Log trade with Japan to resume in January

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 2

Log trade with Japan to resume in January

PA' '• ' Auckland New Zealand’s log trade with Japan will resume in January ’. after talks this week ;in Auckland between' Japanese^traders, N.Z. Forest and . the Forest Service. The trade was suspended earlier this month after a breakdown; in talks between the Wain Suppliers and- the Japanese,' ' allegedly : j over quantity and' price. . An associate : director, marketing, of Forest Products, Mr G. Alexander, would only say yesterday that 'the agreement was for “a reduced,quantity of logs" and that the price was “satisfactory.”

. The log trade to Japan was worth $62 million last year. When the trade stopped earlier this month, watersiders and cartage contractors in the Bay of Plenty feared huge unemployment. :■ The log trade accounts for 40 per cent of the Mount Maunganui wharf trade. Be-; tweep 30 and-' 40 heavy trucks had been taken off the road recently because of a decline in the trade/ and another 15 would have- -been put off soon. . ? ' • ‘ Mr Alexander said that the New Zealanders had asked for a reduction- in quantity because of the ; temporary shortage of timber which New ■ Zealand will ex-

perience until about 1985. The Japanese, market for logs has declined because of the low level of building, and the flood of North American timber into Japan in the last six months. . A recent agreement ■• ’to resume the. sawn timber trade to Japan until ..December had been extended until the normal review date of March 31, 1981, said Mr A. A. B. Webby, the head of the commercial division of the Forest Service. • He said that the trade would be at the present-full volume of 4500 cubic metres a month, and at “improved prices.”