MTIB News Extracts (Vol. 15/04/17) MTIB News Extract Vol. 15/04/2017

Transcription

1 MTIB News Extract Vol. 15/04/2017

2 This weekly information service provided by MTIB represents one of our efforts to provide the timber industry regularly updated business information on forestry and timber and the trading environment. This enables quick reading of trends, developments and business opportunities to be identified. Since its launching, the service is well received and I thank you for your continued support especially your comments and suggestions. We will continue to upgrade the quality of the news items for the interest and benefit of the industry and hope your association s members will continue to benefit from it. Please communicate with us regularly so that we can improve the information flow based on your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Dato Dr. Jalaluddin Harun Director General Malaysian Timber Industry Board

3 INDONESIA: HIMKI URGED INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW VPA/FLEGT The Indonesian Furniture and Craft Association (HIMKI) Chairman has urged the government to conduct a review of the VPA/FLEGT Agreement with the EU because, he says, it is undermining the efforts of association members to increase exports. To back this up he said exports by members of the association had dropped 15-20% since the Agreement was ratified. The main problem he pointed out was that most of the members of the association are SMEs and they cannot cope with the numerous procedures and requirements to satisfy the SVLK and the demands from overseas buyers. This has given a competitive advantage to exporters in neighbouring countries which do not have timber legality verification systems like Indonesia. In related news, Muhammad Hidjrah Saputra a board member of HIMKI DPD Cirebon, has suggested that legality verification of upstream producers should be sufficient and downstream manufacturers should not be certified if they utilise timber from certified millers. He said the current system is adding unnecessary costs and hindering export competitiveness Fordaq, 10 Apr 2017

4 MYANMAR: MINISTRY TO BUILD AFFORDABLE HOMES IN YANGON In 2017, Myanmar's Construction Ministry intends to build over 8,700 mid and low-priced houses in Yangon City. A total of 10,132 apartments are also planned to be built, with 304 and 440 apartments to be built in Magway and Monywa, respectively. In the fiscal year 2016/2017, the ministry built 880 and 3,088 mid and lowpriced houses in Mandalay and Yangon, respectively. Eleven Myanmar, 01 Apr 2017 JAPAN: WOODEN FURNITURE IMPORTS JUMPED 2017 got off to a good start for exporters of wooden office and bedroom furniture to Japan. The value of wooden office furniture imports to Japan in January 2017 were up 34% year on year and up 27% month on month and the value of wooden bedroom furniture imports jumped 18% year-on-year. The value of imports in January 2016 was lifted by the weaker yen (120/USD) compared to the stronger yen in January this year. Globalwood, 03 Apr 2017

5 FINLAND: CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS IN LULUCF According to Natural Resources Institute Finland, the increased roundwood removals have decreased the carbon dioxide emissions in the forest sector in in Finland. In 2015, the total carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 26 million tonnes in land use, land-use change and forestry sector (LULUCF), which is 8% less than in Emissions from agriculture totalled 6.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, representing 12% of the total carbon dioxide emissions. The total emissions of afforestation and deforestation totalled 2.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in Organic soil drainage and soil tillage caused emissions of approximately 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Press Release, Natural Resources Institute Finland, 06 Apr 2017 FINLAND: CONSTRUCTION REMAINS LIVELY IN HELSINKI METROPOLITAN AREA According to Rakli, the Finnish Association of Building Owners and Construction Clients, the construction remains lively in the Helsinki metropolitan area in The construction of new residential buildings increases by approximately 50%, which is nearly 13,000 residential buildings more than in Over 11,000 will be flats, 500 will be terrace houses and approximately 1,000 will be detached houses.

6 Construction of premises continues to be on a high level and infrastructure construction, commercial property construction as well as public construction remain lively too. The demand for renovations continues to be strong. The number of people employed in the construction increased by over 15% in 2016 in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Rakennuslehti, 07 Apr 2017

