The Indonesian Plywood Industry: Market and future prospects

Since the mid-1980s, Indonesia has emerged as one of the biggest plywood suppliers in the world. Indonesian plywood has dominated many major markets around the world. However, due to economic crisis in 1997/1998 and other factors, the industry experienced a decline in overseas markets, which in which influenced the production and trade sectors. The objectives of this study were to analyze market and future prospects of Indonesian plywood industry. For the purpose of the study, data export of the plywood to sixteen countries for five years (2008-2012) and data export to Japan for thirty-one years (1982-2012) were collected. To predict the demand market of Indonesian plywood around the world, including in Japan, the obtained data was analyzed by using exponential smoothing model. Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) and Mean Squared Error (MSE) are also used to calculating demand sales forecast accuracy. The most prospective market of Indonesian plywood is Japan (1.09 million m3 until 2017) followed by China and Saudi Arabia.