per cent and it was a decline of four per cent from June 2023 imports.
“The top suppliers in July were, as in previous months, China (44 per cent), Indonesia (21 per cent), Malaysia (11 per cent) and Vietnam (7 per cent). “For the past four months, the value of wooden furniture parts imports has been within a narrow range and the decline in the overall value of imports has been felt by all the main shippers,” added the report.
