by Web Editor | Dec 28, 2015 | Update
Weyerhaeuser Co. and Plum Creek announced a merger that will leave nearly two-thirds majority ownership in Weyerhaeuser shareholder hands. The combined company creates a $23 billion timber REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) with more than 13 million acres of timberland in the U.S.
The combined company will retain the Weyerhaeuser name. As previously announced, Weyerhaeuser intends to move its headquarters to Seattle in mid-2016.
Weyerhaeuser brings 6.9 million acres and Plum Creek 6.3 million acres to the deal. The combination becomes the largest private timberland owner in the U.S. and encompasses 7.3 million acres in the South (56% of company land), 3 million in the Pacific Northwest (22%) and 2.6 million in the North (20%). The new venture will also own 323,000 acres in Uruguay.
Plum Creek operates a medium density fiberboard plant, plywood mill and a board sawmill in Columbia Falls, Mont.; a plywood mill in Kalispell, Mont.; and a stud mill in Kalispell/Evergreen, Mont.
Weyerhaeuser operates 11 sawmills in the Southern U.S., four in the Northwest and three in Canada. It also operates six OSB mills, six engineered wood products facilities and three veneer/plywood facilities in North America.
Weyerhaeuser also announced it is exploring “strategic alternatives” for its Cellulose Fibers business, including a possible sale. The company’s Cellulose Fibers business includes pulp mills in Port Wentworth, Ga.; Vanceboro, NC; Grande Prairie, Alberta; and a modified fiber mill in Columbus, Miss.; as well as other facilities internationally.
Weyerhaeuser’s Doyle Simons will serve as president and CEO of the combined company. Plum Creek’s Rick Holley will serve as non-executive chairman of Weyerhaeuser’s board, which will be expanded to 13 directors, which will include eight directors from Weyerhaeuser and five from Plum Creek.
The transaction requires the approval of shareholders of both Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek and is subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in late first quarter or early second quarter of 2016.
by Web Editor | Dec 28, 2015 | Taking Stock
Article by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief
Numerous mill projects are in the works in the U.S., but as we enter the new year we’re especially keeping our eye on four big ones, as in four new mills, two of which are on schedule to start up this year.
Winston Plywood & Veneer marches toward an April startup in Louisville, Miss. As of early December, both lathe lines were nearing mechanical completion, two existing dryers had been refurbished and wiring started, and a new USNR dryer was near mechanical completion. Two 40-opening press systems were in place (the mill will start with three with an allowance for a fourth). Construction areas expected to be completed early in the first quarter are a LogPro log processing system, block conditioning vats, and the layup line. The mill’s projected production capacity is 440MMSF annually with plans to top 500MMSF.
You may recall that in April 2014 a tornado destroyed an existing facility at Louisville. Winston Plywood & Veneer is an operating company of New Wood Resources LLC, which is owned by Atlas Holdings LLC.
Also as of early December, Swanson Group was erecting the building for its new plywood and veneer manufacturing facility in Springfield, Ore. A Raute dryer is planned for installation in January. Some limited layup is expected in April, just prior to the startup of a Meinan lathe. Company officials are en route to Japan in January for the factory acceptance test of the lathe system. They expect the plant to be completed by early fall of this year.
A catastrophe did in Swanson’s Springfield plant as well. Fire destroyed it in July 2014. Later, Swanson Group purchased the Olympic Panel Products overlay plant in Shelton, Wash. and has been operating it with plans to shut it down and move some machinery to Springfield.
Corrigan OSB, LLC has its air permit, is waiting on wetlands mitigation plan approval, is landscaping the site and has put up an administration building at its new OSB plant in Corrigan, Texas. Corrigan OSB is affiliated with Martin Companies, which operates an OSB plant in Oakdale, La. and a plywood mill in Chopin, La. The company expects the Corrigan plant to be operational in September 2017 with an annual capacity of 750MMSF.
Construction is scheduled to start this spring on Arauco’s new particleboard facility in Grayling, Mich. It’s expected to produce 424MMSF annually and operate a lamination facility as well. The company says its $325 million investment will include the largest continuous particleboard press in North America and one of the largest in the world. Arauco will select “the winner” of the continuous press order early this year. The plant is expected to start up in late 2018.
Many of these projects will be the subject of discussion at the upcoming Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo, April 7-8, at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
by Web Editor | Dec 21, 2015 | News
New WOOD MARKETS five-year forecast calls for continued volatility as North American and global lumber markets continue to recover and grow.
