Japan Wood Products
Prices
Dollar Exchange Rates of
11th August 2011
Japan Yen 76.84
Reports From Japan
Plywood market situation in the first week of August
In the 3 prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) most
affected by the earthquake and tsunami plywood demand
is being driven by emergency repair work and the plywood
business is booming. In addition to plywood, there is
increased demand for flooring and external wall materials.
In the Tokyo metropolitan area and throughout the Kanto
area sales of wood products goods are slow. Retailers are
busy selling off products which they hurriedly bought after
the earthquake and they are hesitant about making new
purchases. In the area to the west of Nagoya, says the
Japan Lumber Journal (JLJ), plywood sales are more
sluggish than in eastern Japan.
Some of manufacturers affected by the disaster resumed
their production and sales of softwood plywood but say
that it will take a long time for them to return to preearthquake
production levels, however factories are
recovering steadily.
Manufacturers that were not damaged by the earthquake
continue to maintain their higher levels of production. The
JLJ says that the supply of domestic plywood may
temporarily exceed demand in the short-term.
Currently, stocks of 12 mm and 3x6 products are high and
prices remain weak. As a result of the significant slowing
in the number of contracts concluded, the arrival of
imported plywood is expected to decline after August.
Two-story wooden public building for Ibaraki
Construction of a two-story wooden public building will
start soon in Ibaraki Prefecture and this will be the first
wooden public building in the Kanto region since the
coming into force of the “Law for Promotion of the Use of
Wood in Public Buildings”. The total floor space of this
two-story building is 689 square metres.
The JLJ reports that Japanese laminated larch lumber will
be used in the construction and the building will employ
quake-resistant wall structures such as bolt-and-driftpin
joints etc.
To express the “flexibility” and the “warmth” of wood, a
lot of timber will be used inside the building. In the office
and the meeting room high ceilings and open spaces are
secured with the exposed beams and a ceiling of Japanese
linden plywood.
In designing the building, architects thought it important to
maintain the functions and performance of public
buildings, which are usually built with reinforced concrete,
and keep costs at almost the same as those buildings in
order to promote wooden buildings.
Investigation of tsunami damage to wooden buildings
The Japan Housing and Wood Technology Center held
explanatory meetings on the results of damage to wooden
buildings caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami.
The tsunami caused most of the damage as buildings were
swept away leaving only the foundations and this was the
case even with buildings built after 2000 when building
regulations were tightened. Some low-rise reinforced
concrete buildings withstood the tsunami but the exterior
walls were severely damaged.
Low-rise wooden buildings built with large lumber
sections stood up best but most of the exterior walls were
washed away.
To assess the power of the tsunami the research team
chose a sawmill office and another office building to
estimate the relationship of “the building bearing force”
and “the wave power of tsunami”.
The two-storied sawmill office building, ( 9.6m, x 11m x
20m) was inundation to a height of 4m. The wave power
of the tsunami against the entire wall was estimated at 108
kilonewtons. However, the power against the structural
frames only, on the assumption that the frames were left
after the exterior and interior walls were washed away,
was estimated to be one-sixth of the original force.
The bearing force of this building was estimated at 207
kilonewtons, which is higher than the estimated force of
the tsunami wave power.
The research team concluded that if the exterior and
interior walls are first destroyed the wave power tends to
fall so even a building of relatively low bearing force may
be able to escape collapse.
The second building was a two-storied building built with
large sectional laminated wood frame structure having
diagonal braces. It was partly a reinforced concrete
structure with a height of 11m, a width of 13m and a depth
of about 40m. This building was hit by a tsunami wave of
a height of 8metres.
The wave power of the tsunami on the entire walls is
presumed to be 635 kilonewtons. The bearing force of the
building was estimated at 324 kilonewtons.
Though the impact on the building was almost twice as
strong as its bearing force of the building, its frames
remained. This was attributed to the fact that the wave
power of the tsunami was reduced to one fourth after the
exterior and interior walls of the building were destroyed.
