Timber industry still growing strong

The timber industry in Malaysia is one of long-standing prominence, garnering much attention as one of the economy’s core components of growth. As the country is well-blessed with an abundance of rainforest and land, the steady supply of trees and logs highlight the importance of this resource-based sector, ranking it among the likes of agriculture, oil and gas, mining and manufacturing. Presently, Malaysia is among the world’s largest exporter of tropical logs, plywood, sawn-timber and furniture to international markets. Specialists concur that this industry will not likely become redundant anytime soon. As the world’s second largest industry after food, timber is a material with a wide range of uses, providing employment opportunities and raw materials with further flexible functions. Thus, Malaysia is aggressively promoted downstream activities to become a manufacturer of higher quality and value-added products. Such is the optimism seen by the government to the point where Malaysia Timber Industry Board (MTIB) believes that Malaysia can achieve a target of RM53 billion in the export of timber and timber related products by the year 2020. So far, statistics from official records supported the direction of this segment’s growth. Earlier on, MTIB director-general Dr Jalaluddin Harun said in 2010 and 2011, the country exported timber and timber products was worth RM20.52 billion and RM20.06 billion respectively. Looking at last year’s performance, timber products export revenue clinched RM20.03 billion last year, contributing substantively to the national economic growth, added Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok in May this year. Meanwhile, during the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly also held in May, it was revealed that Sarawak collected RM7.08 billion from its timber export for the whole of last year. The highest export value within the past four years was in 2008 when the income recorded was RM7.91 billion. The state’s export revenue dropped to RM6.59 billion the following year but in 2010 it increased again to RM7.21 billion. For the whole of 2011, logs contributed 45.59 per cent to total exports, followed by plywood (33.45 per cent) and sawn timber (10.67 per cent) while the rest were veneer, moulding, dowels, particle board, laminated board/flooring, woodchips, block board and other timber products. The biggest market for the state’s timber sector export for 2011 was Japan with 33 per cent, followed by India (16 per cent), Taiwan (11 per cent), Asia (10 per cent), Middle East (nine per cent), Korea (six per cent), China (five per cent) and the remaining 10 per cent to the US and Europe. Source: theborneopost