In WOOD MARKETS’ new five-year forecast, the short-term outlook is that North American and global economies, as well as softwood lumber and panel markets, are all forecast to improve, but at a much slower pace than has been expected. What has also short-circuited the prospects of stronger demand is a slowdown in China and Japan, impacting export markets. And the new wildcard that caused U.S. dollar prices to plunge in 2015, especially in softwood lumber, was the rapid currency devaluations of almost all major lumber producers as compared to the U.S. dollar. All of these factors have changed the WOOD MARKETS outlook to one that expects more lacklustre demand and corresponding price growth through 2018. After that, it starts to look very good.
These details and further analysis of commodity lumber and panels was released last week in the report, WOOD MARKETS 2016 – The Solid Wood Products Outlook: 2016 to 2020 by International WOOD MARKETS Group, Vancouver BC.
The supply-side dynamics feature eroding sustainable timber harvests in key provinces in Canada, resulting in dramatically lower lumber production than in the previous decade. Canada’s total lumber output will start to flatten out by 2018 with no further increases expected – just as U.S. and global demand are expected to gain momentum.
On the U.S. side, the U.S. West Coast region continues to watch log export prices in China and Japan, as many domestic log prices are correlated with export prices – this can quickly tighten the wood supply for sawmills and plywood mills as export prices rise. The U.S. South is forecast to be the only region where any significant lumber and panel production will occur, mainly due its ample, under-utilized timberland base of southern yellow pine. As lumber and panel demand increases, it is forecast that the current depressed log prices will start to move higher to feed incremental wood consumption of the expected additional panel and sawmill production.
From Wood Markets: https://www.woodmarkets.com/global-malaise-in-demand-coupled-with-rising-production-stalls-price-movement-in-north-america/
by Web Editor | Dec 11, 2015 | News
Boise Cascade Company, one of the largest producers of plywood and engineered wood products in North America and a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products, is expanding its existing operations in Chester County. The company is investing $23.5 million in the facility, creating 52 new jobs in Chester, S.C.
In 2013, Boise Cascade acquired Chester Wood Products, effectively establishing the company’s first Palmetto State operations. Operating today as Chester Plywood, Boise Cascade has decided to expand its Chester County operations in an effort to better serve its growing customer base. With respect to its investment in the facility, which is located at 1445 Lancaster Highway in Chester, Boise Cascade has already begun installing new equipment and expanding the warehouse.
With a heritage dating back to 1957, and headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Boise Cascade manufactures engineered wood products, plywood, lumber and particleboard. As a national distributor, the company operates more than 30 distribution centers across the U.S.
Hiring for the new positions began in the third quarter of 2015, and will continue through the first quarter of 2016.
The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved a $100,000 Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to Chester County to assist with the costs of real property improvements.
From the S.C. Department Of Commerce: https://sccommerce.com/news/press-releases/boise-cascade-company-expanding-chester-county-operations
by Web Editor | Dec 9, 2015 | News
Massive U.S. industrial wood pellet exports to meet green energy goals in Europe is not a threat to the sustainability of U.S. Southern forests, says a new report from the pellet manufacturers.
Drawing from U.S. government and available market data, the report was commissioned by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) and the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association (USIPA) – three organizations representing the producers of wood pellets and their suppliers.
The report reveals that industrial pellet exports represent a very small part of forest harvests in the U.S. South, the groups say. Panel manufacturers have expressed concern that drawing too much wood pulp for fuel will raise prices on raw material for OSB and plywood.
• Total removal of wood in the U.S. South for all markets is 3.3% of the total forest inventory.
• Pellet exports represent 0.08% of the total inventory.
• In 2014, pine removals for industrial pellet production totaled 3.7 million tons or 0.3% of the pine pulpwood inventory and 0.09% of the total pine inventory.
• In 2014, hardwood removals for industrial pellet production totaled approximately 2.4 million tons or 0.2% of the hardwood pulpwood and 0.06% of the total hardwood inventory.
• In 2014, pellet exports from the U.S. South to Europe, which represent the vast majority of U.S. pellet exports, were 3.6 million metric tons, or 40% of Europe’s 9 million metric ton industrial pellet consumption.
• Future industrial demand for U.S. pellets overseas represents 0.3% of total forest inventory in the U.S. South.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/pricing-supply/infographic-using-wood-pellets-fuel-no-threat-forests-or-panel-makers?ss=wood,wood,wood_of_the_month,wood,pricing_supply,wood,components_sourcing,wood,panel_supply,wood,wood_veneer,wood,lumber_quotes_charts
