by Web Editor | Dec 7, 2015 | News
Increasing housing starts and higher consumer spending will drive anticipated operating income growth for the global paper and forest products industry of 1%-3% in 2016, underpinning the current stable outlook for the sector for the next 12 months, says Moody’s Investors Service in a report published today. However, the outlook for the Printing and Writing Paper segment is negative as digital alternatives continue to curb paper demand.
“Our outlook for the global paper and forest products sector over the next year remains within our stable range as increasing home construction and economic growth drive wood product, packaging and market pulp earnings growth in the low single digits in 2016,” says Ed Sustar, a Moody’s Vice President — Senior Credit Officer and author of the report.
The outlook for the Paper Packaging and Tissue segment will be stable with operating earnings forecast to grow by 0%-4% on the back of increased (1) packaging demand, driven by modest economic uptick and stable food consumption; and (2) tissue demand, driven by population growth and improving hygiene standards.
Expected improvements to US housing starts will likely prop up end-market demand for timber, lumber, oriented strand board and engineered wood products in 2016, which will in turn support the stable outlook for the Wood Products/Timberland segment. However, lower Chinese infrastructure spending is pressuring North American log and lumber exports. Operating earnings in this sector are expected to grow by between 0%-4% in 2016.
Operating earnings growth for 2016 in the 1%-3% range will support the Market Pulp segment’s stable outlook. Prices across most grades (hardwood, softwood, dissolving pulp) will remain flat or decrease as capacity increases outpace demand. As additional pulp capacity comes on-line, inventory management across the fragmented global pulp industry will remain critical to balancing supply and demand.
From Moody’s: https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Stable-2016-outlook-for-global-paper-and-forest-products–PR_340351
by Web Editor | Dec 4, 2015 | News
Arauco has acquired 50 percent of Tafisa’s assets, including 10 composite panel mills in Europe and South Africa, for $150 million.
Announced Nov. 30, the acquisition does not include Tafisa’s North American operations and its laminates and components businesses, which will continue to be fully owned by parent firm Sonae Indústria.
When completed, the new company will be called Sonae-Arauco. According to information from Arauco, estimated annual sales for the new business are $900 million. Located in Spain, Portugal, Germany and South Africa, the 10 mills produce 4.2 million cubic meters of composite panel products and employ 3,000 people.
Sonae-Arauco’s production capacity will be about 460,000 m3 of OSB, 1.45 million m3 of MDF, 2.27 million m3 of particleboard and 100,000 m3 of sawn timber.
With the acquisition, Arauco says it is now the second largest producer in the wood panel global ranking, with an annual production of 9 million m3.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/arauco-buys-50-interest-tafisa-0?ss=wood,wood,wood_of_the_month,wood,pricing_supply,wood,components_sourcing,wood,panel_supply,wood,wood_veneer,wood,lumber_quotes_charts
by Web Editor | Nov 30, 2015 | News
We get so excited about Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), the fancy plywood on steroids that we talk so much about on TreeHugger. But in fact, there is a much older technology for building with wood, that warehouses and factories were built out of 150 years ago with a fancy new name: Nail-Laminated Timber, or NLT. It used to be known as heavy timber or mill decking and is drop-dead simple: you just nail a pile of lumber together and voila.
Lucas Epp of Structurecraft stunned the audience in a presentation at the Wood Solutions Fair in Toronto, showing extraordinary projects built out of the stuff. Because while CLT is great stuff, it’s pretty new in North America, it’s expensive, and it’s not fully understood by the building inspectors. Whereas if you are doing a simple span, NLT does the job just fine, it’s a lot cheaper, can be made by anyone with a hammer and has been in the building codes forever.
It’s now being used in a 210,000 square foot, seven story office building in Minneapolis, where the developer, Hines, wanted “the warmth of wood and the embrace of green construction techniques and materials” to attract the tech and creative sector of the market. It also goes together much faster than a conventional steel or concrete building.
