At The Core
Recent Deaths Leave Void In Technology Community by Rich Donnell
Many phone calls and e-mails surged my way when two industry figures I had known for many years passed away in January. Earl McCarthy and Ole Sorensen were involved in the wood based panel industry right up until their deaths.
I ran into these men at equipment shows and association meetings during the course of each year for more than two decades, and saw them last year like clockwork at these same events. I counted on them being there. They each possessed great wit.
Clippings
Industry Developments
Arauco, Chile’s largest forest products company, will embark on a comprehensive carbon footprint assessment project to determine its emissions and capture of greenhouse gasses (GHG) from the forest floor to finished products.
The study, which is expected to be completed at the beginning of the third quarter of 2009, will be conducted by AECOM Environment. The assessment seeks to determine the direct and indirect GHG emissions from Arauco’s operations and value chain in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, including emissions from harvest operations and the transport of significant raw materials and products.
Feature
Forest to Fuel: The State of Bioenergy and Its Raw Materials by Pete Stewart
As 2009 unfolds, the state of wood-to-energy industries is uncertain. Though there have been announcements for new facilities that would bring bioenergy’s total wood fiber consumption to 30 million tons by 2015, Forest2Market’s forecasts predict that only about half of announced capacity will make it into full production. Even given this more conservative assumption, the resulting disruptions to the wood fiber supply chain will be significant, rivaling the effects brought about by the introduction of OSB in the 1990s.
Wood pellet manufacturing—the most established and stable of these markets—is important locally, as small plants produce anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 tons of pellets to meet local demand. Increasingly, large pellet plants—built primarily to meet the demand for exports to Europe—are producing 500,000 to 600,000 tons of pellets annually. Because of the stability of the market, wood fiber consumption by pellet manufacturers in North America could quickly become
Roseburg Taylorsville P’Board Facility has Tough of Green
Particleboard manufacturers commonly purchase sawdust from regional sawmills. However, with sawmills facing slumping lumber markets and log shortage issues, the amount of sawdust produced has been greatly reduced. This sawdust shortage has affected production at some particleboard plants.
This location of Roseburg Forest Products, which produces particleboard and specialty products, is facing the same raw material dilemma. Sawdust received from sawmills in a 100 mile radius of Taylorsville has been reduced in recent months. In light of this development and the potential for future competition from the biomass sector, Roseburg is now procuring an alternative raw material feestock: urban wood waste.
Select Veneer Navigates Stormy Waters with Quality, Flexibility by David Abbott
Select Veneer Co., located near Louisville, manufactures and distributes a variety of veneer, custom panels and plywood products. Brothers and co-owners Frank and Doug Kilibarda, along with Vice President of sales Ryan Waldo, have developed a business model and philosophy aimed at making domestic manufacturing competitive with overseas and domestic rivals by reinvesting in the industry at home, maintaining flexibility and giving customers what they want in a timely manner. Putting that idea into action, the company completed installation of a new automated high-production panel line last year. In addition to that line, the company also has a largely manual custom line for blueprint matching based on architects’ specifications.
“What we offer is vertical integration and attention to quality control,” Frank says. “We had 13 people making 250 panels a day, in a hard work environment. Now we have three people making 500 panels a day (on the high-production line). Before, we were
Projects
Recent Mill Orders, Installations & Startups
The surge of new orders from China for HDF/THDF plants over recent years and the growing demand for continuous production systems has resulted in a substantial buildup of installation activity for the panel plant supplier Dieffenbacher, according to the Eppingen, Germany-based company.
The market in China has grown steadily during the last few years because of China’s rapid increase in furniture and components exports as well as a stable growth of domestic demand for these products.
Supply Lines
Equipment & Supplier News
Silvaris Corp., Bellevue, Wash., has expanded OSBMarket into the Northwest states and Florida. Buyers in Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho and Florida are now be able to purchase OSB online.
Existing regions were also refined to reflect better marketplace outreach, allowing for delivered prices that more accurately reflect freight costs in specific areas. Products will also be made available that may not be available in other areas.
Taking Stock
New Magazine on the Horizon
The middle of an economic downturn is no time to sit idly by, or else when the rebound happens you’ll be a step behind those who have regrouped, repositioned, perhaps even rebuilt.
Our magazine publishing business is no different. As a result, we’ve taken a hard look at where we are, and in particular we’ve been searching for an opportunity during this moment of economic adversity.
Update
Breaking News
Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. appointed Richard Huff as President and CEO. Huff was most recently CEO of the Sinclar Group, a privately owned forest products group with mills in the British Columbia interior, and before that head of OSB operations for Tolko Industries. Robert Allen steps down as interim-CEO and resumes full time responsibilities as Chief Financial Officer.
mills in Cook and Bemidji, neither of which had been running.
What’s New
New Products & Technologies
Italpresse offers the MARK/C Through-Feed Hot Press with Ultra Scan for a lean manufacturing approach to laminating panels with decorative surfacing materials and wood veneers.
The press features an optical scanning system to detect the size and position of the panels entering the press. A PC based controller uses this information to automatically control the pressure and stroke of each individual press cylinder. Even with batch sizes of one, no input is required from the operators from cycle to cycle to obtain consistently beautiful results.