Acacia mangium top export timber

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Acacia mangium is the popular choice among the limited species to be cultivated by timber companies involved in industrial tree plantation development. Photo: Planter and Forest

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KUCHING: The fast growing acacia mangium from planted forest has leapt to become Sarawak’s No 1 exported commercial timber species. During the January-April 2019 period, acacia mangium firmly maintained its dominance with total export volume of 286,666 cu m with free on board (FOB) value of RM60.95 million. This made up about 56 percent of Sarawak’s total log exports of 509,609 cu m worth RM250.96 million during the period under review.

The entire acacia mangium exports from Sarawak went to Indonesia, according to figures from Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC).

Meranti from natural forests took second spot on Sarawak’s logs export list, with 112,280 cu m worth RM89.28 million shipped to overseas markets during the first four
months of 2019.

Acacia mangium is the popular choice among the limited species to be cultivated by timber companies involved in industrial tree plantation development. Photo: Planter and Forest

The export volume of  meranti, Sarawak’s traditional key export timber, has fallen steeply over the past five or six years, from 1.34 million cu m in 2013 to 579,567 cu m in 2017.

The exports of acacia mangium has risen from 2013 when 147,101 cu m was recorded. The export volume climbed to 185,996 cu m the following year before it almost tripled to 536,726 cu m in 2015.

In 2016 and 2017, the export volume jumped to 875,726 cu m and 1.13 million cu m respectively as more planted forests attain maturity and their trees are ripe for harvesting. Last year, about 1.72 million cu m of plantation logs were produced by the industrial forests. 

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Some of the plantation logs, mostly acacia mangium, have been processed and used to manufacture plywood by local mills.

Acacia mangium is the popular choice among the limited species to be cultivated by timber companies involved in industrial tree plantation development. There are 43 licensed forest plantation projects, which achieved total planted areas of over 420,000 hectares as at early this year, far short of the target one million hectares set to be achieved by 2020. 

In view of the slow planting progress, the Sarawak government has recently extended the deadline of the one million hectares planted forest’s target to 2025. 

Other traditional exported timber species from Sarawak are kapur, selangan batu/balau and mixed light hardwoods (MLH).

On log exports by destinations, Indonesia has overtaken India as the largest export market in terms of volume. In the first four months of 2019, Sarawak exported 172,556 cu m to India against 286,666 cu m to Indonesia. But in terms of export value (FOB), India imported RM147.3 million worth of logs from Sarawak, which is about 2.4 times higher than RM60.95 million worth of exports to Indonesia. 

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India had been the largest logs importer from Sarawak in recent years. In 2013, India bought 1.76 million cu m, then increased to 1.88 million cu m the following year before the import volume reversed the trend and dropped to 1.53 million cu m in 2015, then 1.18 million cu m in 2016 and further shrank to 858,665 cu m in 2017.

Sarawak’s log exporters have attributed the slowdown in India’s imports in the past two years to the depreciation of the rupee to the US dollar, which has made it more expensive to import timber.

In the 2019 January-April period, Taiwan is the third largest importer of Sarawak logs, absorbing 29,077 cu m valued at about RM26.3 million. Also buying Sarawak logs are Vietnam and China.

The STIDC figures shown that Sarawak recorded foreign earnings of about RM1.34 billion from the export of timber products in the first four months of 2019. The top timber product shipped to foreign markets is plywood, which accounted for 414,294 cu m valued at about RM878.8 million (FOB).

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Japan is Sarawak’s largest plywood importer, absorbing 283,999 cu m valued at RM648.8 million or about 68 percent of the state’s total export
volume. Yemen ranked second (40,662 cu m worth RM66.2 million), followed by Korea (31,615 cu m valued at
RM52.9 million).   

Sawn timber is the second most important exported timber product, with 108,814 cu m worth RM212.8 million exported. The Philippines led with imports of 28,155 cu m valued at RM66.4 million, followed by Yemen 26,494 cu m (RM49.8 million), Thailand 15,516 cu m (RM22.6 million) and Taiwan 12,048 cu m (RM22.4 million).

Fibreboard ranked third on the export list, with 59,066
cu m valued at RM107.3 million shipped out to overseas markets. The bulk of the export went to Japan (47,865 cu m valued at RM87.94 million).

Sarawak also exported veneer worth RM37.96 million, with the bulk going to Taiwan and Korea. The US is the main buyer of Sarawak’s laminated
board/flooring, paying RM8.62 million for 1,973 cu m (out of total export volume of 3,214 cu m).

Other timber products exported by Sarawak include moulding, dowel, blockboard, particle board and woodchips.

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