KUCHING: Malaysia’s exports of wood furniture, sawnwood, tropical mouldings/decking, flooring as well as other tropical joinery products to European Union 27 member countries (EU27) have expanded significantly in the first 10 months of 2022 (10M2022) from a year ago.
During the period under review, EU27 recorded a 15 per cent increase in the volume of tropical wood and wood furniture imports to 1.68 million tonnes worth US$3.79 billion, which was up 24 per cent from 10M2021.
“However, imports have been slowing since summer 2022 and the economic outlook in the EU deteriorated sharply in the last quarter of the year.
“The war in Ukraine is contributing to huge increases in energy prices while business and consumer confidence have been hit by expectations of higher interest rates to control inflation,” according to International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) tropical timber market report (Jan 16-31, 2023).
In US dollar terms, EU27 imports of tropical wood and wood furniture were still high in October 2022 compared to the same month in the previous five years despite falling sharply since the summer.
However, the report said in tonnage terms, EU27 total imports of tropical wood and wood furniture in October 2022 were in line with the level achieved in that month in the previous five years and well below levels typical of a year ago.
In 10M2022, the European bloc import value of wood furniture from tropical countries hit US$1.52 billion, up 14 per cent from a year ago.
This increase in dollar value was entirely due to higher freight rates and prices and the weakness of the euro last year. In tonnage terms, imports fell six per cent to 305,500 tonnes during the same period.
In the January-October 2022 period, imports from Malaysia grew 17 per cent to US$108 million. There were also large increases of wood furniture imports from suppliers Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
However, imports of wood furniture from India and Thailand fell.
On tropical sawnwood imports, EU27 recorded strong recovery in shipments to 869,000 cubic metres (cu m) or an increase of 24 per cent, with total value jumped 34 per cent from 10M2021 after two slow years during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Imports from Malaysia jumped 29 per cent to 77,000 cu m while shipments also expanded from major suppliers Cameroon, Brazil, Gabon, Congo and Ghana.
Despite EU27 recording slow imports of tropical mouldings/decking in 10M2022 to 156,600 tonnes, up merely one per cent from 10M2021, the bloc increased its imports from Malaysia by 25 per cent to 6,400 tonnes during the period under comparison.
“Supply shortages contributed to falling imports from Indonesia, which declined 12 per cent to 48,000 tonnes during the ten-month period. The fall in imports from Indonesia was offset by rising imports from Brazil and Gabon,” noted the ITTO report.
On tropical logs, EU27 imports rose by 14 per cent to 98,100 cu m in 10M2022 from 10M2021. The African countries led by Congo were the largest suppliers to the European bloc.
Besides, EU27 also recorded large gains in the imports of tropical hardwood veneer from African countries, and total imports amounted to 298,300 cu m or up 22 per cent from 10M2021. Shipments from Gabon leapt 16 per cent to 148,800 cu m, Cote d’Ivoire climbed 34 per cent to 71,300 cu m and Cameroon rose 45 per cent to 35,100 cu m.
Year-on-year through the first 10 months, EU27 imports of tropical plywood surged 39 per cent to 257,900 cu m in 2022. Imports from the largest supplier Indonesia grew by 17 per cent to 79,100 cu m.
However, the biggest percentage increases were in imports from Gabon (+130 per cent to 61,300 cu m) and Vietnam (+130 per cent to 23,000 cu m), Morocco (+63 per cent to 18,700 cu m) and Brazil (+119 per cent to 13,400 cu m). On the other hand, EU27 imports of tropical hardwood faced plywood from China dipped 28 per cent to 27,000 cu m.
Malaysia is the largest supplier of tropical flooring to EU27, which reported a 38 per cent jump in imports to 24,500 tonnes in 10M2022 from a year ago.
“The rise in EU27 wood flooring imports from Malaysia began in 2020 continued last year. Imports of 11,600 tonnes from Malaysia in the first ten months of 2022 were 49 per cent more than the same period in 2021.
“There were also large gains, from a smaller base, from Indonesia (+39 per cent to 6,000 tonnes) and Brazil (+46 per cent to 2,300 tonnes),” said the ITTO report. Flooring imports from Vietnam were maintained at about 2,800 tonnes .
On other tropical joinery products, comprising laminated window scantlings, kitchen tops and wood doors, EU27 import bill in 10M2022 soared 40 per cent to US$249 million from the same period in 2021. Import value rose 12 per cent to US$108 million from Indonesia, 69 per cent to US$77 million from Malaysia and 27 per cent to US$24 million from Vietnam.
“The apparent large increase in imports of this commodity group from China, from negligible levels to US$12 million in the first ten months of last year, is due to a change in product codes from the start of 2022 allowing more joinery products manufactured using tropical hardwood in non-tropical countries to be separately identified.
“Unlike for furniture, the rise in import value for joinery last year was not driven entirely by rising prices but was also indicative of an increase in import quantity. In quantity terms between January and October last year, the EU27 imported 92,800 tonnes of tropical joinery products, 29 per cent more than the same period in 2021,” according to ITTO report.
