by Web Editor | Feb 16, 2018 | News
A North Carolina manufacturer plans to create more than 100 jobs by becoming Maine’s first producer of a composite wood strong enough to replace concrete and steel in high-rise buildings.
LignaTerra Global LLC of Charlotte announced plans at Bangor’s Husson University on Tuesday to build a $30 million, 300,000-square-foot factory to produce cross-laminated timber. Planning to build on a 35-acre portion of Millinocket’s 1,400-acre former Katahdin Paper Co. LLC site, the company hopes to break ground in July and start production in 12 months, said Nick Holgorsen, CEO and co-founding partner of LignaTerra.
One of two cross-laminated timber manufacturers in the country, LignaTerra aims to be the first investor to revitalize the site since parent company Brookfield Asset Management closed Katahdin Paper in 2008, laying off 208 workers and crippling a Katahdin region economy that had been home to world-class papermaking for more than a century. The failure of a more recent effort — Cate Street Capital’s proposed pellet mill — left current site owner Our Katahdin, a nonprofit economic development group, about $1.5 million in inherited tax debt.
LignaTerra leaders declined to say how much of the $30 million they will provide. The project’s private investors will be announced in several weeks and the company is working to secure tax breaks, said Brien Walton, director of the Center for Family Business at Husson University, who helped broker the deal.
“The bottom line is that if they wanted to do it all cash, right now, that is something that could be done, but we are trying to get the right parties and the right partners and to aggregate something that will be beneficial to the region and also sustainable to the long term,” Walton said during Tuesday’s news conference.
From the Bangor Daily News: https://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/13/business/latest-bid-to-revive-shuttered-katahdin-mill-promises-100-jobs/
by Web Editor | Feb 7, 2018 | News
Panel producer Norbord has posted record earnings in 2017 for its worldwide business. The company also achieved record production at nine of its 15 mills, while the Inverness OSB expansion project was also completed.
Peter Wijnbergen, Norbord’s president and CEO, described 2017 as an outstanding year, with record adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$672m. “US housing starts continued to improve, led by stronger growth in the single-family segment, driving increased North American OSB demand and prices,” he said. “Our European business had another solid year due to record sales volumes and improved prices for all our panel products across our key markets.”
He highlighted “great momentum” moving into 2018, with demand in all its core markets remaining strong.
“Meanwhile, our European business is poised for improved earnings next year as OSB substitution for plywood drives accelerated demand growth in our core UK and German markets.”
In Europe, shipments increased 5% over the prior year, with its mills running at 99% of capacity in 2017. In local currency terms, full-year average panel prices improved 11% from 2016.
From Timber Trades Journal: https://www.ttjonline.com/news/strong-panels-markets-boost-norbord-earnings-6046604/
by Web Editor | Feb 2, 2018 | News
Katerra, a technology company redefining the construction industry, recently announced an $865 million Series D funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. The financing will be used to fund Katerra’s continued manufacturing expansion and for further investment in its R&D efforts.
“The construction industry is ripe for digital disruption” said Michael Marks, chairman and co-founder of Katerra. “Katerra leverages its own software platform to remove time and costs from building development and construction. This new round of funding will enable us to further invest in R&D and continue to scale the business.”
Founded in 2015, Katerra has already accomplished the following in less than three years:
• Accumulated more than $1.3 billion in bookings for new construction, spanning the multi-family, student and senior housing, and hospitality sectors
• Amassed a global team of more than 1,300 people, attracting senior leadership and talent from groundbreaking technology brands such as Apple, Google, HP, Nokia, Sandisk, and Flextronics
• Opened a fully operational manufacturing facility in Phoenix, AZ with a roadmap in place for multiple additional domestic factories, including breaking ground on a mass timber factory in Spokane, WA.
“The $12 trillion construction industry is extremely fragmented with tens of thousands of companies using minimal levels of technology. While labor-productivity growth has skyrocketed in the overall global economy, the construction industry has averaged only 1% annual productivity growth over the past two decades,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers.