2010 timber supply and demand summary
The JLJ has reported the recently released statistics on the
timber supply-and-demand in 2010. According to the
report, total demand (log equivalent) in the year was
70,253,000 cubic metres (up 11% from the previous year),
the first increase in four years.
The demand breaks down into 25,379,000 cubic metres
log equivalent for sawnwood (up 7.9%); 9,556,000 cubic
metres log equivalent for plywood (up 17.1%) and
32,350,000 cubic metres log equivalent for pulp and chips
(up 11.5%).
On the supply side the volume of domestic production
increased to 18,236,000 cubic metres (up 3.7%). This was
after a decline in 2009 and declines every year over the
previous seven years.
The volume of imported sawnwood in 2010 according to
the released data was 52,018,000 cubic metres (up 14.0%).
Due to the increased imports Japan’s lumber selfsufficiency
ratio dropped 1.8 points from the previous year
to 26%.
Recycling wood debris from the disaster area
The JLJ is reporting that the Japan Wood-Recycle
Association (mainly wood chip companies) and the Japan
Fiberboard and Particleboard Manufacturers Association
have submitted a proposal to the Japanese government on
the utilisation of wood debris, caused by the Great East
Japan Earthquake.
It is estimated that around 65% of the debris in the tsunami
hit areas is wood and the association is proposing to use
this to replace around one third of the raw material
currently used in production of woodbased panels.
One of the major challenges is transportation as there are
only two companies close to the disaster area. The
question is how to cost effectively transport wood debris
to factories in other areas such as Hokkaido, Akita,
Yamagata, and areas located to the west of Fukushima.
Another challenge is how to cope with wood debris that
has been soaked in sea water.
The association is reviewing the possibility of using wood
debris as materials for particleboard that is produced in a
dry process. When Hokkaido suffered damage from a
typhoon 3 years ago wood waste and logs soaked in
seawater were used as materials for the production of
particleboard.
Export Promotion Council promoting post and beam
construction for Chinese market
The Japan Wood-Products Export Promotion Council
recently held its general meeting and announced that the
council has been consulting on the standards revision
committee of the “Wood Structure Design Standards” in
China in order to satisfy customers in China that Japaneseproduced
cedar, cypress, and larch lumber meets the
Chinese standards.
The council is also proposing the possibility of
establishing the use of the Japanese wooden post and beam
construction method in China, and the JLJ is reporting that
a positive response has been received from China.
The council also announced details of lumber exports for
2010. Total export value in 2010 amounted to Yen 10.2
billion. Exports to Korea fell close to 65% which resulted
in a slight decrease of 2.3% in the value of exports
compared to the previous year.
However, the largest importer of timber from Japan was
China with imports growing by 5.5% to Yen 2.562 billion.
Exports to Taiwan P.o.C also increased significantly,
rising 73%.
Of the exports to China, log exports rose by 183.0% to the
previous year and lumber exports rose almost 40%. Of the
exports to Taiwan P.o.C, log exports increased by over
470%.
June statistics show continuing increase in plywood imports
Plywood imports in June grew to 384,000 cubic metres
(up 38% from the same month last year), though the
increase is smaller than 63% increase recorded in May.
The JLJ says imports will remain high in expectation of
strong domestic demand when reconstruction in the
disaster hit areas moves into full swing.
However, plywood production by Japanese mills is getting
back to normal so the rate of procurement of imported
plywood has eased. The JLJ is saying that it seems that
plywood imports have passed their peak.
Japan’s domestic production of regular plywood was
199,000 cubic metres in June (excluding prefectures of
Iwate and Miyagi due to the disaster). According to the
Japan Plywood Manufacturers Association, total
production including in Iwate and Miyagi is estimated to
be 220,000 cubic metres (down 8.3%). Domestic
inventories at the end of the June were estimated at
153,000 cubic metres, a slight increase over the previous
month.
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