November 2023

November 2023

by | Oct 27, 2023 | Magazine

November 2023

Cover: Rosboro Grows With Glulam

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon – During the past decade-plus, Rosboro has made several major moves and undergone big changes, including the introduction of a revolutionary glulam product, the sale by family ownership to institutional investors in 2016 that included selling its timberlands—and subsequent acquisition by One Equity Partners in 2021. Along the way, the company has upgraded its operations and is on the cusp of a major expansion.

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Inside This Issue

TAKING STOCK: Major Project Plans Dominated 2023

Don’t look now, but the year is coming to an end. Overall, in terms of how the carious structural and non-structural panel and engineered wood products producers fared in North America, the feedback I’m receiving is at least “pretty good,” and one veneer-plywood producer went so far as to say, “I’m shocked at how good it has been.” I think it’s safe to say, at least as of this writing, that it has been “solid.”

READ MORE SOON

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

UPDATE
DRYING TECH

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Panel World November 2023.

  • Büttner
  • Dieffenbacher
  • Grenzebach
  • Raute
  • Stela
  • Taihei Machinery Works
  • USNR
  • Angelo Cremona
  • Westmill Industries
Wood Demand Numbers Shed Light On Raw Material Supply Chain

This brief white paper and a new interactive dashboard provides a quantitative view of the U.S. and Canadian forest products sector.

Article by William Strauss, President of FutureMetrics

PROJECTS
SUPPLY LINES
CLIPPINGS
  • Tolko Names Pucci As COO
  • Velarde Joins AFRY Team
  • Acres Partners With Forisk
  • Weyerhaeuser Goes After Carbon Credits
  • Roseburg Truck Goes Hybrid
  • Kiosk Improves Truck Turnaround
WHAT'S NEW
  • Longoni Roberto Touts Lamidry Process
  • Emission Control
  • Moisture Meter

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Rosboro Grows With Glulam

Article by Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Panel World

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon – During the past decade-plus, Rosboro has made several major moves and undergone big changes, including the introduction of a revolutionary glulam product, the sale by family ownership to institutional investors in 2016 that included selling its timberlands—and subsequent acquisition by One Equity Partners in 2021. Along the way, the company has upgraded its operations and is on the cusp of a major expansion.

“Not much has changed fundamentally for us—we’re still the same company with the same values and focus,” says Brian Wells, Rosboro Senior Vice President of Markteing & Strategic Development. However, no longer having that readily available and low-cost timber base to help absorb market impacts has made the company more responsive, he believes.

“The lack of timber has forced us to get better at what we do,” Wells says. “We make moves every day to respond to the market.” He adds that “at the end of the day we believe in our position as the top producer of glulam in North America—and we intend to keep growing that position.”

Rosboro is a legendary name in West Coast forest products manufacturing, founded when the Caddo River Lumber Co. moved west from Rosboro, Arkansas in 1939 and began producing lumber on the site it still occupies in Springfield. Veneer and plywood operations were added in 1959, and the company opened its first glulam plant in 1963. A pioneer then as now, Rosboro’s plant was the first to use a continuous fingerjoint line, RF glue curing and machine-rated lamstock.

GLULAM SUCCESS

A big part of Rosboro’s glulam market strength comes from X-Beam, the company’s full framing width stock architectural glulam introduced in 2010. The product turned heads and drew a slew of skeptics when it hit the market: priced the same as previous architectural beams but with more wood fiber to fit wall framing widths, many believed the product was leaving money on the table. However, X-Beam’s benefits, which include uniformity with standard framing widths, fewer SKUs for wholesalers to stock and better construction performance such as reduced shimming and other job-site alterations and modifications, won over the market.

After an upcoming expansion, Rosboro will operate four glulam plants.

Rosboro has occupied the same site in Springfield since 1939.

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September 2023

September 2023

by | Aug 28, 2023 | Magazine

September 2023

Cover: GP Takes Patchwork To Another Level

MADISON, Georgia – This June, Georgia-Pacific’s Madison plywood plant started up two new Raute automated poly patch lines, part of an ongoing shift towards automation company-wide. Since 2016, G-P has invested well over $65 million in capital projects at Madison, much of it in automating formerly manual positions.

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Inside This Issue

TAKING STOCK: Did It Ever Have A Chance?

