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Dollar Exchange Rates of 7th December 2005 Japan Yen
120.840 October housing starts hit an 8-year high Housing starts reached 115,769 units in October, an 8-year high and up 9% from October last year. Owner’s units were 29,812, down 1% from October 2004 and the fourteenth consecutive monthly decline. Rental units were 49,777, up 14% from the same month last year. Wood-based units were 47,872, up 2.5% from October 2004. Wood-based units accounted for 41.4% of total housing starts in October, 1 point lower than September. Seasonally adjusted annual starts are at 1,292,000 units. A recent scandal on fabricated quake-resistance data is expected to affect future sales of condominiums, although no impact was expected on November housing starts. Stricter supervision on private inspection firms by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will likely delay the start-up of future condominium construction projects. Domestic log prices near an 8-year high Domestic log prices in Japan continued to rise due to higher FOB prices and ocean freight as well as a dropping yen. In late November, Sarawak meranti regular prices topped 7,000 yen per koku CIF, the highest level in almost eight years. This is 100-200 yen higher than a month ago and 1,100-1,200 yen higher than early this year. Market prices for meranti small are 6,400-6,500 yen and for kapur are 7,700-7,800 yen per koku, up 200 yen from last month. Domestic plywood mills have tried to reduce costs by mixing low cost small logs or increasing Sabah logs, which have better veneer recovery ratios, but this turned out to be unsuccessful. Plywood mills therefore started to raise sales prices from early fall and further hikes are expected soon. The monsoon rains in Southeast Asian production areas are expected to cause further log production reductions. The strong demand for logs by local plywood mills in Malaysia and by other countries also contribute to keep log export prices firm. China increases plywood market share in Japan In 2004, Japanese plywood imports from China reached 334,000 m3, over fivefold the imported amount in 2000 (63,000 m3). Chinese plywood accounted for a 6.2% market share of total imports in 2004, up from a mere 1.3% share in 2000. Its market share continued to grow in 2005 and reached 7.9% in the first half of the year. Higher bunker surcharge for N. American routes Container shipping companies have revised the bunker surcharge for North American routes. The bunker surcharge was set at $590 per 40 feet dry cargo van for the first quarter next year, 29.7% ($135) higher than the previous quarter and 114.5% higher than the second quarter of this year. In contrast, the bunker adjustment factor (BAF) for the Scandinavian route has been reduced by 11.1% ($60) to $480 for the first quarter of 2006 as fuel prices seem to have peaked out. It is expected that the first quarter of next year would be the peak for the North American route’s BAF.
October and November Wholesale Prices
New 45-minutes fire -resistant flooring Touhoku
Plywood Manufacturers’ Association and Tokyo Plywood Manufacturers’
Association have developed new fire resistant floorin g. The flooring is a
combination of 28mm thick structural “nedanon” plywood and 15mm
reinforced gypsum board. The product, which took a year and a half to
develop, has obtained the certificate of the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport for 45-minutes-fire resistance. The
certificate allows the flooring to be used in buildings requiring 45
minutes fire resistance in quasi-fireproofing districts. The 28mm plywood
is made out of Russian larch and domestic cedar veneer. Mr. Inoue,
chairman of the Touhoku Plywood Manufacturers’ Association, indicated
that fire resistance efficiency can be improved by using thick 28mm
plywood and added that the use of domestic plywood species such as cedar
will increase as a result of the new product.
For more information on the Japanese market see www.n-mokuzai.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: ITTO' Tropical Timber Market Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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