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Japan: Import Trends Of Wooden Products in 2003 |
| Japan: Import Trends Of
Wooden Products in 2003 Japan's general economic conditions in 2003 will be continually bad as in 2002. Housing starts, which have a great influence on timber markets, will be less but not be more than in 2002, but will manage to maintain a 1.1-million unit market. Therefore, Japan's overall demand for timber in 2003 would be forecast almost the same as were in last year. It is a characteristic of the Japanese market for timber that there are a large number of wooden houses. The arrival trends of Japan's domestic logs, American & Canadian logs, American & Canadian lumber, European lumber, Russian logs and Russian lumber for the past four years are shown in the table below, which supply essential items for wooden home building, structural and common lumber. The figures for the past four years tell that European and Russian timber did well, whereas Japanese and American & Canadian species remarkably retreated, while the total volumes fell down due to the slowing down housing starts. The market has come to require better performances of timber than it originally would perform, for the Housing Quality Assurance Law that was decided after the Great Kobe Earthquake, popularity of high-airtight & high insulated houses, spread of precut in the distribution stages and above all, more popular idea of trying to build complaint-free houses even though construction of houses is called an industry of complaints. As a result, the users have moved rapidly to KD and laminated lumber, which has caused the growth of the European lumber arrivals to the Japanese market. On the other hand, some natural-oriented and -recurrent trends have put the market to revaluate solid timber, but the general current will basically keep requesting KD and laminated products. But at the same time, the housing market is not exceptional in the continual deflationary economy, that is users are much interested in lower-priced homes. Therefore, it is observed that the year 2003 will also see keener competition in quality, price and capacity of stable supply among the mentioned timber. While the wood industry has been depressed for a long time, some of trading firms, wholesalers, sawmillers and house manufacturers have dropped out of their main body, closed down the business, gone bankrupt or reformed due to deterioration of profitability Source: Japan Lumber |
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