Though I knew it was coming, it still caught my by surprise—the announcement earlier this summer that an asset liquidation firm had taken over the “orderly sale” of all machinery at the bankrupt CalPlant facility in Willows, California.

READ MORE SOON

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

PELICE 2024 Announces First Wave Of Keynoters

Organizers of the ninth Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) announced commitments from several industry personnel to deliver keynote presentations. Hosted by Panel World magazine and Georgia Research Institute, the event will be held March 14-15, 2024 at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, site of all the previous PELICE events.

READ MORE

UPDATE
EMISSIONS

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Panel World September 2023.

  • Büttner
  • Dürr
PROJECTS
  • Process Fire Protection Is A Priority At West Fraser OSB-Allendale
    Article submitted by FLAMEX and West Fraser
  • Timber HP Gears Up Wood Fiber Insulation Production
  • MDF Plant Orders Fiber Prep Line
  • CenturyPly Starts Up Refining System
  • Jiangsu Huidian Runs With U-Flaker
  • Project In Egypt Is Truly Unique
  • Ziegler Goes After Wood Insulation Board
  • Greenpanel Orders Chipping Line
WHAT'S NEW
  • EVO Handling System
  • Panel Repair Station
  • “Got Your Back”
  • Prepress Belts
CLIPPINGS
  • Herold Retires From Rainier
  • Is That Cool Or What? (writeup from Roseburg web site)
  • RoyOMartin Employees Better Themselves
  • Weyerhaeuser Buys 22,000 Acres
  • Late Coach Leaves Gift
  • Partnership Fights Fires

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GP Takes Patchwork To Another Level

Article by David Abbott, Senior Editor, Panel World

MADISON, Georgia – This June, Georgia-Pacific’s Madison plywood plant started up two new Raute automated poly patch lines, part of an ongoing shift towards automation company-wide. Since 2016, G-P has invested well over $65 million in capital projects at Madison, much of it in automating formerly manual positions.

Previously, the mill repaired small defects manually, with up to three people on each line per shift doing that repetitive job, according to Madison Plant Manager Tony Brown (who was promoted three months ago to a regional manager position, meaning he now overseas not only Madison but also G-P’s plywood facility in Gurdon, Arkansas.).

Most plywood mills patch unsawn panels, but G-P opts to patch sawn panels. It’s a more efficient approach, Brown believes. “It allows us to grade that panel visually at the panel saw so we come to the patch line with just the panels we know fit a certain grade and can be fixed.” This method, he says, prevents a lot of wasted time kicking out panels with too many defects to be patched or panels that don’t need to be patched.

Another benefit: greater precision and less error. With a manual operation, employees visually determine if defects fall within grade rule size parameters for patching. “So I am depending on a human to make that judgment call,” Brown says. “A computer can do that a lot better than a human eye can. With imaging software, it knows exactly within a millimeter what diameter that knot is, the length of that split, and it knows whether it meets grade rules or not, in a fraction of a second.”

G-P Madison replaced manual patching with two Raute automatic patching lines this summer.

Both patch lines are set up side-by-side, with infeed on the left (green) and outfeed on the right (orange x-lift).

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July 2023

July 2023

by | Jun 22, 2023 | Magazine

July 2023

Cover: Simsboro Still Gets It Done For Roseburg

SIMSBORO, Louisiana – If you want to see a plant that can survive, you’re looking at it. Nestled off I-20, in a town so small the state of Louisiana calls it a village (the 2021 population estimate was 791) there runs a particle-board plant—first built by Willamette in 1971, assumed by Weyerhaeuser in 2001 as part of the Weyerhaeuser purchase of Willamette, then Flakeboard purchased it in ’06 (installing a melamine lamination line in 2009), and then sold to current owner Roseburg in 2011 as the Oregon-based company expanded east.

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Inside This Issue

TAKING STOCK: . . . And Back In The U.S.

As has often been the case in my previous trips there, perhaps the leading topic of conversation at the Ligna show in Hannover, Germany in mid-May was the status of multiple new projects back in the United States, such as Roseburg’s new MDF plant in Oregon, Kronospan’s new OSB plant in Alabama, Hood Industries’ new softwood plywood mill in Mississippi and the discussion landed on some rumors that had been percolating.

