The Yen has been strengthening against the US dollar since April and at the current rate of Yen 90 per US dollar it is some 10% up on a year ago. While this is basically good news for importers it is bad news for exporters. An additional currency issue facing Japanese importers of SE Asian logs and plywood over the past months has been the appreciation of the currencies in the exporting countries compared to the US dollar. In February the Indonesian rupiah was as low as 12,000 to the dollar but it has topped 9,300 recently representing a 22% jump. The Malaysian ringgit is up about 12% from six months ago. As most of the business with Japan from the region is dollar denominated, exporters have been trying to push up export prices.
