by Web Editor | Jun 24, 2015 | Update
The best attendance since 2007 turned out for the Composite Panel Assn. annual spring meeting held May 31-June 2 at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort at Bonita Springs, Fla.
The North America MDF, particleboard and hardboard industries are striving to bring annual shipments closer to capacity, the latter of which was 8.654MMSF as of the beginning of this year, representing 35 particleboard mills, 22 MDF plants, and eight hardboard and engineered wood siding plants. However, it was noted that three new MDF plants (Masisa, Duraplay de Parral and Pro MDF) will go live in Mexico in the next 18 months
Economist Dr. Bill Conerly led off the keynote session addressing The Economic Outlook for Building Materials: New Opportunities and Risks in the Evolving Business Cycle. It won’t be a boom, Conerly said of the economy in the next two years, but it will get better, pointing to U.S. real GDP growth of about 3% in 2016 from its current level of less than 2.5%.
Conerly said housing starts should increase to 1.2 million in 2016, before higher interest rates stall the growth, at which time a surge in remodeling business will surface.
He said higher interest rates stem from the Federal Reserve Board’s concern over inflation, and rates could increase 1.5% per year, possibly beginning this September depending on the strength of the economic data at that time. If the data shows a weakening, however, the Fed will wait. He said the Fed must worry about raising rates too soon, possibly sending the economy into a mild recession, or waiting too long to raise rates, which could cause a more severe recession in 2018-2019.
Conerly said a recent Wall Street Journal survey indicated that the risk of recession is at 12%.
CPA continues to address woody biomass chain of supply and the dynamics of the new generation of wood energy pellet and biomass power plants. Biomass Carbon Neutrality was the subject of a panel discussion moderated by Kelly Shotbolt, president of Arauco North America. CPA especially has an issue with subsidies that encourage the direct burning of woody feedstock. And while the burning results in released carbon, the use of wood products as a building material is storing carbon. The composite panel industry has been very aggressive in challenging biomass proposals and policy that tend to distort the traditional raw material supply chain..
Shotbolt noted that “Circumstances are getting more intense as global governments find ways to reduce the greenhouse footprint. We’re not naive to the fact that wood will be part of the green energy solution. We’re aware of the benefits. We’re a long-standing industry. Our products sequester carbon. As governments intervene we will advocate the expansion of biomass supply.”
The panel included Jim Bowyer of Dovetail Partners; Dave Tenny, president/CEO of National Alliance of Forest Owners; Pete Madden, president/CEO of Drax Biomass; and Laszlo Dory, chairman European Panel Federation.
Madden noted that the Drax power station in North Yorkshire England provides about 7-8% of UK electricity with six turbines, each generating more than 600 MW. He said the company has answered UK directives and incentive for renewable energy by convering two of those turbines from coal to biomass, and a third one is in process, which combined would enable Drax to deliver CO2 reductions of 12 million tonnes per year.
He reviewed the ongoing commissionings of new, 450,000 ton per year wood pellet plants in Gloster, Miss. and Morehouse Parish, La., along with an industrial wood pellet port facility at Baton Rouge, all of which represent a $350 million investment.
Madden said the two pellet plants will each require 1 million tons of fiber per year, 80% of which will be forest residuals (first thinnings) and 20% harvest residuals (slash). Each plant will receive 150 inbounds trucks per day delivering 3,900 tons of raw feedstock. The Mississippi plant will move 50 outbound trucks per day to the port, delivering 1,250 tons. The Louisiana plant will move an 80 car unit train (Union Pacific rail) per week 235 miles delivering 7,200 tons.
Why build the plants in the U.S. South? Madden asked. He pointed to the obvious abundance of fiber and also emphasized that Drax targeted areas where there has been forest products operation closures. He noted that closed pulp/paper and OSB facilities in the Southern U.S. represents more than 28 million green tons of reduced demand for roundwood and chips, while operating and announced (and likely to happen) wood pellet facility demand will be 26 million green tons.
Madden also pointed to the Drax commitment to sustainability, including forest operations auditing as well as performance standards with regard to carbon stock, life cycle greenhouse gas savings and biodiversity protection.
Madden said the size of the wood pellet market on a global scale has been overstated. “There’s not going to be hundreds of pellet mills in the South,” he said. He noted, according to forecasts, that EU demand for wood pellets may double by the end of the decade toward 25 million metric tons but then will most likely plateau.
by Web Editor | Jun 24, 2015 | Taking Stock
Article by Rich Donnell
Editor-in-Chief
Of course I understand the concerns of the wood products industry toward the new generation wood energy industry composed of industrial wood pellet and biomass power plants. Raw material is after all the lifeblood.
On page six I wrote a little bit about CPA’s annual spring meeting that concluded in early June and about the Biomass Carbon Neutrality Panel Discussion that occurred in the General Session on June 2. Of the four presenters, the villain in the mix—I say that with tongue-in-cheek—was Pete Madden, the new president/CEO of Drax Biomass.
The CPA crowd treated Madden quite cordially—many of them knew him from his wood products industry days; hey, the guy is a forester—but as Madden relayed some statistics on the volumes of woody biomass that will be processed at the two new Drax wood pellets plant in the South, then trucked and railed to the Drax port at Baton Rouge and shipped overseas to the Drax electricity generation plant in North Yorkshire, England, to be, dare I say it, “burned,” the collective silence was deafening.
As it was when Dave Tenny, president/CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, said NAFO doesn’t worry about subsidization because it’s a fact of life. CPA members do—justifiably so—a slow burn (no pun intended) over the possibility that the renewable (wood) energy industry either here or abroad might be reaping a financial advantage because of some government’s “good” intentions.
