by Brad Jackson | Dec 13, 2017 | Taking Stock
Article by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief
With attendee registration opening online January 1 (www.pelice-expo.com), the 2018 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELCE) kicks into high gear. Panel World magazine serves as the media host for the biennial event, which will be held April 13-14, and which will be held for the sixth time at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
This PELICE will also celebrate a special anniversary that almost caught us by surprise. It’s been 10 years since the first PELICE in 2008. Which begs the question, what were we all doing in the spring of 2008 when the first PELICE was called to order.
Frankly, the organizers of that first PELICE, including yours truly, were quite nervous. We were saying to each other, “We must have been out of our minds,” and accusing each other of “getting us into this.”
When I say “we,” I mean FredKurpiel of Georgia Research Institute, who had approached me in the summer of 2006 with the idea of starting PELICE, and I mean me, who had responded to Fred that it sounded like a good idea.
By the time we got serious about it, in mid 2007, a booming housing market had already stalled, home foreclosures were increasing drastically by the month, and the subprime mortgage industry was collapsing. About the time of our first PELICE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen more than 20% in five months.
Our country hadn’t named it yet, but we were in The Great Recession, which the Federal Reserve would ultimately recognize as beginning in December 2007 and ending in June 2009, though its aftershock permeated our industry at least into 2012.
Despite all of that, the first PELICE attracted 500 industry personnel, which told us there was a need for an event that combined the non-structural and structural segments of the panel and engineered wood products industries. If you were there, you may be thinking there was no way 500 people were there. That’s because the conference was spread out all over the Omni on three floors. Now you remember. Fortunately since then PELICE has been exclusive to the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel.
Also fortunately since then the economy has continued to improve. Particularly during PELICE 2014 and PELICE 2016 much of the discussion was about new plant projects and expansions, and PELICE 2018 looks to have more of it.
The recession of 10 years ago taught us that things can change in a hurry. We seem to be rolling along rather smoothly now and we know there’s potential for more building growth. So as the good times roll, PELICE is planning a champagne brunch on the second morning of the event not only in recognition of its modest longevity, but also to salute the resiliency of the panel industry during the same period.
By the way, the above headline is a quote from Winston Churchill. See you April 13-14.
by Brad Jackson | Oct 12, 2017 | Update
The sixth Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) will celebrate its 10-year history as part of the event to be held April 13-14, 2018 in the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Held every other year, and hosted by Panel World magazine, the first PELICE took place in 2008. All of them have been held at the Omni Hotel, though participants will remember the first one in 2008 occurring on three levels of the hotel, before the event settled into the Grand Ballroom North in ensuing years.
“It was not the best of times,” comments Rich Donnell, co-chairman of PELICE and editor-in-chief of Panel World magazine. “In fact, it was the worst of times as the Great Recession began hitting its stride.” But Donnell notes that the producer and supplier segments of the industry showed up to support the event nonetheless.
“PELICE remains unique in that it brings together the structural and non-structural industries,” Donnell says. “When the conference ends I think people leave with a real feel for the big picture, in addition to accumulating the information they need to make improvements to their operations.”
Donnell expects PELICE 2018 to represent the positive momentum of the building products industry. “We continue to look at 1.2 million housing starts or so in the U.S., but there remains that untapped potential to get to that 1.5 or higher mark.”
What it’s going to take to make that happen will be one of the points addressed by Roger Tutterow, professor of economics and director of the Econometric Center at Kennesaw State University. Tutterow, who last spoke at PELICE in 2014, is highly regarded for his financial expertise, economic forecasts and statistical modeling because of their pinpoint accuracy.
“He also brings a lot of energy and humor to his presentations,” Donnell adds. “We feel very fortunate to be able to have him on our program.”
As it was at PELICE in 2016, the subject of ongoing mill projects will continue to be a theme of PELICE 2018. One of the keynoters who will address his company’s recently announced project is Grady Mulbery, president and CEO of Roseburg Forest Products.
Roseburg, based in Oregon, plans to build a laminated veneer lumber facility in Chester, SC. Groundbreaking is planned in early 2018 with operation startup in mid 2019. Roseburg is no stranger to LVL and engineered wood products, as it has been operating a large plant in Riddle, Ore. since 2001.
In addition to addressing ongoing projects, PELICE will look at recently completed projects, such as the new Swanson Group plywood mill in Springfield, Ore. and Winston Plywood & Veneer’s new plywood facility in Louisville, Miss., with representatives from those companies speaking about the evolvement of the projects, high points and low points, lessons learned, workforce practices and getting into post-startup.
PELICE will also address cross-laminated timber and mass plywood panel. While much of the CLT momentum has been generated in the Northwest, the announcement this summer by International Beams to build a CLT facility in Alabama brings the discussion into the southern pine belt. Representatives from International Beams will address the marketing potential of the southern pine CLT product as well as the manufacturing intricacies.
And while CLT has come on strong, Freres Lumber in Oregon is starting up a plant to manufacture an alternative product it calls Mass Plywood Panel. A representative from Freres will speak about their new manufacturing plant and further developments in the marketplace.
Addressing the big picture and potential of “Tall Wood Construction” in a keynote talk will be Bob Glowinski, president and CEO of American Wood Council. He’ll discuss what is being done to take it into the mainstream under U.S. building codes.
Speaking of alternative products, a representative from CalAg will speak about that company’s ongoing construction of a rice straw-based medium density fiberboard plant in Willows, Calif. “This herculean effort required 20 years of absolute never-say-die commitment from the principals involved,” Donnell comments.
Other PELICE sessions will address various aspects of panel production, including resins and adhesives, fire prevention, air emissions control, dry end technologies, quality control and others. The specific timeline agenda will be announced soon as presentation proposals continue to come in.
PELICE 2016 attracted 450 industry professionals including representatives from 32 wood products producer companies worldwide. They heard 50 presentations and viewed 80 equipment and technology exhibitor sponsors. Donnell says they’ve added several more exhibitor spaces for 2018.
PELICE exhibitors are broken into Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorships. As of late September, Gold sponsors included B&W MEGTEC, Dieffenbacher USA, Hexion, Sandvik, Siempelkamp and Sigma Thermal-TSI.
Silver sponsors include Atlantic Combustion, Argos Solutions, Baumer Inspection, Biele, Brunette Machinery, Cogent Industrial Technologies, Con-Vey, Dustex Lundberg, Electronic Wood Systems, Georgia-Pacific Chemicals, Globe Machine, Grenzebach, IMA Schelling, IMAL-PAL, Limab North America, Matthews Marking Systems, Meinan Machinery Works, MoistTech, NESTEC, Pallmann Industries, Player Design Inc., Process Combustion, SolaGen, SonicAire, Spraying Systems, SUGIMAT, Timber Products Inspection, Venango Machine/Custom Engineering, Westmill Industries, Willamette Valley Co.
Bronze sponsors include Automation Industries, CMA Engineering, Continental Conveyor, Flamex, Georgia Forestry Commission, GreCon, Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Assn., Mid-South Engineering, Process Sensors, Rodewisch, Steinemann Technology, TANN Corp., Wechsler Engineering and West Salem Machinery.
As usual, PELICE will be preceded by the fifth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo on April 11-12, and nearly half of the PELICE exhibitors also exhibit in the Wood Bio event as combo sponsors.
For exhibitor sponsorship information, e-mail: [email protected]. For presentation information, e-mail: rich@hatton brown.com.
Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products will expand its operations in the Southeastern U.S. with construction of a new engineered wood products plant in Chester, SC.