By Rupa Damodaran
Published: 2009/11/11

MALAYSIA’S industrial production contracted by 6.0 per cent in September, much sharper than the -2.92 per cent economists had expected, dragged mostly by weaker manufacturing output. The Statistics Department said the Industrial Production Index (IPI) contracted at a revised -7.0 per cent in August, due to decreases in manufacturing (-7.9 per cent) and mining (-3.0 per cent).

Month-on-month, the IPI decreased 2.4 per cent while for the first nine months of 2009, it declined by 10.98 per cent. However, the September index showed the smallest year-on-year decline since October last year, said an economist. Standard Chartered Bank economist for Southeast Asia, Alvin Liew, said September’s industrial output numbers were a marked improvement when compared with the high-double digit declines recorded in December 2008 and January this year.

“With the manufacturing sector still in high-single digit decline in the third quarter which we estimate at -9.0 per cent year-on-year, we do not expect to see a strong growth number coming out from services in that quarter, we are likely to see the headline third quarter gross domestic product to still be declining on year-on-year terms,” he added.

The electricity sector’s output increased in September by 1.8 per cent from a year ago, while the manufacturing output fell 7.9 per cent. This was due to decreases in the output from the electrical and electronics products (-22.2 per cent); wood products, furniture, paper products, printing (-12 per cent) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (-7.2 per cent).

The mining sector’s output shrank by 3.0 per cent in September due to the decreases in crude oil index (-4.2 per cent). The natural gas index increased marginally by 0.1 per cent.

Source : BERNAMA

Moscow. Nov 10, 2009. /Lesprom Network/.

Timber has helped keep Latvia’s state-owned railway company on track, it has been revealed, as KMS Baltics reported. Speaking to the Baltic Times, Kaspars Herhards, the country’s minister of transport, explained that although rail freight volumes have been falling in Europe, Latvijas Dzelzcels has bucked the trend.

He said: “Latvijas Dzelzcels is an exception – last year the volumes of freight increased and this year until now these volumes are being maintained.” Timber is one of the goods most commonly transported by rail in the nation, along with coal, sugar and grain.

Source : Lesprom.com

Dompok To Lead Palm Oil And Timber Mission To Europe

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By: Ramjit

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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 (Bernama) — The Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Tan Sri Bernard Dompok will be leading a working visit to Belgium, Netherlands and Germany this Nov 12 – 20. The delegation will comprise representatives from his ministry, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Malaysian Timber Council (MTC), Malaysian Timber Certification Council, Sarawak’s Department of Agriculture and representatives from the industry.

The visit is intended to strengthen ties with cabinet ministers in Europe as well as improve market access for palm oil and timber products, a statement from the ministry said here on Tuesday.

The Europe mission is also expected to disseminate information on efforts currently undertaken by the ministry on the issue of palm oil and timber sustainability while promoting a positive image for Malaysia’s commodities. Dialogue sessions have been organised with several groups and associations of interest and these include trade associations, palm oil and timber buyers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), government agencies and other related bodies.

During the visit, Dompok will address three forums on the “Sustainability of Palm Oil”, to be hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation in Berlin, Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Hague and SME Union in Brussels.

He will also deliver a keynote address on sustainability, trade and energy security as well as free trade/renewable energy directive during the forum. The events are expected to be attended by Europe’s prominent policy makers and businessmen.

Discussions will also be held with ministers related to agriculture, energy, environment and economic affairs, among others. In Berlin, Dompok will be meeting with Germany’s Parliamentary State Secretary, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Dr Gerd Muller as well as Deputy Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation & Nuclear Safety, Ursula Heinen-Esser.

The meeting in The Hague will be with The Netherland’s Minister of Agriculture, Gerda Verburg and its Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven. In Brussels, the meeting will be with EU’s Chairman of Parliamentary Committee (Environment) Jo Leinen, EU’s Commissioner of Energy, Andris Piebalgs; and EU’s Commissioner of Enterprise & Industry Gunter Verheugen.

They will, among others, address policy issues such as negotiation on Malaysia-European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) and Malaysia’s efforts on sustainable development for palm oil and timber products.

Among other issues to be discussed will be the impact of EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation for Chemical Substances (EU-REACH) on palm based derived products and oleochemicals as well as the negative campaigns carried out by NGOs. The minister will also visit the 41st World Forum for Medicine and International Trade Fair 2009 (MEDICA) in Dusseldorf, Germany which will be participated by 15 Malaysian rubber product manufacturers.

