While traditionally known as a sawmill show, the recent Timber Processing & Energy Expo experienced a healthy turnout from producer companies that also participate in the structural panel and engineered wood products sector, including the likes of ATCO Wood Products, Boise Cascade, Coastland Wood Industries, Columbia Forest Products, Freres Engineered Wood Products, Georgia-Pacific, Hood Industries, Hunt Forest Products, Murphy Company, Pacific Veneer, Pacific Wood Laminates, PotlatchDeltic, Rainier Veneer, Rosboro, Roseburg Forest Products, SmartLam North America, and Weyerhaeuser, to name a few.

The event, held September 28-30 at the Portland Expo Center in Portland, Ore., featured 170 exhibitors, 1,225 (non-exhibitor) registered attendees and another 900 exhibitor personnel. Produced by Hatton-Brown Expositions, an affiliate of Panel World magazine, the every-other-year event was last held in 2018, due to the pandemic canceling the show in 2020. It marked the fifth TP&EE since its inception in 2012.

“It has been the million-dollar question for the Portland show as long as I can remember: Should the structural panel industry receive equal billing as the sawmill industry?” comments Rich Donnell, Show Director and Editor-in-Chief of Panel World. “We have never promoted it that way, and certainly there was far more sawmill influence at this TP&EE, but given some of the comments we’ve received since the show, we’ll definitely need to look at it moving forward.”

More than 110 wood producer companies sent representatives to the event. Several TP&EE exhibitors, such Altec, Westmill, MDI, Samuel, Signode, Taihei Machinery and USNR, do considerable business in panel and EWP.

In addition to the exhibits on the show floor, one feature of the event that both panel and lumber segments enjoyed was the conference, From Forest to Frame: Mass Timber Developments, which featured 10 speakers, and which was followed the next day by a Mass Timber Tour of Freres Engineered Woods in Lyons, Ore. and TallWood Institute in Corvallis, Ore.

The conference included a panel discussion on Tracking and Transparency in the Forestry Supply Chain, moderated by Evan Schmidt, outreach and education manager, TallWood Design Institute. Also, Iain Macdonald, director of Tallwood, spoke on The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition—Connecting Oregon’s Forests to Mass Timber Manufacturing; Jeanelle Leafblad, senior director, WoodWorks, addressed Growing Market Demand for Wood Products; Allan Czinger senior account manager, USNR, spoke on Optimizing Sawmills for Mass Timber Production; Russ Vaagen, founder and CEO, Vaagen Timbers, talked about Mass Timber: From Early Adopter to Mainstream Buildings; and Derek Ratchford, CEO, SmartLam, addressed U.S. South Mass Timber Growth.

The next TP&EE is scheduled for September 25-27, 2024.

APA—The Engineered Wood Assn. presented Tony Vuksich the 2022 Bronson J. Lewis award during the APA Annual Meeting held October 15-18 at the J.W. Marriott Turnberry Resort in Aventura, Fla. The award is named in honor of the late Bronson Lewis, who served for 24 years as secretary and then executive vice president of the association. The award recognizes individuals for their leadership and outstanding contributions to the engineered wood industry.

Tony Vuksich, center, flanked by his wife, Anita, receives the Bronson J. Lewis Award from APA Board Chairman Roy O. Martin III.

Vuksich recently announced his retirement after serving the engineered wood industry for 50 years. He began his life-long career with Willamette Valley Co. in 1972 in sales. He became a branch manager in 1976, a regional manager in 1980, vice president of the northwest in 1996 and global wood vice president in 2010. He also supported the establishment of Willamette Valley Co. facilities in Chile and the Netherlands.

In addition to his work with Willamette Valley Co., his contributions to the engineered wood industry include a 20-year term serving on the EWTA (Engineered Wood Technology Assn.) Advisory Committee where he worked on funding special projects for APA and promoting the EWTA Info Fair and membership. He has served as an active member of the Wood Based Composite Center for the last 12 years. He has organized APA’s Mike St. John Golf Tournament for the past 35 years. Vuksich will continue to contribute to the industry maintaining the golf tournament operations.

A standing ovation greeted the announcement by APA Board Chairman Roy O Martin III. Accepting the award, at times his voice breaking with emotion, Vuksich read the names of the previous recipients of the award and commented, “I don’t belong on this list, but here I am.” He thanked his wife, Anita, for her support during all his travels, and he thanked the engineered wood industry community for providing him lifelong friendships and experiences.

APA President Mark Tibbetts added, “On behalf of the members and APA staff, we wish Tony only the best in his retirement.”

Mika Saariaho’s starting date as President and CEO of Raute Corp. has been specified. He will start in the position on October 1, 2022. On May 24, 2022, Raute announced Saariaho’s appointment and that he will assume his position at the latest on November 24, 2022. As announced earlier, Petri Strengell, who has acted as the company’s interim President and CEO since May 1, 2022, will continue in his role as the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and member of the Executive Board when Saariaho takes over the position as President and CEO.

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The International Woodworking Fair (IWF) at the Georgia World Congress Center completed four days of tremendous activity on Friday, dominated by 925 exhibits. Machinery on tap was mostly downstream, remanufacturing and secondary processing, with some primary manufacturing technologies and laminate printing mixed in. But perhaps what stood out the most were the impressive exhibits of some of the major wood products producers and their display of multiple product lines.