READ MORE

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

UPDATE
World Stage For Wood Products Industry Lives Up To Hype At Ligna 2023 In Germany

HANNOVER, GERMANY – Numerous machinery and technology companies in the structural and non-structural wood-based panel industry exhibited at Ligna 2023 held May 15-19, and they were part of a larger event that covered the entire range of forest products production from forestry to windows, as 1,300 companies from 50 countries exhibited, attracting 80,000 visitors from 160 countries, with everyone excited to be there following the missed 2021 event due to the virus.

Look for continuing coverage of developments at Ligna in the upcoming issues of Panel World.

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

FIRE TECH

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Panel World July 2023.

  • Clarke’s PyroGuard
  • CMC Texpan
  • Electronic Wood Systems (EWS)
  • Fagus GreCon
  • Firefly
  • FLAMEX
PROJECTS
  • Hood Orders Westmill Dryers
  • Hood Taps Altec For Green End
  • Thebault Orders LVL Plant From Raute
  • Latvijas Finieris Plans Expansion
  • Barlinek Gears Up With Hymmen Line
  • Lumin Announces New Plywood Mill
  • New MDF Plant Comes On Fast
  • KEAS Starts Andritz Fiber Line
  • Ethanol Firm Processes Straw
CLIPPINGS
  • Luoma Announces Retirement
  • Norm Voss Receives CPA Landry Honor
  • CPA Recognizes Safety Leaders
  • Wood Turbines Will Use LVL
  • Egger Touts Recycling Center
  • ADMARES Plans Housing Factory
  • Universities Receive Mass Timber Grant
SUPPLY LINES
  • WMF Returns September 5-8
  • Westmill Going Strong At 48 Years

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Simsboro Still Gets It Done For Roseburg

Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Editor, Panel World

SIMSBORO, Louisiana – If you want to see a plant that can survive, you’re looking at it. Nestled off I-20, in a town so small the state of Louisiana calls it a village (the 2021 population estimate was 791) there runs a particle-board plant—first built by Willamette in 1971, assumed by Weyerhaeuser in 2001 as part of the Weyerhaeuser purchase of Willamette, then Flakeboard purchased it in ’06 (installing a melamine lamination line in 2009), and then sold to current owner Roseburg in 2011 as the Oregon-based company expanded east. Since then, Roseburg has continued to run the operation, called Simsboro Composites, with consistency and upkeep.

Current Plant Manager Cody Clark says production capacity is holding steady at 240-260MMSF, but could jump to 300MMSF with a few equipment changes that the team is currently looking at. “Not major changes,” he adds. “But definitely some investments if we choose to go that route.”

Perhaps the most important investment of all has been the emphasis on safety. Clark and Safety Professional Klay Koonce point to the operation’s 0.0 DART rate for the past 18 months. DART was developed by OSHA to provide a better idea of the impact of an employee situation. DART stands for Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred.

Koonce, who has worked at the Simsboro faciliy for a decade, says that it is easy for companies and facilities to say they put safety as a priority. At Roseburg, it is a value. “You can tell that on the floor, seeing improvements, that we are really putting safety as a top value. That goes a long way, a company that is willing to take care of you, and make sure you go home safe to your family at the end of the day. That is not a bad place to be,” Koonce says.

Clark agrees that by really pushing the value of safety, and not just giving it lip-service, has also improved the mill’s run rate—hitting production numbers that haven’t been see, ever. “Safe mills are mills that run well,” he says. “We are exceeding plans for production, having just sat a new weekly record.” Weekly targets aren’t the only thing being exceeded. One day, three different machine centers produced more than 1MMSF. Safe and happy Team Members work with pride, and that translates to increased performance.

“Any mill can get lucky in one week, but the way we’ve been running the last several months is astonishing,” Clark adds.

The key for Koonce is that he and the safety committee have been intentional with their behavior-based safety conversations and changes. He admits it has taken a while to get where they are now, but the mindset of Team Members has definitely changes. Safety meetings went from just grabbing pizza and talking, to tackling problems head on: Walking the floor as a committee and identifying potholes to repair; ladders that need to be replaced; adding machine guarding; housekeeping; fall protection; fire protection systems and more.

The 10 ft. Dieffenbacher continuous press works like a charm to hit 240-260MMSF annually.

Having two Metso/Lukki robots in the finishing end keeps production moving.

