world news - 22.05.2003
Bosnian wood and timber indastry on brink of collapse. Trade associations of timber and wood industry's companies within the chambers of commerce of Bosnia-Herzegovina's two entities insist on the immediate discontinuation or the drastic restriction in the export of logs and sawn timber.
Businessmen from this sector insist on such measures in order
to prevent the collapse of the wood and timber industry in Bosnia, which seems
imminent.
Last week, the leader of the said trade association within the
Croat-Muslim Federation's chamber of commerce, Jago Cavara, said the export of
logs on a mass scale from Bosnia since the end of the war had almost destroyed
domestic manufacturers in the wood-processing sector. At the same time, these
sectors in Slovenia, Austria and Italy based their success on the import of the
raw material from Bosnia without any restrictions.
Cavara added that the wood and timber industry in Bosnia had
registered a surplus in trade in 2002, but this success should be ascribed to
the export of logs and sawn timber.
Furniture manufacturers in Bosnia are faced with huge problems,
as they have to import some sorts of hardboards, given that not any of pre-war
manufacturers of this kind of material has been active in the country.
"If nothing is done soon, local saw-mills will have nothing to
saw in one year's time," said Enver Soskic, the assistant of the managing
director of a Sarajevo factory for the production of furniture.
Cavara and Soskic said that in 2002 a temporary ban on the
export of logs had been prepared but the outgoing government at the time said it
could not adopt such a decision at the very end of its term of office, while the
new composition of the Council of Ministers refused to adopt the ban with an
explanation that it was contrary to rules on free trade.
The two added that they did not insist on an absolute ban on
the export but that companies from the wood-processing sector only asked for
measures which would ensure supplies for their activities. (hina) ms.
See also:
- — According to the latest statistics, China's imports of timber continued to climb in the first quarter of 2003.
- — Nordic papermakers should face low yet stable European demand in coming months, but earnings could be hit by a stronger euro if the sector upturn they hope for does not emerge in the second half, analysts said.
- — China Becomes Global Furniture Manufacturing Center. In 2002, China's total furniture output value arrived at USD 20 billion, an equivalent of RMB 165 billion, accounting for 10% of the world's total furniture output value.
- — Moldovan Exhibition Centre To Host Two Intl Fairs May 21-25, 2003
- — Producers' stocks of market pulp in Finland, Sweden, Canada and the United States rose in April by a more-than-expected 127,000 tonnes versus March to 1.59 million tonnes, Finland's forest industry said on Tuesday.