KUALA LUMPUR: AS other industries have slowly returned to normalcy in their business operations, the timber industry is still feeling the pinch.
The Timber Exporters' Association of Malaysia (TEAM) has urged the government to assist and lift the industry back to its glory days to ensure it can remain competitive in the global landscape.
Its president, Chua Song Fong, said there has been a significant drop of volume in timber exports.
The impact, he said, can be felt throughout, from upstream to the downstream, including those involved in logging activities, manufacturing, furniture producers, timber treatments and also logistics.
"This is due to instabilities of geo-political situation between the east and west. The supply of raw materials is also one of the issues faced by the timber industry," he said in an interview with the New Straits Times.
Also present was TEAM committee member Chris Tan.
"At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, Malaysia made a pledge to maintain at least 50 per cent of Malaysia's land mass under forest and tree cover.
"As of last year, Malaysia's forest cover was at 55.31 per cent or 18.27 million hectares of its total land area.
"Our Forestry Department has imposed very strict policies on the allowable cut rates in line with government's pledge to preserve the forest cover. Hence, production of logs has significantly reduced every year."
However, he said there was a need to improve the availability of raw materials to keep the industry going and allow it to continue exporting to 180 countries.
"We are doing our part to sustain our forests, but we are facing a shortage of raw materials. How can we have output when we do not have input in terms of raw material.
"We are from the second generation, and we hope the industry can last many more generations. We hope steps can be taken to protect the industry as well.
"Being an export-oriented industry, it is important that we continue to produce timber products to bring revenue to the country and contribute to Malaysia's gross domestic product," he said.
TEAM said there were short-term fixes and also long-term solutions that can be taken by the government via the Malaysian Timber Industry Board to ensure the industry stays relevant.
With a lack of raw materials, Chua suggested that importation of raw material is necessary. He said timber raw materials can be sourced from other countries.
He added that policies to ease the import of timber was necessary so that the raw material can be obtained at minimal costs.
For long-term measures, he proposed for a forest replanting exercise.
"Policies and efforts must be implemented from now because this involves a long gestation investment.
"We must act now so that our supplies will stabilise within 15 to 20 years," he added.
Chua said timber industry players were also experiencing other obstacles to export their products, while Tan said that market access has also been a stumbling block for them.
He said that different countries impose specific requirements which needed to be adhered to and they had no choice but to comply for the products to enter the said countries.
"This is where the government can get involved to ease the requirements imposed by importing countries," he said.
"As private companies, of course we cannot do it ourselves, hence we hope the government is open to work with the private sector to ensure the industry remains competitive," he said.
With huge potential for the industry to grow further, Tan hopes to attract more local talent to be involved in the industry which has always been perceived as a 3D (dirty, difficult and dangerous) industry.
He also said that while companies have to rely on foreign workers to carry out more labour-intensive work, the younger generation can also come in for supervisor roles and upwards in the organisations.
The timber industry is also slowly embracing automation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) to be more efficient, hence talented and knowledgeable Malaysians will always be in demand.
"We want to see more Malaysians join in the supervisor roles and even take up the management positions.
"It is difficult to attract local talent. The environment in factories have improved drastically but the perception and association of the work to the 3D sector have not changed," he said.