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May 2023

May 2023

by | Apr 20, 2023 | Magazine

May 2023

Cover: Swanson Group: Leader In Overlay

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon – Closely watched as one of two major plywood plant rebuild projects following disasters in 2014—a tornado at a plant in Mississippi in April and a fire at Swanson Group’s plant here in July—the Swanson plywood plant here really hit its stride several years ago after becoming fully operational in 2017, says Swanson Group President and CEO Steve Swanson. The facility is a top supplier of HDO and MDO plywood products and a top tier plywood producer overall.

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Inside This Issue

TAKING STOCK: Time To Stretch The Legs

In May, I depart for my 17th consecutive Ligna in Hannover, Germany. If the pandemic hadn’t canceled the event in 2021, I suppose this would have been 18. Regardless, I’m sure by now you’re thinking this guy must be getting up in years.

I know there must be many other Americans who have a longer consecutive Ligna attendance streak than me. But I know of only one—Fred Kurpiel, who is co-chairman with me of the PELICE event held in the off-Ligna year, and who had stints with Siempelkamp and Imeas in addition to his long-ongoing academic and consulting work.

READ MORE

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

UPDATE
Ligna

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Panel World May 2023 with regard to the Ligna event in Hannover, Germany, May 15-19.

  • Andritz
  • Anthon
  • Argos Solutions
  • Baumer
  • Biele Group
  • Büttner
  • CERATIZIT
  • CMC Texpan
  • Con-Vey
  • Cross Wrap
  • Dieffenbacher
  • Dunhua Bytter Technology
  • Dürr Systems
  • Electronic Wood Systems (EWS)
  • Fagus GreCon
  • Grenzebach
  • Hymmen
  • IMAL PAL Group
  • IMEAS INTEC
  • IPCO
  • John King Chains
  • Ledinek
  • LIMAB
  • Longoni Roberto
  • Meinan Machinery Works
  • MINDA
  • Modul Systeme
  • MoistTech
  • MUNZING
  • Omeco
  • Pallmann
  • PESSA
  • Plytec
  • Siempelkamp
  • stela Laxhuber
  • Taihei Machinery Works
  • USNR
  • Wemhöner
  • Willamette Valley Company
Assessment Of The Ever Evolving Engineered Wood Industry In 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first part of a two-part series. The first part is intended to update current products and performance of the North American based Engineered Wood Products (EWP) industry, with a focus on the Mass Timber products of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and Mass Ply Panels (MPP). The second part will analyze and forecast market trends, and discuss emerging products and new processes designed to better meet construction needs. Throughout, the two installments will outline the key role that the EWP industry plays in providing cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and innovative wood products that meet market needs better than conventional solutions.

Article by Richard (Dick) Baldwin, Frederick T. Kurpiel, Richard (Rich) Baldwin

PROJECTS
  • Sonae Arauco Plans New Production Line
  • Arauco Announces MDF Plant In Mexico
  • India’s Greenpanel Grows With MDF
  • Jiangxi Luli Goes With Stela Drying
  • Metro Ply Brings In First Board
  • Con-Vey Names Product Manager
  • Raute Appoints Moilanen As CPO
  • Dieffenbacher Names Energy Unit Director
SUPPLY LINES
  • WMF Returns To Shanghai
  • Raute PRS R5 Proving Itself
CLIPPINGS
  • Hunt Forest Products Supports Innovation Center
  • Roseburg Adds Russ To Commercial Team
  • Sonae Arauco Beefs Up Sales/Marketing
  • Roseburg Builds Executive Team
  • Simsboro Mill Noted For Safety
  • SNA Adds Rupp As Senior Recruiter
  • GP Contributes To CLT Project

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Swanson Group: Leader In Overlay

Article by Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Panel World

SPRINGFIELD, Oregon – Closely watched as one of two major plywood plant rebuild projects following disasters in 2014—a tornado at a plant in Mississippi in April and a fire at Swanson Group’s plant here in July—the Swanson plywood plant here really hit its stride several years ago after becoming fully operational in 2017, says Swanson Group President and CEO Steve Swanson. The facility is a top supplier of HDO and MDO plywood products and a top tier plywood producer overall.