I may have to side with Tenny on this one. It is a “renewable energy” world we live in, at least at the moment, and most politicians are going to ride that horse. Anyway, subsidization rears it heads all around us. Look at the number of MDF and particleboard mills in Canada, for example, which rely on chips and sawdust, which farther upstream came from the logs that the provincial governments set extremely low stumpage rates for—so low in fact that U.S. lumbermen have been contesting this form of Canadian subsidization for decades, because without the competitive cost of logs, Canadian softwood lumber undercuts prices for U.S. softwood lumber in U.S. markets. At least that’s one side of the story.
Another presenter was Laszlo Dory, outgoing chairman of the European Panel Federation. He provided some information on the Euro approach to renewable energy, but the one statement that really knocked my socks off was, “Compared to current coal-fired electricity plants in North America, wood biomass power plants emit up to 150% more climate disrupting CO2.”
Madden of Drax took exception to it, and said 150% was nowhere-in-the-ballpark close. Later on, I looked to see what the source was for this 150%, and it was Greenpeace Canada. When a panel industry spokesperson starts using Greenpeace as a source of information, I know the world is ending soon.
The other participant was Jim Bowyer of Dovetail Partners, who had a great presentation on the Forest Dynamics of Carbon. He made statements that you wish you could remember at the next dinner party, such as: “Emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, with contributions from cement manufacture, are responsible for more than 75% of the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration since pre-industrial times.”
He also said that comparable peaks in carbon dioxide concentration and temperature over the last 400,000 years.
by Web Editor | Jun 12, 2015 | News
According to estimates made by the organizer Deutsche Messe, visitor numbers at this year’s Ligna 2015 in Hannover increased to roughly 96,000, representing 7% more than those at the 2013 event. With approximately 40,000 visitors from abroad, the proportion of foreign visitors increased by roughly 2% to almost 42%. Most foreign visitors came from Austria, France, Italy, the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, China and Brazil. The proportion of trade visitors also apparently rose by 2% compared with 2013 figures, to 96%. Deutsche Messe reports that the number of participants from Asia, at 4,700, increased over-proportionally by roughly 68%. Similar strong growth in numbers was shown by visitors from South and Central America, at 68%.
Deutsche Messe and the Wood Processing Machines Trade Association within VDMA (German Machine and Plant Construction Association) have announced a new layout concept for the next staging of Ligna from 22 to 26 May 2017. The three previously spatially separate sections “Solid Wood Processing”, “Furniture Industry” and “Crafts”, which until now dealt with final processing, will be merged in the newly created main product-range section “Tools, Machines and Plant for Custom and Series Production”.
Exhibitors focusing on “Solid Wood Processing” will in the future enjoy priority to be located in Hall 27, as a result of which suppliers will be moved closer to the “Sawmill Technology” section in Hall 25. The associated section “Wood Construction” in Hall 13 will also then be situated in the immediate vicinity. The organizers expect this change to generate synergies between the sections “Surface Processing” in Hall 17 and “Wood Based Panels” in Hall 26. With its own focus in Hall 16, Automation Engineering is to be given greater weight in future.
From EUWID: https://www.euwid-wood-products.com/news/roundwoodsawnwood/single/archive/2015/june/Artikel/ligna-visitor-numbers-up-by-7-to-roughly-96000.html
by Web Editor | Jun 10, 2015 | News
Weinig’s solid wood business unit solid sold a total of 190 machines and systems at LIGNA 2015, the big German trade show held in Hannover last month.
“Buoyant interest throughout the entire duration of the event translated into a high order inflow,” Weinig reports, with “an increase of 21 percent compared with the previous LIGNA.”
Weinig says its Holz-Her subsidiary, which specializes in panel processing and edgebanding, recorded a 5 percent increase in orders, selling 75 machines.
Weinig and Holz-Her were among the larger exhibitors at LIGNA, and attendees from 91 countries visited its 45,000 square foot exhibit.
“In a generally good investment climate, we were able to impress with our innovations,” CEO Wolfgang Pöschl says. Weinig presented innovations in a new stage in the evolution of planing and profiling machines, along with CNC centers for window production, and ripping technology with scanner integration. Another focal point was networked production.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/weinig-sold-190-machines-ligna-2015?ss=news,woodworking_industry_news
by Web Editor | Jun 8, 2015 | News
Tall wood buildings proponent and famed architect Michael Green teamed with Finnish timber and panel maker Metsä Wood to redesign the iconic Empire State Building in timber frame construction.
Part of Metsä Wood’s Plan B campaign to educate the public on the importance of wood in construction, the company says that wood should always be considered as a serious option in everything from design to construction and also in buildings in which wood hasn’t been previously used. The Plan B campaign re-engineers famous buildings – another project redid the Roman Coliseum – using engineered beams and panel instead of steel, stone and concrete. Metsä produces laminated veneer lumber – LVL – among many other high-strength wood construction lumber and panel products.
Green and his architectural design firm MGA created the design and construction plans for the wooden version of the Empire State Building.
“We designed a skyscraper using Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL engineered wood as the main material from floors to column spacing,” Green said. “I believe that the future belongs to tall wooden buildings. Significant advancements in engineered wood and mass timber products have created a new vision for what is possible for safe, tall, urban wood buildings. The challenge now is to change society’s perception of what’s possible. In fact, this is the first new way to build a skyscraper in the last 100 years.”
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/iconic-empire-state-building-gets-wood-makeover?ss=news,woodworking_industry_news
