A Summary of ITTO Annual Review and Assessment 

Market Reports

African prices stabilise but rises expected

Unrest in CAR casts doubt on supply of sapele

Ghana maintains prices with few exceptions

Furniture manufacturers turn to durian

Indonesian President calls for intensified efforts against illegal logging

China plans US$1 billion merbau plant in Papua

Brazilian timber exports slump in March

Brazil's ABIMCI reduces export estimate for '06

DOF replaces ATPF for timber transportation

Brazil’s furniture sector sees more lay-offs

Peruvian mills mull raising prices

INRENA seizes illegal timber worth US$1.4 million

NGOs sue USA on illegal mahogany imports

Prolonged shortage exerts pressure on prices

Unabated fall in Japanese plywood imports

Japanese housing starts continue recovery

China's panel demand set to reach 80 million m³

CWCA sees more declines in flooring output

Norway studies options for import ban

Russia raises minimum log export duty

UK house prices cool but demand still strong

Short supply fuels market for anti-skid decks

Meranti shortage pushes demand for sapele

Only 7% of US veneer imports are tropical

Canada and US end long lumber dispute

TFG alleges US neglect of tropical forests

Production of tropical industrial roundwood (logs) in ITTO producer countries totalled over 136 million m3 in 2003, a 3.7% increase from 2002. Log production declined to 135 million m3 in 2004. Tropical log production was equivalent to 12% of total industrial roundwood production from all forests in all ITTO member countries in 2003. The proportion of logs domestically processed in Africa increased slightly from 80% in 2003 to 82% in 2004. The Asian figure for domestic log processing averaged 92% over the same period. This reflects increasing populations, growing economies and the emphasis on producing and exporting value-added products in this region. Latin American countries continued to process virtually all tropical logs harvested in 2003-2004.

Tropical sawnwood production by ITTO producers totalled just below 43 million m³in 2003, level with 2002 levels. In 2004 sawnwood production grew 2.6% to 44 million m3. Tropical hardwood veneer production in producer countries jumped by over 9% to 2.6 million m3 in 2003. This was due mainly to a sharp increase in the Philippines’ tropical veneer production which made it the world’s third largest producer.  Production grew another 6% to over 2.7 million m3 in 2004, again due primarily to production increases in the Philippines. ITTO producer countries’ tropical plywood production increased by 6.4% in 2003 to 15.7 million m3. This was due mainly to increases in Malaysia, India, and Brazil (the world’s second, fourth and fifth largest producers of tropical plywood). Plywood production in producer countries declined to 15.4 million m3 in 2004 due mainly to a 5% decline in Indonesia’s production, leaving it still by far the world’s largest producer of tropical plywood. ITTO consumer countries also produced substantial quantities of tropical timber products in 2003. China (2.2 million m3) and Australia (100 000 m3) together produced an estimated total of 2.3 million m3 of logs from their tropical regions. Consumer countries produced just over 1.3 million m3 of sawnwood, nearly 0.9 million m3 of veneer and 5.7 million m3 of plywood in 2003, all (with the exception of China and Australia) from imported tropical logs. ITTO consumer countries’ production levels of all tropical timber products but veneer increased in 2004.