Plywood importers from Japan have halted their new orders from manufacturers in Sarawak due to high inventories. The companies have been purchasing the panel products aggressively from companies in the East Malaysian state after the recent earthquake and tsunami in March where it was speculated to provide the industries with rebuilding purposes.
According to Wong Sai Kong, the chairman of the Sarawak Timber Association panel products’ committee, the orders have been coming in since the tragedy and since late May, the buying has slowed down because the plywood warehouses are already full and to date, they are no longer buying any plywood as there are too much supply there.
The tragedy has destroyed thousands of residential homes and commercial buildings and the importers had stocked up plywood panel products for the reconstruction of Sendai where the tragedy hit and as the clearing up efforts have taken more time than expected, the rebuilding efforts have yet to start. Hence they are currently overstocked which caused the ordering to stop. Import of plywood from Sarawak to Japan soared to 499,435 cu m in April-June which is worth more than RM926million while from January to March, it was only 296,162 cu m valued at RM475.7milllion. It is expected that the new developments will peak sometime in October.
