Cautiously bullish about timber recovery

SAME time last year, timber stocks were hardly in the radar screen of investors. Depressed timber prices, less than encouraging demand from traditional markets like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and uncertainties clouding the global economic landscape pretty much put paid to hopes of any renewed interest in the sector. That was then. 

Now, the sector may get the break it has long waited for. After two years in the doldrums and several false starts along the way, the recovery in timber prices since May last year is beginning to be noted by market participants. Since then, prices have risen by about 30 per cent with plywood and log prices currently averaging US$300 per cubic metre and US$100 per cubic metre, respectively.