These companies allegedly ‘dump’ cheap panel plywood products into Korea
KUCHING: Eight of the nine companies being investigated by the Korean Timber Authority (KTA) for allegedly ‘dumping’ cheap panel plywood products into the Korean market are from Sarawak.And the alleged dumping margin — the price difference between the Korean market and the Malaysia market — is a whopping 87.6 per cent.
This was disclosed by Sarawak Timber Association (STA) chief executive officer Lee Hua Seng when met at the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) building yesterday.
He said a group of companies, through the Korean Plywood Association (KPA), had made a petition against these Sarawak companies claiming that because of the ‘dumping’ Korean companies had suffered badly.
“The Korean investigating authorities are now initiating an investigation on nine companies (which are) mandatory respondents, and eight are from Sarawak,” he said.
He added STA is not able to disclose much on this as it is the state association’s first experience in handling the case of such nature.
He said although the dumping allegation is not the first being hurled at timber-related companies in the state, the case involving the eight companies is the first to have been brought to the attention of STA.
“Basically we don’t know much about the whole issue as this is the first case brought to STA’s attention,” he said, adding STA would try to assist the affected companies to refute the allegation.
On the total export of panel plywoods from the state to Korea, Lee said it was slightly more than 530,000 cubic metres and valued at about RM574 million.
“There are some 34 plywood manufacturing companies in Sarawak but not all are exporting their products to Korea,” he said.
Meanwhile, STIDC trade development’s senior assistant general manager Dayang Nena Abang Bruce, in her opening remarks during the opening of a briefing on anti-dumping investigation by the Korean Timber Commission at STIDC, said although the Korean market only made up about 21 per cent of the total export by the state, serious actions must be taken by all interested parties to ensure that the case brought against the local companies could be settled without any negative impacts on other importing countries.
She pointed out that if the case failed to be handled properly, it could have a spill-over effect in such countries as Japan, the biggest importing country for panel plywood products from Sarawak.
“We had experienced the effect of the world economy slow down last year and the plywood industry was not spared.
“Now we can see that there are signs that the situation is improving and this may even last until the end of the year.
“Therefore, we can’t take this matter lightly because even if the export market is small, it still generates income to the state,” she said, adding the plywood industry should regard the more friendly condition now as a chance to do better.
She said because STIDC and STA had no experience in handling such cases, they must rope in the Ministry of International Trade and Industries (Miti).
The briefing, which was conducted by senior officers from Miti, was attended by both plywood manufacturing factories and exporters.