EU is one of Malaysia’s main export destinations with exports of palm oil, rubber and timber products running into billions yearly.

Source : BERNAMA

B.C. lumber a part of China’s $586-billion stimulus package

British Columbia took a step forward Monday in opening up the Chinese market to this province’s wood products with a memorandum of understanding signed Monday in Shanghai by Forests Minister Pat Bell. The MOU with the Shanghai Housing Bureau is aimed at hitching B.C. and Canada to a $141 billion urban housing initiative that’s part of China’s $586 billion stimulus package.

Also Monday, the Shanghai civic government officially adopted a wood-frame housing building code. B.C. and Canadian agencies have been aiding Chinese officials in developing a building code that provides assurances that wood products meet specified building standards.

The Chinese government is committed to building six million new affordable housing units by 2012. The B.C.-Canada contribution is small in terms of the scale of the Chinese housing program – $800,000 from Natural Resources Canada – but significant.  It marks the first time B.C. wood products will be used in the Chinese program.

The money will go towards three demonstration projects:

- New wood-framed commercial buildings – the first application in China of so-called hybrid housing which combines a concrete main floor with two upper storeys of wood above.

- New walk-up apartments with wood-truss roofing, the first time B.C. technology will be used in new apartment construction in Shanghai.

- Wood-frame partition walls in apartments.

“It focuses on the new applications of wood,” Bell said in an interview. “Shanghai is looking at the use of wood from an environmentally-friendly approach. It’s too early to say this is a breakthrough but today’s signing opens the door. “Now we have to demonstrate that wood is cost-effective, durable is easy to construct.”

Bell is in China along with the chief executive officers of the province’s largest forest companies on a trade mission to promote B.C. wood products.

ghamilton@ vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Published on: Saturday, November 07, 2009

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Timber Industry Employees Union (STIEU) Sec-Gen, Jevry Anggah, hopes the Government will consider discussing the issue of demands for a minimum pay rate as well as cost of living allowance (COLA) for private sector workers.

He said this had been part of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) struggle but after so long it was left just like and no more pursuit made on the matter.

“This is very important for the benefit of private sector workers, particularly in Sabah, where workers like those working the factory like us are paid RM12 a day for those on the daily payroll or RM240 a month for those received monthly salary, while those working the administration section received RM340 a month,” he said.

Describing it as most unacceptable, he said this also does not reflect the ’1Malaysia’ concept popularised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

Source : DailyExpress.com

MTC to promote glued-laminated timber

By LEE KIAN SEONG

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) plans to extensively promote the glued-laminated (glulam) timber industry in Malaysia to help local timber manufacturers move up the value chain. MTC timber industries development division director Wong Tuck Meng said glulam timber was a relatively new product in South-East Asia but widely used as a major building component in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Glulam timber involves the process of gluing pieces of timber into a larger “dimensional” piece, and can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes.

»We have set up an interest group on glulam timber« WONG TUCK MENG

Properly treated, glulam timber has the advantage of being weather-resistant. Wong told StarBiz that a working trip to Australia last year had ignited MTC’s interest in promoting the glulam timber industry in Malaysia. “We have set up an interest group on glulam timber, which will involve stakeholders in the local timber industry.”

“This will include timber manufacturers, government agencies like MTC, Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Forest Research Institute of Malaysia as well as universities and other professional bodies.” he said. Wong believes that it is time to have a closer look at glulam timber as part of efforts to diversify the local timber industry.

“MTC has obtained positive feedback on the potential of glulam timber industry in Malaysia based on discussions with architects and timber manufacturers nationwide,” he said, adding that glulam timber was suitable for use in the building of structures such as stadiums, bridges, hospitals and schools. Glulam timber products also hold tremendous export potential.

“There is no reason why Malaysia cannot make it big for glulam overseas given Australia’s success in Dubai while New Zealand exports to Hong Kong,” Wong noted. “For exports, we should not aim at traditional markets like Europe but focus on countries that do not have manufacturing facilities.”

Wong said the initial plan would be to create demand for the domestic market but “it is still too early to project local (demand),” adding that Malaysia had ample timber resources to produce glulam timber products. But he acknowledged that finding the right level of skills to produce glulam timber would be a challenge. To address the lack of skills, MTC will be organising training courses to the United States for designers and manufacturers beginning this month.