Read more on this from Forest Business Network at https://www.forestbusinessnetwork.com/79294/katerra-raises-865m-as-it-redefines-the-construction-industry/.
by Web Editor | Jan 31, 2018 | News
American Forest & Paper Association President and CEO Donna Harman and American Wood Council President and CEO Robert Glowinski issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) issuance of new guidance to reclassify certain major sources as area sources under the Clean Air Act:
Donna Harman, President and CEO of AF&PA
“For too long, the air permit process has been overly bureaucratic, slow and outdated, thereby causing unwarranted red tape, costs and delay for the regulated community. In some cases, these problems have been created by agency interpretations that are not even consistent with the plain meaning of the Clean Air Act as written by the people’s duly elected representatives in Congress. The old ‘Once In, Always In’ approach contradicted both the law and common sense by treating a source as major even if production process changes or controls permanently reduced emissions levels to the minor source level.
“We applaud EPA’s new guidance, which is faithful to the text of the Clean Air Act and will not only reduce unwarranted red tape but will remove disincentives to voluntary efforts and technical innovations that could reduce emissions.
“This action is consistent with our recommendations to EPA and the Department of Commerce in response to President Trump’s early directive on streamlining permitting and reducing regulatory burdens to promote domestic manufacturing.”
Robert Glowinski, President and CEO of AWC
“Reforming the cumbersome environmental permit system is essential to reviving the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. Eliminating the old ‘Once In, Always In’ policy is a step in the right direction to streamline the air permitting systems.
“We are pleased that EPA has returned to the plain reading of the Clean Air Act for air toxic regulations. The old policy arbitrarily put a facility into a regulatory time warp from which it could never escape.
“Eliminating the OIAI policy creates incentives for facilities to reduce emissions below the regulatory thresholds which is a win for the environment and a win for business.
“The regulatory burdens of complying with a MACT standard are significant, especially for smaller mills, which this policy could help. Mills that are able to reduce their emissions below the threshold, and this guidance gives them an incentive to do so, should be freed of unnecessary reporting, monitoring and recordkeeping requirements as long as they operate controls to stay below the cutoffs.
“Consistent with today’s action, we encourage EPA to make the appropriate changes to the regulations as soon as possible.”
From the American Forest & Paper Association: https://www.afandpa.org/media/news/2018/01/26/forest-products-manufacturers-applaud-epa-permit-streamlining
by Web Editor | Jan 29, 2018 | News
New mass timber products are becoming more widespread and encouraging builders, designers, and engineers to search for the best applications for mass timber initiatives. A few of the mass timber building products available today include:
• Cross-laminated timber
• Nail-laminated timber
• Glue-laminated timber
• Dowel-laminated timber
As they test the capabilities of these materials, designers are looking to existing mass timber buildings around the world for examples and inspiration.
Canadian and European researchers and architects began experimenting with the design of mass timber buildings in the 1970s. European timber projects have shown that weight matters with structural systems, and mass timber structures weigh up to one-third as much as their concrete counterparts. This fact has made wood construction a viable prospect in places where building height and weight are limited, such as city utilities, subway tunnels, and underground rail yards.
Due to their lighter weight, mass timber buildings are more resilient in seismic zones. They carry less inertia, so the possibility of destructive swaying goes down. This approach was recently applied in the Brock Commons tower, an 18-story college residence designed for the University of British Columbia by Canadian firm Acton Ostry Architects.
The 173-foot-tall tower combines glue-laminated columns, cross-laminated timber floor slabs, dual concrete cores, and steel connectors. The cores help to counteract wind-generated and seismic forces while anchoring the mass timber building in place. It meets structural and fire-safety regulations by utilizing a specially designed set of interdependent finishes and building materials.
From CRL: https://c-r-l.com/content-hub/mass-timber-buildings-credibility/
