Export of timber and timber products to reach RM21 bln
We will encourage more ODM as compared to OEM.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) expects the export of timber and timber products to increase to RM21 billion this year from RM20.5 billion last year.
Director general Dr Jalaluddin Harun said it would be driven by the higher export of value added and finished products.
He said the board was pushing for more value added exports and finished products which give a better profit margin, thus reducing the dependency on lower margin commodities such as sawn timber and plywood.
“We will encourage more own design manufacturing (ODM) as compared to original equipment manufacturing (OEM).
“If we are only dependent on reproductions, we can’t go far. We are producing a lot of volume but very little (profit) margin,” he told reporters after the launch of the National Seminar on Conversion of Oil Palm Trunks into Sawn Timber and Plywood and its Application in Furniture here yesterday.
The seminar was launched by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities Secretary General Datuk Himmat Singh, representing the Minister, Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas. Jalaluddin said among the finished products,
Dr Jalaluddin Harun, MTIB director general
furniture contributed RM8.01 billion to exports last year.
Meanwhile, on oil palm plywood, Jalaluddin said the product offered tremendous potential of possibly RM4.5 billion annually if tress from all the replanting areas were processed into plywood.
“At the current market price of RM1,100 per cubic metre for oil palm plywood, a hectare of an area felled can produce RM35,000 worth. The average annual replanting area stands at 130,000 hectares,” he added.
He said the MTIB was pushing for an expansion of oil palm plywood production and export with the abundant availability of oil palm trunks and cheaper selling price, when compared to timber plywood.
Currently, he said there are only five mills processing oil palm trunks into plywood and industry players are encouraged to set up more such facilities.
Jalaluddin said the Board would also work on market acceptance and promote oil palm trunk products, including plywood, as an environmentally friendly and green product for the export market.
He said at the moment, the export value for oil palm plywood was still small as compared to timber plywood, with the export market comprising Singapore, China and the United Kingdom.
Last year, major timber products included plywood and veneer which contributed RM5.5 billion to exports.
A total of 10 working papers were presented at the one-day seminar by several government agencies and universities, including by the MTIB, Forest Research Institute of Malaysia and Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Among topics discussed were potential and application of oil palm trunks in the sawn timber and plywood industries, as well as the current status of the country’s sawn timber and plywood industries. — Bernama