by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2012 | Taking Stock
Story by Rich Donnell,
Editor-in-Chief
And I do mean “live.” That is, the upcoming Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PEL-ICE) will be video-broadcasting live at certain times during each day of the March 1-2 event— “coming at you” from the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Yours truly and Panel World veteran scribe Dan Shell will be behind the microphone discussing developments at the conference and interviewing various industry personnel, including some of the speakers before and following their presentations. (No, we won’t be showing the actual presentations—you have to be present to see those.)
The video broadcasts will be launched four times on March 1 and twice on March 2. Each broadcast will run five to 10 minutes in length. Several exhibitor companies are buying a sponsorship for an individual broadcast (if you’re interested in a broadcast sponsorship, e-mail Susan Windham: [email protected] or call her at 334-834-1170 and she’ll give you the details).
If you’re interested in tuning in (for free) to the broadcasts, you’ll simply need to go to the conference web site, www.panel-expo.com and you’ll see the link enabling you to watch. And of course you can watch from anywhere in the world if you have on-line capabilities.
Broadcast times (Eastern Standard Time, USA) are:
March 1 (Thursday): 8 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 3:10 p.m.
March 2 (Friday): 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m.
Hey, it’s not like we don’t have enough to do, so why not pile on some more.
We would prefer of course that you’re there with us in Atlanta, but if you can’t make it, at least you’ll be able to get a taste of PELICE as it happens.
by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2012 | News
Arauco Takes Over Moncure Mills
Arauco has started production at the panel complex (MDF, particleboard, laminate) it recently acquired from Uniboard (Pfleiderer) in Moncure, NC. The Moncure plant employs 250.
The facility is operated by Arauco Panels USA, LLC, a subsidiary of Arauco Wood Products, Inc. Sales and customer service will be handled through Arauco’s North American sales office in Atlanta.
The Moncure MDF line has the capacity to produce 330,000 m3 annually, while the particleboard line can produce 270,000 m3 annually. Two thermally fused melamine lines are also in operation.
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by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2012 | Update
Arauco announced it will reconstruct the plywood mill that was destroyed by fire at its complex in Nueva Aldea, Chile.
“We know that the community, our workers and neighbors, expect us to rebuild these facilities, thus contributing to the development of the Region and the commune, by recovering job positions that were lost in this regrettable event,” says Iván Chamorro, Arauco’s public affairs manager.
Arauco estimates that construction and startup will take at least two years. The destroyed mill had an annual production capacity of 450,000 m3. Arauco didn’t report the planned capacity of the new facility.
Numerous forest fires erupted in the Bío Bío Region on December 31 and spread vastly due to high temperatures and strong winds. The blaze affected at least 7,000 hectares of Arauco’s plantation forests before reaching the Nueva Aldea complex, which included the plywood mill, a pulp mill, sawmill and biomass power plants.
Arauco shut down all of the plants and joined firefighting efforts that included more than 500 firemen within the industrial complex and its surroundings backed by seven airplanes and eight helicopters. Only the plywood mill was destroyed, and no casualties or employee serious injuries were reported by Arauco.
While announcing the planned rebuild, Arauco also indicated that 237 of the 661 operators that were directly affected will be relocated into other tasks or the design work of the new panel mill project. Regarding workers that cannot be relocated, Arauco will not terminate their jobs using the force majeure clause that can be used in these situations.
A training program is being developed in collaboration with the Chilean Labor Ministry to provide workers with better tools to enter into new job opportunities.
by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2012 | Update
Following proposals from the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau (SPIB), the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) recently approved a design value change for No. 2 2×4 visually graded southern pine lumber as well as lower southern pine 2×4 grades such as No. 3, Stud, Construction and Utility. The new design values go into effect on June 1, 2012.
The ALSC declined to approve SPIB-proposed new design values for other southern pine grades and sizes, pending additional testing that the lumber inspection agency is performing on those products. The new southern pine 2×4 design values recently approved by ALSC reflect a 20%-35% reduction in such properties as bending, tension, compression and MOE.
Officials with SFPA say Southern lumber producers and their customers are generally pleased with ALSC’s decision. “Industry and customers need time for an orderly implementation and this announcement provides that,” says Cathy Kaake, SFPA senior director of engineered and framing markets, who adds that the intent of the transition period will give the marketplace time to begin using the new design values or switch to other southern pine grades and sizes that meet strength and stiffness requirements.
The SPIB is in the process of submitting new design value proposals for other southern pine lumber sizes and grades once additional testing is completed, scheduled for later this year.
The new design values result from an ongoing southern pine lumber testing program in place since the early 1990s. In the past few years, testing results and anecdotal evidence from end users prompted a closer look from SPIB officials after reports of some southern pine lumber not meeting published design values in some applications.
by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2012 | Update
North American composite panel shipments for all three product categories totaled 5.473MMSF for 2011, an increase of nearly 1% over 2010, according to Composite Panel Assn. Particleboard and MDF shipments experienced a positive second half of the year, consistently outperforming the last six months of 2010.
MDF shipments rose 2.1% totaling 1.874MMSF for the year over 2010. Particleboard shipments were 3.172MMSF, a less than a 1% drop from 2010. Hardboard and engineered wood siding and trim shipments were down 3.3% for the year.
