THE SUPPLY OF TIMBER IN MIYAGI PREFECTURE

Abstract

The analysis of regional (local) timber markets is important in order to make understood the regional characteristics of the flows of timber. For this reason, the author analyzed the changes of timber supply areas in Miyagi Prefecture in relation to the rapid growth of demand in Sendai timber market. The results of the analysis are summarized as follows: (1) The timber supply area of Sendai includes Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures, but most of it is made up of the eastern region of Miyagi Prefecture and Sendai City itself. (2) In the eastern region of Miyagi Prefecture, the sawmills are divided into two groups because of their sales areas. The northern area, which is mainly concentrated in Motoyoshi County, ships most of its timber to Sendai and outside of Miyagi Perfecture such as Tokyo. The southern area, which is located in Ishinomaki City, ships their timber to the small local consuming areas of Ishinomaki and Sendai. (3) In Ishinomaki City, the largest timber producing area in Miyagi Prefecture, the location of Woodwork Manufacturing Estate for Sendai timber market affected the organization of timber supply. Up to the middle of the 1960's when the Woodwork Manufacturing Estate was established, most of the sawmills were small to medium, in size and used only domestic timber and shipped most their products to local consumers in Ishinomaki. Put, since then, some of the large sawmills and factories in the Woodwork Manufacturing Estate have supplied the imported timber to small to medium sized sawmills in Ishinomaki City and become wholesalers of timber as well. Consequently, some of the larger factories have come to control the small to medium sized sawmills in terms of the supply of imported timber. The existence of a dual structure between the large and the small to medium sized sawmills in the timber industry in Ishinomaki was to be noticed (4) In the Motoyoshi County, where is an abundance of forest resources, most of the sawmills which were established at the ealier stage, and most of their products were supplied to the consumers in Sendai, with a exception of a few small sawmills which met the local demand for timber. But for the past 5 to 10 years, most of the sawmills have started to ship their products to the markets in both Tokyo and Sendai. Owing to the shortage of domestic timber, the linkage with the Sendai market becomes rather unstable recently. (5) In the case of Sendai City, the size of mills are small, but sawmill operators also perform the function of dealers in timber market. This has been brought by the diversified demand in the market. Thus, it would be appropriate to recognize the sawmills in Sendai as timber dealers rather than as sawmills. They sell timber produced by other sawmill together with their own products. They usually buy timber and deal with sawmills in Motoyoshi and Ishinomaki in the wholesale market in Sendai. In addition to these another feature of sawmills in Sendai is based on the fact that most of mills are located in such a conjested urban area that they cannot meet the rapid growth in demand for timber.