Wood, wood, wonderful wood...

The wood I really need for this little Somes Sound 12 1/2 is Mahogany, as in the tree above.
But you just can't get it in Hong Kong.
When I visited the Dorfield yard last week, I kind of hoped they might have some, but no luck. All they have is pine, some plywood (not Marine grade) and Douglas Fir.
Florence Tang is the MD of Dorfield -- I'm guessing the daughter of the founder -- and she told me that she could get me some wood that is good for marine use and is called, in Chinese 杪 木.  That's pronounced "Miǎo Mu".  Florence didn't know the English for it. I looked it up and there's no compound with "wood", but the meaning of "miao" is a "twig" or the "end of a branch".  (btw: wife Jing didn't know the character, so I'm allowed not to know it).  I asked Rocky, our builder, and he said he thought it was another way to write 梢 (shāo), and he's quite right, for that also means "tip of a branch".  
He reckoned that it was "Bangkirai" in English.
Again, he was right, for when I searched Google for 梢木, I find that it's Latin name is "Shorea" and that one of its common names is Bangkirai and also Lauan and Philippine Mahogany.
When I told Florence this, she answered as follows:
About your request "Lauan" we say that is "柳安木". This kind of wood nature are soft. So we are not advice use this.
We are advice the wood is "Batu". Which is suitable for building ship. We supply "Batu" wood for "Star Cruises" for repairing work right now. You can consider on it. So I can provide the price for 1" X 12" X 14feet of Batu (抄木 ) or Lauan for you.
But I would like to know that do you need to plane?
Hmmm, the mystery deepens a touch.  
I answer that "yes", I'd like to have price of Batu (whatever that is!) and that I do need to plane (a bit)