Japan: 2008 lumber import results

According to the 2008 lumber import results recently reported, complied by the Forestry agency, the total import value was 1157.9 billion yen (17 percent down compared to last year), the first decrease after 3 years. Looking at Country of origin, the import value in China was 160 billion yen (13 percent down), top for the 2nd consequence year in which not only lumber, plywood and laminated lumber, but also various products such as processed products and disposable chopsticks were imported. Then import value in Malaysia was 149.4 billion yen (17 percent down) and that in Canada was 126.7 billion yen (7 percent down). Both Indonesia with the decreased arrival in Southsea lumber and plywood (31 percent down) and Russia with rapid decrease in logs (47 percent down) showed a drastic decline, redrawing the map of lumber import. The overall import value in 2008 was 78.9547 trillion yen (7 percent up), and the percentage of lumber import in the overall import value has been slight decrease to 1.5 percent (0.4 points down compared to the previous year).