TIMBER merchants are claiming victory after the Government made a U-turn on plans to cut logging storage sites on Lantau.
The Government will now recommend more space for logging merchants who last year protested against plans to reduce the sites.
The merchants, operating at Yam O, northwest Lantau, claim timber prices have been pushed up by almost 150 per cent since last October. They say this is due to government clearance of some of their log ponds to make way for the North Lantau Expressway.
The Hongkong Timber Importers and Exporters' Association chairman, Mr Wai Kam-chiu, said yesterday: ''The Government had chosen to ignore our importance and the impact on the market when it cleared our log ponds.
''Now the Government has been proved wrong.'' The Yam O log pond area shrunk by more than 40 per cent from 171,640 square metres to 100,700 square metres.
Some merchants had blocked the bay in October to resist clearance but they finally conceded and were given a smaller site.