THE growth of Malaysia’s wood-based exports may be stunted if measures to curtail the shortage of raw materials to the furniture and panel board (F&P) industries are not implemented, said Wood Resource Task Force (WRTF) chairman Peter Fitch.

“Unfortunately, the supply of rubberwood is in sharp decline. Unless new sources are found, this (decline) will be a threat to the furniture, medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board industries,” he said.

WRTF is an alliance comprising companies within the F&P industries in Peninsular Malaysia. Its members include the Malaysian Furniture Industrial Council, the Malaysian MDF Manufacturers Association, Mieco Chipboard Bhd and Heveaboard Sdn Bhd.

Fitch, who is also managing director of Segamat Panel Boards Sdn Bhd, said that although the demand for wood products and furniture was increasing, F&P players were not able to keep pace due to the decline in raw material supply.

“As a result, a few public-listed companies in the wood panel business have had to venture to Thailand and Indonesia due to insufficient supply of rubberwood locally. This industry is very capital intensive, especially for the wood panel business. Hence any investments abroad would benefit markets like Indonesia and Thailand,” he told StarBiz, adding that Malaysia was facing increased competition from low-cost countries which had good supply of raw materials.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) said in its report, Prospects, Challenges and Proposals for the Wood Based Industry, that the furniture sector had experienced encouraging growth over the past 15 years due to the abundant supply of cheaply priced rubberwood.

Despite the growth, it said, the supply of raw materials had fallen due to the reduction in total area replanted, as plantation owners had been shifting to palm oil plantations.

“Malaysia’s furniture export value could potentially rise to RM12bil in 2010 from RM7.7bil in 2005. Unless manufacturers of rubberwood furniture have access to adequate supply of raw materials, this huge business opportunity would sadly pass by,” it said.

The supply shortage was predicted to become serious by 2012, it added.

Fitch highlighted some of the proposed solutions raised in the MIER report, including the zoning of marginal land for forest plantations and the setting up of land bank directories by state governments.

He said F&P players needed the backing of the federal and state governments to establish sustainable forest plantations.

“Sustainable forest plantations will also benefit the country in other ways. It will prevent soil degradation, enhance water and air quality, and act as a good habitat for wildlife,” he said.

Fitch said the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities had been extremely supportive of the idea.

“To make this work, we need to identify suitable land. We need the support of the state governments to assist us by identifying idle, non-productive land that can be turned into sustainable forest plantations,” he said, adding that the move would also discourage indiscriminate and illegal logging.

Source

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Furniture. Tags: Alliance, Area, bank, Furniture, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, palm oil, Peter, Plantation, Price, products, rubber, Set, state government, Table, Thailand, wood products, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.