7 GERMANY: INCREASED GROWTH IN PREFABRICATED HOUSING MARKET According to a study by the industry association for prefabricated houses Bundesverband Deutscher Fertigbau, the number of detached and semi-detached wooden pre-fabricated houses increased by 6.4% to 19,051 in This corresponds to a market share of 17.8% compared to a 14.2% market share in The state of Baden-Württemberg is the market leader, with a market share of 30.6% in The 47 member companies of BDF achieved cumulative turnover of EUR2.25 billion (USD2.40 billion) in 2016, up 16%. Holz Zentralblatt, 27 Mar 2017 HUNGARY: NUMBER OF HOME CONSTRUCTION PERMITS UP According to data revealed by Eurostat, the number of home construction permits issued for flats in Hungary rose by 215% year-on-year in Thus, the country ranked first in Europe. In comparison, the EU average stood at 13% over the monitored period. In the fourth quarter alone, Hungary ranked second in Europe, following Lithuania where a 368% growth was posted. In comparison, the EU average reached only 18% between October and December According to data

8 published by the Hungarian real estate ad website ingatlan.com, currently some 15,000 flats are being built in Hungary. Mfor, 03 Apr 2017 SWEDEN: POSITIVE OUTLOOK IN FOREST INDUSTRY The Swedish Forest Industries Federation (Skogsindustrierna) has released its first report for 2017 concerning the outlook in the paper, pulp, wood and forestry industries. The report states that there has been a positive trend for the pulp industry so far in 2017 with a strong demand especially in Asia. It is stated that there will be a strong demand for sawn wood products in the future due to an increased demand for wood structures in general. The export value of the Swedish forestry industry as a whole amounted to SEK125 billion (EUR13.07 billion/ USD13.93 billion) in The federation concludes that the Swedish forestry industry needs to invest more in research and innovation in order to increase competitiveness and facilitate the shift to a bio-based society. Papper och Massa, 04 Apr 2017

9 SWEDEN: EC SHOULD NOT SET LIMITS FOR SWEDISH FELLING In the European Commission's (EC) climate goals for agriculture and forestry, emissions are not allowed to exceed uptake levels. In order to evaluate uptake, the Commission proposes reference levels for forest felling in each country, and that the European Commission should be able to revise reference levels. Both in the environmental minister council in Sweden and in the European Parliament there are discussions about how to calculate the reference levels and about who should be granted the right to alter them. According to a new proposal from the Swedish government, the European Commission should not be allowed to set limits for Swedish felling and countries should be allowed to alter reference levels themselves. ATL, 05 Apr 2017 UK: HOUSEBUILDING SET TO FALL IN LONDON AS SALES DECLINE Research by the estate agent Savills suggests that the number of new homes built in London will hit a record high in 2017, but will then fall by more than 50% over the next five years. A total of 46,500 new homes are expected to be built in the capital in 2017, which is above the 42,000 goal set in the London plan but is lower than the

10 64,000 new homes that Savills estimates are needed in London each year to keep up with demand. Housing starts are only expected to reach 21,500 in 2017, meaning there will only be 18,000 new homes built by Savills states that this is due to rapidly declining sales rates. Fewer homes are now being sold off-plan, resulting in less support for higher levels of home starts. The research by Savills also shows that there is a large oversupply of more expensive homes in London in comparison to affordable homes. The Telegraph, 04 Apr 2017

11 RUSSIA: DETACHED HOMES ACCOUNT FOR ILLIQUID SUPPLY IN MOSCOW REGION According to Incom-Real Estate, about 50% of the illiquid supply in the primary market for out-of-town construction in the Moscow region falls on plots without a contract, 30% on detached homes, 20% on townhouses. Furthermore, about 5% of apartments in low-rise houses of the region are considered to be low-liquid. According to the company's experts, the main reason for the low liquidity of the facilities is their inadequacy to the market requirements. In particular, detached homes are in this category because of the large area square meters, while buyers prefer facilities of square meters. RBC, 04 Apr 2017 RUSSIA: SETS ACQUIRED BY KITCHEN FURNITURE BUYERS According to a poll conducted by RBC, 62% of Russians buying kitchen furniture over the last year bought sets, 38% purchased individual items. The cost of their purchase averaged RUB970,000 (EUR16,171/ USD17,242) and RUB8,970, respectively.

