TOKYO: Japan’s plywood imports were just 79% of last year’s level in the first six months at 1.491m m³. In terms of Japan’s leading suppliers, Malaysian imports dived 21.2% to 631,732 m³, Indonesian imports fell 19.6% to 436,211 m³ and Chinese imports plunged 18.6% to 335,280 m³.
According to foreign trade statistics published in the Japan Lumber Journal, imports from New Zealand and Taiwan showed very large drops, plummeting 54.3% to 12,908 m³ and 27.8% to 6,774 m³ respectively. Besides imports being lower, Japanese plywood production also declined 5.2% to 1.369m m³ in the first six months.