Wong noted that the initial investments for the manufacturing of glulam timber products could range from RM2mil to RM3mil. He revealed that “a company from Johor has bought over a second-hand factory in Australia and is transferring the operation to Malaysia. The production, which is for the domestic market is slated for next month.” The company will be the first to produce glulam timber.

5 November 2009, Stuttgart – Composites Europe the European trade fair for the composites industry has once again registered noticeable gains at this year’s event which was held in Stuttgart from 27 to 29 October. With a 15% increase in exhibitor numbers and a 48% increase in trade visitors compared to the previous event, the show continues on its successful course unhampered. A total of 313 exhibitors from 25 countries and 6,120 trade visitors came to the fourth edition of the show.

“Composites Europe again proved a European impulse-giver for the composites industry“, said Hans-Joachim Erbel, Managing Director of the organisers Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH, at the close of the three-day fair.

“In a difficult economic environment, Composites Europe, which can also be considered an innovation barometer, sends important impulses to stimulate the industry. Many of the innovations presented are ready for serial production or about to be launched onto the market and will therefore find new customers in the near future “, says Volker Fritz, President of the European industry association EuCIA, a partner of the show.

According to a survey taken by an independent market research institute at the show, more than 60% of the companies interviewed expect a pronounced increase in orders and another 27% expect the economic situation to remain at least stable. Fewer than 10% of companies assume that the sales situation in the composites sector will deteriorate further.

Organisers say that intentions to invest match these high expectations. “One in three companies came to Stuttgart with concrete projects“, says Markus Jessberger, Event Director with Reed Exhibitions Deutschland. “Almost 20 percent of these came with investment projects worth more than € 200,000 and another 17% had projects with a value in excess of € 1m.” The focus of interest was on raw materials, production and reinforcement technologies, but also on hybrid materials, semi-finished and finished products, according to the organisers.

Visitors to the show came from both the composites sector and the application industries. Among the latter, almost every second visitor came from the automotive sector (44%), followed by the aircraft and aerospace industry (35%), building and construction (19%), ship and boatbuilding (18%) and wind park construction (17%). “For us, Composites Europe provides access to a specialist audience we cannot reach in this composition at any comparable trade fair“, says Jürgen Grimm, Managing Director with Weiss Chemie & Technik GmbH.

Dr. Elmar Witten, Managing Director of AVK – Federation of Reinforced Plastics, sees the composites industry facing three major challenges. “The image and level of recognition of materials, innovation in products and processes and proof of sustainability of reinforced plastics – these are the challenges every company must take up. Doing so will create good prospects for the future and growth opportunities in the composites market “, Witten said.

International AVK Conference – biomaterials a focal topic

Now in its fourth year, the event started with the international AVK Conference numbering more than 350 participants. “The AVK Conference, despite the difficult situation in the composites industry, met with a positive echo“, was the satisfied comment from AVK Managing Director Dr. Elmar Witten. No fewer than 35 lectures in three sessions featured in the two-day programme. Biomaterials were one focal topic, with the nova-Institut (Hürth) staging its Biomaterials Congress as part of the AVK Conference for the first time. Green materials were also the theme at the Bio Materials Pavilion which, with the support of the nova-Institut, the European industry association EuCIA and NetComposites, displayed the latest materials developments in structural and multifunctional construction elements made from wood and cellulose fibre-reinforced composites.

Presentation of the AVK Innovation Awards and Composites Pioneer Award

Once again, AVK presented its innovation award this year for outstanding developments in the area of reinforced plastics. Five winners altogether were awarded a prize in four categories. In the industrial category, Volkswagen AG and Dresden Technical University shared the first place with the BMW Group; in the environmental category, the happy winner is DSM B.V., and the University Award went to the Department of Plastics Processing of RWTH Aachen (IKV).  A special award was granted by AVK to cpm composite products mücke for the ‘SplashCar’ .

For its pioneering role in the field of natural fibre-reinforced plastics the BioConcept Car project won the Composites Pioneer Award 2009. The project run by Four Motors GmbH from Reutlingen competes successfully in long-distance challenges with racing cars made from natural fibre-reinforced plastics.

Composites Europe 2010 in Essen

As in previous years, Composites Europe 2010 will be held in parallel with the Aluminium World Fair and Congress from 14 to 16 September 2010 in Essen. At this stage, organisers say that  70% of the exhibition space in the Essen Exhibition Centre is already booked.

Source : Innovationintextiles.com