WOOD COMPOSITES INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA: WHERE ARE WE HEADING?
Rahim S. and Koh M. P.
Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109 Kepong, Selangor
Email: [email protected]
With depleting supply of good quality timber over the last two decades, the Malaysian timber-based industry has changed towards downstream production as way to maximize the yield of forest resources as well as agricultural by-products such as rubberwood and oil palm fibre. Currently, Malaysia has 11 particleboard mills, 11 medium density fibreboard (MDF) and one cement-bonded particleboard (CBP) plants in operation.
The raw materials for these wood composite productions are mainly rubberwood, sawmill residues, mixed hardwood species and oil palm empty fruit bunches fibre. The production capacities of particleboard, MDF and CBP are estimated about 829,600 m3, 1.153 million m3 and 70,000 m3 per year respectively.
The production capacity of particleboard is expected to increase to above 1.8 million m3 per year as a result of the plant expansions at MIECO and HeveaBoard recently. Almost 80% of the wood composite products are exported and generates more than RM 5 billion revenues annually.
Statistics have indicated that Malaysia exported more than 1 million m3 per year and became the second largest MDF exporter behind Germany since 2001 until 2004. In 2005, France exported 1.144 million m3 MDF and became the second largest exporter compared to Malaysia exported slightly lower at 1.065 million m3.
Both particleboard and MDF have been widely used to support the furniture industry in the country either for local or export markets. Based on the expansion of the wood composite mills as well as production capacities, it is expected that this industry has good prospect and demand in the future.
Moreover, the raw materials which consist of any llignocellulosic materials are easily available in the country. Besides particleboard and MDF, other wood composite products such as oriented strand board (OSB), wood polymer composite (WPC) and other advanced composite materials made from carbon-based fibres may also provide other alternative products in the future.
For more information on this paper, please contact the author at the contact details above.
For more information on FRIM and the CFFPR Meeting, please contact Dr Mohd. Nor Mohd. Yusoff, Senior Director, Forest Products Division, Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). Email: [email protected]
