The Japan Real Estate Institute recently announced the results of a survey concerning the value of timberland and the value of standing timber at the current time of the end of March. Excluding Hokkaido and Okinawa, the average value (per 10 are; 10 are = 1,000 square meters) of timberland nationwide was 52,747 yen (4.3% decrease compared to last year) for land used for timber and 34,851 yen (2.7% decrease) for land used for firewood or charcoal falling below last year's price for both. With these results, the value of timberland fell for the 18th consecutive year. The value (per cubic meter) of standing timber was 2,548 yen (19.5% decrease) for cedar, 7,850 yen (16.8% decrease) for cypress, and 1,466 yen (10.5% decrease) for pine with all three kinds decreasing a large amount in the two-digit range compared to last year. Cedar fell to the level of 1952, and cypress fell to the level of 1960.
For this survey of the value of timberland and standing timber, about 1,000 cities and towns that are thought to reflect the situation of the forestry industry best were selected, and survey questionnaires were sent to city or town offices and forest industry associations. The rate of response was 69.5%.
The value of timberland was taken from the price of the underlying land that was bought and sold as timberland, and for the value of standing timber, the standard was a common log with a diameter of 20-23 cm and a length of 3.65 to 4 m with production costs such as transport subtracted from the material price after the logs were taken to the nearest lumber market.
Due to the environmental problems and employment problems in recent years, interest in the management of timberland is running high, but because profitability in forestry management is still at a low, the value of timberland has fallen for 18 consecutive years since 1992 and has declined to the levels of 35 years ago.
The reasons for the drop in the value of timberland were in the following order: "drop in lumber prices" with 42.2%, "decrease in demand for lumber used for construction" with 30.4%, "no buyer" with 27.7%, and "uneasiness in the future of the forestry industry business" with 22.7%.
According to the value of standing timber based on the variety of wood, cedar, which increased for the first time in 17 years in the survey two years ago, decreased again for the 2nd consecutive year. Recently, demand for small diameter trees and demand for plywood has been supporting the price of logs, but in this recession, demand has drastically fallen, so the value of logs is still in a further declining condition.
This year's value of cedar (2,548 yen) dropped to 11.2% of the highest recorded value (22,707 yen) in 1980 and to the levels of 1952.
According to the institute, the major reason for the fall in the value of standing cedar was that the old-age logs that were diligently cultivated by forest growers were not valued in the market environment.
As for cypress, demand decreased because pure cypress material was not used for economic reasons, and a trend to use laminated wood made from foreign material became stronger leading to a drop in value of standing timber.
This year's value of cypress dropped to 18.3% of the highest recorded value (42,947 yen) in 1980 and to the levels of 1960.
Due to damage by pine weevils, the supply of pine decreased nationwide, so stable shipments of red pine and black pine could not be seen. In addition, the value of larch logs was stable due to demand as material for plywood and laminated wood, but production at plywood factories had drastically fallen due to the recent recession, so a drop in value of standing timber occurred.
