Importance of Dipterocarps in the Malaysian and international wood market

Malaysia is at the geographical center of the region from where most of the commercial dipterocarps come. The overwhelming majority of traded dipterocarps come from South East Asia, up to Papua New Guinea, and from India and Sri Lanka. From the sixties to nowadays, the world market of tropical timbers has shifted from the North to the South, and so have shifted the markets for dipterocarps. Trade of tropical timber has always been a fraction of the total consumption, with the most of the volumes concerning domestic markets. The case of dipterocarps is not really different, and their major producer and comsumer is now Indonesia. Malaysia has always exported a substantial share of its production of timber, and dipterocarps form the bulk of it. Red Meranti, Balau, Kapur, Kerning, Light red Meranti, Seraya etc. form 89% of the log exports from Malaysia, and 87% of the sawn timber exports. In terms of wood volume, all together, and with some variation from year to year, dipterocarps form between 80 to 90% of Malaysian timber products trade. The genera mostly represented are Shorea, Parashorea, Dryobalanops, Dipterocarpus. Asia represents 66% of their markets (mostly China and India), Oceania 5%, Africa 3% and the Western countries represent 26%. In the nineties, most of the South East Asia trade of dipterocaps was heading to Japan. Nowadays, China attracts the major share of the volume. Chinese imports of dipterocarps mostly come from Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia. India has is becoming the next big market for dipterocarps, with a special interest for “Malaysian Saal” (Shorea spp). The future demand of wood from dipterocarps will not increase in the Western markets, but will continue to increase in Asia, fueld by the construction demand and the expansion of the middle classes in China, India, and Indonesia. (Texte intégral