Face veneer prices have shot up by Rs 2 and above due to unavailability of face veneer in plywood factories. The shortage is specially witnessed in Hardwood generated Face Veneer prices that is largely being purchased from Burma and Indonesia. According to a Ply Reporter correspondent located in Singapore, the factory operations in Burma have completely suspended their manufacturing operations due to unexpected rise in number of covid 19 cases.
The Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) imposed strict ‘stay-at-home’ restrictions for Yangon from 24 September. Only businesses involved in banking and financial services, petrol stations, food and cold storage, pharmaceuticals, and production of daily personal items have been exempted from the order. All wood processing industries in the area covered by the lockdown have ceased production. If the lockdown is extended for a month the impact on the wood processors and Face Veneer units may be severe.
Face Veneer suppliers confirmed the irregular supply of hardwood veneer from Myanmar and Indonesia, and say that unexpected rise in capacity utilization of plywood manufacturing units, has created a more than usual demand for face veneer products of every grade, whereas there are short of stocks of hardwood veneer. The shortage of Okoume Face Veneer is being also reported by every Industry cluster. Although, the expected improvement of supply of Okoume Face Veneer to begin from October third week is a hope. But hardwood face veneer supply is expected to resume back to normalcy only by November end. The face veneer short supply has created a demand-supply gap among plywood industry, which has been recovering its capacity to pre-covid level, mainly in Northern India.