According to the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), timber exports from the country are experiencing their biggest boom, after almost a decade of loss and price-undercutting.

“Prices of Malaysian timber have risen across the board,” stated an ITTO report, with plywood prices in particular catching up with those of logs.

This, said the ITTO, is important because of the current focus on plywood in Malaysia, which is now the world’s leading producer of tropical plywood.

The high prices could also see better returns for large timber companies, as higher plywood prices improve the profitability of their plywood operations – and hence their overall profits.

The ITTO estimates that plywood prices have seen between 10-20% increases in the last year, driven by strong demand from Japan, China, the Middle East and India.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian timber industry is urging various state governments to grant more timber concessions to lessen the impact of raw material shortages.