1 September 2014: The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) has launched the 16-31 August issue of the Tropical Timber Market (TTM) Report, which highlights a conference on forest certification in the Province of Sarawak, Malaysia, during which Sarawak’s Chief Minister declared certification as the way forward and set a timeline for the forest industry.

In other news, the report notes that furniture exports from Indonesia to the EU have increased, while exports from the Heilongjiang Province, China fell by 76% due to logging bans in the area. With regard to plywood, the report states that while EU imports of hardwood plywood and tropical hardwood plywood from Indonesia increased, tropical hardwood plywood imports from Malaysia dropped sharply.

In other markets, the report says that demand for reconstituted boards in India has increased due to the start of a number of infrastructure projects. On the other hand, Japan, according to the report, is facing a drop in household spending for the fourth month in a row due, in part, to an increase in the consumption tax rate.

Other headline stories in the report include a forecast that timber products in Para, Brazil will be negatively impacted by a reduction in the supply of raw material and a change in the exchange rate.

In addition to the headline stories, the report contains tropical timber market reports from Brazil, China, Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar and Peru. The report also recounts regional tropical timber market statistics from Central and West Africa, Europe and North America.

The TTM, published through the ITTO Market Information Service (MIS), requires free registration to access the reports. [Publication: Tropical Timber Market Report – Volume 18 Number 16]