12 The study also showed that the respondents with a monthly income of RUB51,000-75,000 more often bought sets, while people with at least RUB30,000 preferred individual items. The share of buyers of separate furniture pieces goes up as their age grows. This is partly due to the fact that older respondents have previously purchased kitchen sets and require furniture required to refresh the room or provide additional functionality. Over the past years, more than 50% of buyers of individual items acquired cupboards and sink cabinets. The popular items are dining tables, kitchen chairs and cabinets for built-in appliances RBC.Issledovaniya Rynkov, 03 Apr 2017 AUSTRALIA: MORTGAGE SECTOR LEADERS SAY BANKS TO CONTINUE OFFERING BIG DISCOUNTS According Deloitte's annual Australian mortgage report, leaders of Australian mortgage sector stated that banks will keep on offering big discounts on standard variable rates to owner occupiers. They added that lenders will do so to protect their market share as nationwide property prices will continue to increase and investor lending is tightened.

13 The report, which surveyed 10 leaders of the mortgage sector, revealed that participants predict discounting to continue at a reduced rate of between 80 and 120 basis points. Six out of 10 respondents noted that house prices will continue to grow in 2017 although at a lower level than 2016 and 2015, two said house price growth would be flat and two said it would be higher. No one is expecting that there would be a significant downturn in house prices across Australia or that house prices in Melbourne or Sydney would decline. In 2016, total new lending volume stood flat at AUD384 billion (EUR billion/ USD billion) attributed to the pullback in lending to property investors to ensure lenders came within the 10% lending growth caps set by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Australian Financial Review (The), 30 Mar 2017 CANADA: HOUSING START REACH FASTEST PACE IN A DECADE Canadian housing starts surged to the fastest pace in a decade, led by apartments and condominiums. Housing starts soared 18 percent to an annualized 253,720 units in March, from 214,253 units in February, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said in a statement Monday from Ottawa. Multipleunit starts in urban areas surged 30 percent to 160,989 units.

14 Housing has been one of the main drivers of Canada s economy over the last several years, as interest rates remain at historically low levels. Policymakers have predicted exports and business investment would take over from housing and consumption when the economy returned to full capacity, but that hasn t happened yet. Fordaq, 11 Apr 2017

15 BRAZIL: FORESTRY FUNDS GREW IN 2016 According to data from consultancy firm Consufor, assets managed by funds in the forestry sector in Brazil saw a 13.7% increase to BRL10.90 billion (EUR3.27 billion/ USD3.49 billion) in assets in Consufor claims that the increase comes from those funds having acquired more forest areas, assets being worth more, and an increase in the price of wood. In 2017, there could be a similar expansion. In Brazil, 63% of funds investing in the forestry sector are from abroad. If the government revises restrictions imposed on foreign investors buying land in the country, the presence of foreign investors could increase. Folha de Sao Paulo, 03 Apr 2017 PERU: TIMBER INDUSTRY SEES POTENTIAL IN PLANS TO REBUILD THE COUNTRY The timber industry sees potential in the Peruvian government's plans to rebuild the country following the recent natural disaster. Notably the industry has not been affected by the crisis and roads blocked by landslides and flooding are expected to reopen soon.

16 The industry predicts that these plans will lead to growth of between 2% and 3% for the industry and could generate new jobs, particularly in carpentry. The sector has suffered from a continuous drop in export sales and production levels in recent years but this plan will boost the internal market. Notably exports fell by 12% in 2015 to total PEN million whereas imports reached PEN1 billion (EUR million/ USD million). On 19 February 2017, the Government published a legislative decree establishing measures to promote trade of forestry products. The Ministry of Agriculture seeks to create policies to boost the buying and selling of wood produced in Peru. La Republica, 02 Apr 2017 GLOBAL: OUTDOOR FLOORING MARKET TO GROW DURING As per a report published on WiseGuyReports.com, the global market for outdoor flooring is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.91% between 2017 and 2021, propelled by factors like high popularity of thermo-treated wood. Increasing inclination towards sustainable product development is also expected to influence the market growth, which is likely to be hindered by high fragmentation due to intense competition among vendors.

17 Timber Holdings, Mohawk Industries, Fiberon, AZEK Building Products and Armstrong Flooring are the key players operating in the market, while Citadel Floors, Polyflor and Tandus Centiva are among the prominent players in the market. Ein News - Press Releases - World News, 06 Apr 2017

18 Printed By: Trade Development Division MALAYSIAN TIMBER INDUSTRY BOARD (MTIB) (Ministry Of Plantation Industries & Commodities) Level 13-17, Menara PGRM, No. 8 Jalan Pudu Ulu, Cheras P.O.Box 10887, Kuala Lumpur