Malaysia eyes india to raise Wood Exports

NEW DELHI, April 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia wood manufacturers are tapping into new regional buyers and market-stable India blips brightly on their export radar.

With demand fatigue seizing major economies like Japan and the United States, Malaysian companies such as Kedah-based Consistent Pattern Sdn Bhd, a leading rubber wood producer, is trying to prise into demand-driven Indian market to promote their products.

"Our major buyer is Japan where we export about 90 percent of our wood. But due to the crisis, the market is slowing down and we only do about 60 percent now and another 20 percent to US," Joanne Ng Loo Suan, marketing manager of Consistent Pattern, told Bernama.

"We are trying new markets like India because India is a large market with growing demand for eco-friendly hardwood," she said.

Since 1997, the company had been exporting about 10 containers per month of its high-quality wood-based products, like furniture parts and components, to India but with the shrinking demand from major buyers, it targets to multiply its exports to the sub-continent market.

"We are looking at increasing to about 30 percent growth in 2009 for the Indian market," Ng said.

"The company is trying to establish distributors in each state like in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to expand our business here," she said.

Rubber wood produced in the company's 13-acre factory in Kawasan Perusahaan Kuala Ketil, are largely used in furniture production and kitchen panelling, items which are in popular demand in India among modern housing developers and affluent consumers.

Consistent Pattern with more than 30 years of expertise in wood-based industry, along with other Malaysian wood manufacturers and the Malaysian Timber Council, are in Delhi to attend Panelexpo 2009, the fourth international wood-based product exhibition held in Delhi.