The Malaysia Timber Council (MTC) forecasts a 5% growth for the timber industry based on the strong demand in the furniture sub-sector and signs of improvement in the US economy. The United States is Malaysian timber's second largest market after Japan.

The overall timber exports improved marginally by 0.3% in the first half of the year compared with the corresponding period last year while furniture exports rose 12% in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. Malaysia's exports of major timber and timber products contracted by 2.4% to
RM20.0bil in 2011 from RM20.5bil in 2010 due to the slowdown in the global markets. MTC chief executive officer Cheah Kam Huan said that ultimately, the target is to hit RM53bil worth of timber exports by 2020.

He said industry players had to look to growth markets like the BRIC (Brazil, Russsia, India, China) countries, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman and also South-East Asia. -StarBiz