After announcing the rebuilding project in January 2015, the Swanson Group sought to get the facility back up ASAP. Considering the economic climate and overall market strength, Swanson says it was a bit of a “desperate time” for the company, and he couldn’t build the mill “by just throwing everything at it” like major capital projects in the past.

As the mill started up in 2016 and first began peeling, Swanson leveraged production immediately, first selling green open market veneer, then dry veneer as the various production equipment came on line.

“Finally we started laying up some product (late 2016), but all the while we were trying to preserve our market share in overlay,” Swanson says. During construction the company had leased the old Pacific States Plywood plant nearby to make some basic, one-step overlays. Not the best idea, since the facility wasn’t designed for it, he says. “But we were able to make some product there.”

Swanson also moved a small amount of overlay production to its Glendale, Oregon commodity plant. Again, both situations were less than ideal, but the commitment to the overlay market remained.

The same commitment has come into play more recently: As sheathing prices skyrocketed several years ago, Swanson could have halted its overlay program, reduced costs and chased the market with almost all sheathing products.

Some of the sales staff wanted to do just that, but the company didn’t. “Instead, we stayed with our overlay program and actually increased our overlay market share during that time,” Swanson says, adding that many mills that had dabbled in overlay products made the switch to sheathing, which provided more of an opening to expand overlay output.

“We gradually increased prices as costs have gone up, and we have maintained a margin in that product,” Swanson says. “I think today we’re the largest overlay producer in North American, certainly from a single facility.”

Panel upgrade department readies product for higher end overlay application; Swanson’s Springfield plant operates extensive veneer and panel processing to improve quality and efficiency.

Since it peels almost twice as much as is pressed each month, the plant sells its surplus veneer on open market.

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March 2023

March 2023

by | Feb 20, 2023 | Magazine

March 2023

Cover: QC Special Section

Quality Control, need we say more? A dozen suppliers weigh in with their latest QC technologies and systems.

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Inside This Issue

COVER: Quality Control Special Section

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Panel World March 2023.

  • Argos Solutions
  • Baumer
  • Biele Group
  • CMC Texpan
  • Custom Engineering
  • Fagus GreCon
  • Imal-Pal Group
  • LIMAB
  • Raute
  • Siempelkamp
  • Taihei Machinery
  • USNR
UPDATE
LeBlanc Has Settled In As Leader Of Longtime Closely Held Hunt Forest Products

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this is the March issue of Panel World, and March means baseball (to some people), what better person to interview than Richie LeBlanc, president and CEO of Louisiana-based Hunt Forest Products, LLC? No, we’re not interviewing him about baseball because his insights into the forest products industry take center stage here.

Emphasis On Customer Support Bodes Well For Dieffenbacher U.S. Operations Moving Forward

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dieffenbacher Customer Support, LLC has completed 10 years of operation in the U.S., and with that in mind Panel World tossed several questions at Bernd Deffland, President & CFO; Colin Folco, Director Modernization; and Rolf Krey, Director After Sales.

PROJECTS
  • Tolko Plans High Prairie Rebuild
  • RoyOMartin Plans More Work At Chopin
  • Southern Veneer Upgrades Pendulum
  • Wisewoods Orders Refining System
  • Steves & Sons Orders Door Skin Lines
SUPPLY LINES
  • Con-Vey Promotes Goebel To VP
  • Buttner Expands Product Range
  • Dieffenbacher Buys Energy Firm
  • Peak North America Acquires Endurance Equip
  • Daubert Names New Leadership
CLIPPINGS
  • Pacific Woodtech Rebrands As PWT
  • Egger-Lexington Enhances Recycling

Find Us On Social

Taking Stock: Heck Of A Commercial Dispute

The temporary closure of Structurlam’s Conway, Ark. cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam plant and the apparent severing of the plant’s relationship as a major supplier for Walmart’s new low carbon footprint and energy efficient corporate campus in nearby Bentonville marks yet another growing pain for an industry that’s just getting started realizing its amazing potential.

In 2019 Structurlam announced that the new campus project was to be fed by Structurlam’s new CLT facility that included a $90 million investment to upgrade a former steel mill and convert it to a CLT plant. Structurlam would become the “exclusive supplier of mass timber products” to the new Walmart home office campus, covering 350 acres, two million square feet of floor space and multiple office buildings.

