Coffin makers running low on wood as deaths rise

GEORGE TOWN: Casket makers are facing a short supply of wood, causing some of them to produce fewer coffins than usual.

Lim Sze Yan, the director of one of the largest coffin manufacturers in Malaysia, said restrictions on logging and sawmill operations had further compounded the problem.

“We are running short of plywood. We only have enough for another two months,” he said.

Lim, 44, said his company would usually produce 1,500 coffins a month “but now we can only provide around 1,000”.

“With logging not allowed, we do not have new materials,” he said.

Lim, a second-generation manufacturer in Sungai Petani, Kedah, estimated that there were about 20 coffin manufacturers in Malaysia.

“Some of us only supply to Singapore as 90% of Singapore’s needs for coffins come from Malaysia.

“But due to local demand, we have decided to focus on the local market and cut down on exports to deal with the situation here,” he said.

“We are also not able to bring in new foreign workers. Our workers had to go back when their permits expired, so we are gradually losing workers,” he said.

The 60% workforce limit had also made it more difficult to make enough coffins, he said, referring to Covid-19 procedures.

Lim Siew Hoon, 38, who runs a funeral service on Penang island, said demand for caskets had gone up compared to previous years.

She said this was not solely due to Covid-19 deaths, as more families were also approaching her for non-covid-19 funeral services.

“We note that more deaths are happening in general. Two years ago, we did not have this many funerals every month,” she said.

Her company would conduct 16 to 18 funerals a month, Lim added.

Prior to the pandemic, she would hold about 10 funeral services each month.

For Covid-19 funeral rites, she said: “We have to gear up and provide our workers with personal protective equipment too.

“Our drivers take the coffins to the hospital, where Health Department workers deal with the body, and then we send the coffin to the crematorium with health workers handling the coffin.”