Heavy timber office and warehouse construction fell out of favor early in the 20th century after major fires in a number of cities caused the switch to concrete and steel noncombustible construction. The development of effective sprinklers has reduced that risk, and concerns about the carbon footprint of concrete have made renewable wood look a lot more attractive.
From TreeHugger.com: https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/old-new-again-nail-laminated-timber.html?utm_source=WIT112715&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees
by Web Editor | Nov 20, 2015 | News
Portland is growing up—adding high-rises, increasing density, and pricing many people out. But two local firms are exploring a state-of-the-art building material that could help solve the city’s affordability problem, create living-wage jobs in rural communities, and help save the planet. It’s wood.
Right now, Portland-based LEVER Architecture and real estate development firm Project^ are designing a 12-story mixed-use wood building in the Pearl District that will be made primarily of a material called cross-laminated timber (CLT).
That’s an unheard of height for wood structures, which top out at six stories in most of the US. And it’s not the project’s only unique attribute. Five of those stories will be affordable housing, something Portland desperately needs.
LEVER and Project^ have partnered with Beneficial State Bank (which owns the property at 430 NW 10th), Albina Community Bank, and the housing agency Home Forward on the development, which they’re calling Framework.
The team’s ideas received national attention: In September, the US Department of Agriculture awarded the project a $1.5 million grant—money that will help alleviate the cost of proving to state and local building authorities that tall wooden buildings can meet safety requirements for earthquakes, fires, and other perils.
From The Portland Mercury: https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-worlds-most-sustainable-high-rise-construction-material-is-wood/Content?utm_source=WIT112015&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees&oid=16991973
by Web Editor | Nov 16, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Allyn Ford, CEO and president of Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products, announced that the Ford Family and the Roseburg Board of Directors have chosen Grady Mulbery to assume the role of Roseburg President effective January 1. Ford will continue in his role as CEO until January 2017, when he will retire, at which point Mulbery will assume the joint role of CEO and president. Ford will continue as Chairman of the Board for Roseburg after stepping out of the company’s top executive role.
“I am pleased to say that we have selected an internal candidate to first step into the president’s role then move into the CEO role when I retire from that position,” Ford says. “Grady has demonstrated his readiness and willingness to lead our organization, and this not only provides a strong sense of security, but also one of continuity in pursuing our vision and living our values as a company.”
Mulbery joined Roseburg in early 2011 as vice president of Composites Manufacturing and later became vice president of Manufacturing. He has led Roseburg’s production operations since 2012. Prior to becoming part of Roseburg’s Executive Team, he was director of Manufacturing for SierraPine.
“I am humbled and excited by the opportunity to move into this new role with Roseburg, and I am committed to continuing the pursuit of growth and stability that Allyn has led for the past several years,” Mulbery says. “We have a strongly dedicated Executive Team and organizational leadership that shares in the vision that we have set for the company and a Board led by Allyn that also is committed to Roseburg’s ongoing development.”
Ford has been CEO/president of Roseburg Forest Products since 1997, after overseeing the company’s timberlands for several years. He succeeded his father, the legendary, late Kenneth Ford, who started the company in 1936.
Today Roseburg owns more than 630,000 acres of timberland in the Western U.S. It operates a sawmill in Dillard, Ore.; three plywood facilities in Dillard, Coquille and Riddle, Ore.; softwood veneer facility in Weed, Calif.; eningeered wood products facility in Riddle; four particleboard facilities in Dillard, Missoula, Mont.; Taylorsville, Miss.; and Simsboro, La.; MDF facility in Medford, Ore.; four decorative thermally fused laminate panel facilities in Oxford, Miss; Missoula, Simsboro and Dillard; two pre-finished panel facilities in Dillard and Missoula; two panel cut-to-size facilities in Oxford and Dillard; a wood chip export terminal in North Bend, Ore. The company employs more than 3,000. It has already announced plans to move headquarters from Dillard to Springfield, Ore. later next year.