The project moved along, and many were surprised in January this year when Structurlam officials announced the plant would be closing due to a customer contract cancellation, and we can only assume it means Walmart, though Structurlam refers now only to the “customer,” and says there are no plans to enter into a new commercial agreement. Walmart has announced it is still committed to its new HQ project and would be looking at other suppliers.

As to what happened, Structurlam CEO Matthew Karmel refers to it as a “commercial dispute, but we cannot discuss the specifics.” More specifically, according to sources in the CLT industry, the plant may have “overcommitted” to Walmart while dealing with startup issues, and there may have been dispute over product quality or composition. Then again, Structurlam started up and began delivering product in the teeth of the pandemic, experiencing supply chain issues and lumber price increases that weren’t planned for.

Following the 2021 bankruptcy of Katerra and its CLT plant in Spokane, Wash.—which set out to revolutionize the construction industry using pre-fab building and mass timber construction principles but couldn’t get out of its own way—the mass timber industry had re-gained the momentum, and is definitely expanding as designers, engineers and architects learn more about it. A couple of recent developments:

  • Officials with Freres Lumber in Lyons, Ore. report their mass plywood plant is booked out several months of production and is supplying a large 18- story mass timber office building project in California, working with a major commercial builder that recently started a new mass timber building division.
  • CLT producer Smartlam in Dothan, Ala. recently announced an expansion to add a new glulam beam line.

Back to Structurlam, CEO Karmel says the state-of-the-art Conway plant has met the vigorous startup challenges “with flying colors—its cross-laminated timber and glulam production capabilities already exceed its plan objectives and its processes have been validated repeatedly by the APA to exceed U.S. regulatory standards.” And, Karmel adds, Structurlam is in a strong position to resume Conway operations as the rapid growth of mass timber across North America continues to drive demand for manufacturing capacity.

That is, with Walmart out of the way, the Conway facility now has the ability to support new customers with more than 1 million cubic feet annually of mass timber products.

Article by Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Panel World

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January 2023

January 2023

by | Dec 19, 2022 | Magazine

January 2023

Cover: Annual Directory & Buyers’ Guide

Looking for product information and equipment manufacturer locations? Look no further than the best worldwide source—the Panel World Annual Directory & Buyers’ Guide.

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Inside This Issue

COVER: Annual Directory & Buyers’ Guide

Looking for product information and equipment manufacturer locations? Look no further than the best worldwide source—the Panel World Annual Directory & Buyers’ Guide.

UPDATE
Water Handling Is Key To Maximizing Wet ESP Performance

Your new wet electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is up and running smoothly. You have a clean gas stream. You have passed your emissions test out of stack and your RTO is running smoothly with a satisfactory bake-out rate. The battle is over, right?

Article by Mike Puersten, Director of TurboSonic Products at MEGTEC TurboSonic, Inc., a division of Dürr.

PROJECTS
  • Corrigan II Marches On
  • Roseburg Orders Super-Long Dryer
  • First Board For Küpeliler
SUPPLY LINES
  • Siempelkamp Hosts Customer Symposium
  • John King Chains Wins MHEA Award
  • Borg’s Latest MDF Line Is Rolling
  • New Lubricant Sees Acceptance
  • Siempelkamp, SMARTECH Offer New Solution

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Taking Stock: The Business At Hand

Some forecasts coming out of APA—The Engineered Wood Association annual meeting in October painted a rather bleak economics picture for 2023. It was no surprise, given the already downward trending in housing starts, the steady upticking in interest rates and the gradual decline in many panel prices toward pre-pandemic levels. Though a couple of attendees mentioned to me that they thought the outlooks came across a little too negatively. “We aren’t there yet,” a producer executive said to me. “We’re doing okay at the moment.”

But barring the unforeseen, 2023 stands to be a challenging year, with some producers weighing production reductions while mill expansions still wrestle with supply chain issues and for that matter decide they aren’t in a hurry anyway.

No doubt many operations are already catching their breath following the tremendous post-pandemic surge. Now it becomes a matter of tweaking and timing.

A soft market is a good time to assess how the operation and mill fared through the hard run during the up market. Certainly through good times or bad most operations have systems and programming, and human beings, in place to provide immediate data feedback, but there’s nothing like a deliberate analysis, the results of which can range from everything to the need for a piece of equipment, to updating systems, to adding QC personnel, to simply a new paint job.

READ MORE

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World

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