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Japan Wood Market Market Reports

¡¾March.02, 2002¡¿

The products satisfy Japan's Fc0 grade by using low or non-formaldehyde adhesive and the prices will be set to be competitive with plywood. When at full production the plant will produce 30,000 cubic metres of fibreboard and 3,000 cubic metres of laminated flooring.

The total stock of bamboo the company can access is reported as over four billion stems spread over 26,700 square kilometres. This bamboo resource can be harvested on a three-year cycle.

Collaboration

Daishin plywood Co. and Niigata Gohan Shinko Co., both in Niigata, have agreed to collaborate in material procurement and distribution to reduce costs. There are few common items so competition will be minimal and each company expects to sell more through joint marketing. Both mills make tropical hardwood plywood.

Daishin's main products are thin and thick 4x8, custom cut baseboard and LVL. Niigata Gohan Shinko makes mainlythin, medium to thick standard 3x6 plywood.
They will jointly buy raw material such as resins and they plan to cooperate to bulk purchase Sarawak logs rather than buying small lots. This they say will reduce log ocean freight costs. The two companies also plan to exchange ideas on new products and technical improvements.

Sumisho & Mitsubishi Kenzai

A newly formed company, following a merger of the lumber materials department of Mitsui & Co. and Sumisho Building Materials Co., called Sumisho & Mitsuibussan Kenzai Company Ltd. started business on the 1st of February. Their total combined sales of 300 billion yen will put this company as the top among building materials trading firms.

Cambodia Bans Logging

The government of Cambodia has temporarily banned commercial timber harvesting as of January 1st to protect devastated forest resources. It will review its forest management to establish sustained yield forest management. There is no set date for lifting the ban and the ban will hardly affect buyers in Japan who buy only very small quantities of sawnwood from Cambodia.

Meranti Log Prices firming

Tropical log FOB prices continue to firm and the log market in Japan is reported as improving slightly with some users accepting slightly higher prices. On the whole, plywood mills have resisted higher log cost because of the stagnant plywood market but the importers are determined to raise the sales prices as the yen continues to weaken. The log market turned firmer in mid January and Meranti regular prices reached yen 5,000 but this is not high enough to cover the import cost so the importers have tried to push prices up to yen 5,300-5,400 in February.

Late January market prices for Sarawak Meranti Regular were yen 5,000-5,100 per koku CIF, yen 100-200 up from December.
Meranti Small is about yen 4,200 and Super Small is yen 3,800-3,900, also yen 200 or so higher.

PNG's Taun and Calophyllum are unchanged at between yen 4,700-4,800 per koku CIF. Newly introduced plantation species of kamerere and campnosperma have attracted some interest from plywood mills due to their low prices but business in these timbers is still developing.

Late January FOB prices for Sarawak Meranti Regular were firm at between US$115-117 per cubic metre, Meranti Small is at about US$90 and Super Small was up US$2-4 at US$78-80.


Tropical Log and Lumber Prices

January Wholesale price