At Large
Industry Developments
National Hardwood Lumber Assn. was awarded a $25,000 USDA Forest Service grant to develop a new delivery method for NHLA Lumber Inspector Training thus reaching a larger audience and in turn meeting the demand for trained lumber inspectors.
Based on data analysis of industry trends, NHLA recognizes that currently an inadequate supply of hardwood lumber inspectors exists to satisfy industry needs. It is also apparent that the current training model, requiring trainees to attend a 14-week course in Memphis, represents a barrier to fulfilling the training needs. The USDA Forest Service grant will allow NHLA to develop a feasible alternative approach to generating a larger pool of qualified hardwood lumber inspectors.
Feature
Bankruptcy Spill Over by Aubrey Kauffman & Stuart Brotman
As the North American economy continues to weaken and predictions of recession loom, along with rising corporate default rates, most distressed U.S.-based companies may not immediately be thinking of contingency scenarios in Canada. They should. That’s because their own fate may be tied more closely than they know to the insolvency of a major Canadian supplier or customer. Or their own eventual bankruptcy or restructuring could be significantly impacted by any operations or subsidiaries they have in Canada. Waiting until after the storm begins to learn about the distinctions and nuances of Canadian bankruptcy law is not a wise idea.
The so-called Canadian factor could be in play for a wide variety of businesses with trans-national customer and supply bases—manufacturers, retailers, transportation and pharmaceutical companies, even technology providers, as well as sales-based companies, and, of course, financial institutions. The potential spill-over also affects investment f
Better Than Expected by Jennifer McCary
Turnout was subdued compared to previous years but expected given the state of the industry. However, many of the more than 300 exhibitors were pleasantly surprised at the level of activity and interest expressed by visitors to the 3lst East Coast Sawmill and Logging Equipment Expo held May 16-17 in Richmond, Va. The 2008 biennial trade show, co-sponsored by Virginia Forest Products Assn. and Virginia Tech University, attracted 8,400 visitors and exhibitor personnel, according to show officials.
The trade show, which is the largest of the year on the East Coast, continues to retain strong loyalty among exhibitors with more than 90% returning exhibitors and among attendees who ignored high fuel prices to travel from as far away as Minnesota and Texas.
It's Roseburg by Henry Spelter
U.S. softwood lumber production was 35.2 billion BF in 2007, off 13% from its 2005 high, according to Western Wood Products Assn. Based on our tabulated capacity of 43.7 billion feet, that means the industry utilized 80% of its potential.
The utilization rate of our top 200 U.S. producers for 2007 was at a similar 83% while among all our respondents it was 82%. It is hard to generalize but, among our sample, board mills tended to do a little better than those tied mainly to framing/construction lumber, as did mills focused on treated wood, a market with stronger links to the more stable remodelling sector. Mills with their own fee timber also tended to operate at higher levels than those dependent on market purchases.
Processing Biofuel by Dan Shell
Globalization of the forest products industry and the integration of economies around the world are ongoing issues. These dynamics—when decisions made and demand created halfway across the globe lead to new products and plants in North America—are readily apparent at the new Green Circle Bio Energy wood fuel pellet plant in the north Florida Panhandle.
The greenfield facility, which broke ground in early 2007 and began production in April 2008, is on a 225 acre site just south of Cottondale, located at the intersection of I-10 and U.S. 231. With a rated capacity of more than 500,000 metric tons annually, the new Green Circle plant is currently the world’s largest wood fuel pellet manufacturing operation.
Staying In Touch by Jim Moore
For hundreds of years, inventors have set out to build a better mousetrap. But the fact is, in the old days there were really only so many ways to catch a mouse. These days, the age of high technology has broadened the possibilities for entrepreneurs almost immeasurably. For a generation of innovative thinkers who grew up with computers, it’s been a matter of matching the brilliant idea with the right technology—and, sometimes, waiting for the technology to catch up to the idea.
Joey Nelson is a perfect example of the latest wave of creative thinkers who looked around them, saw a way to improve on something, and then put their brains and today’s technology to work to make it happen. His company, JoeScan, makes laser scanners that improve efficiency in many different aspects of mill operations. And it all started with the kind of youthful determination that powers so many technological advancements.
Machinery Row
Equipment & Supplier News
UNSR President and CEO George Van Hoomissen says there’s tremendous potential in both the former Coe Newnes/McGehee, Inc. and Coe Manufacturing businesses purchased in early June by USNR of Woodland, Wash.
The Newnes/McGehee solid wood business unit in Salmon Arm, BC is now being operated as the Newnes-McGehee Div. of USNR. Coe Manufacturing is the dry kiln and engineered wood unit.
Newsfeed
Hard News In The Making
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that Pacific Lumber Co. (PALCO), the nation’s leading redwood lumber producer in Scotia, Calif., will be taken over by a $525 million joint venture of Mendocino Redwood Co. (owned by San Francisco’s Fisher family) and an East Coast hedge fund.
The judge rejected as “unrealistic” plans to liquidate Pacific Lumber’s 210,000 acres of redwood timberlands and the historic Humboldt County mill town of Scotia. Such an asset auction was pushed by a group of major lenders left holding about $715 million in bonded debt when Pacific Lumber filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2007.
Product Scanner 10
New Products & Technologies
Most types of wood chips and waste material can be pressed to valuable briquettes using a RUF briquetting machine. Even 50x50 mm wood chips produced by chippers can be pressed to briquettes. The press automatically adjusts its settings to cater for changing material coming from the wood processing machines. All briquettes are produced without any bonding agents or other additives. This requires that the residual moisture of the chips does not exceed 14%.
RUF GmbH specializes in the production of briquetting presses and currently offers eight press models that are designed for 24-hour operation. The smallest press is the RUF 4, which has a capacity of 30 kg of wood per hour, while the largest RUF model, the RUF 1500, processes up to 1,500 kg of wood per hour.
The Issues
The life and times of Coe by Rich Donnell
Wood products industry down cycles tend to terminate a small equipment manufacturing company or two, but this one stuck it to one of the oldest and well known machinery and systems suppliers—Coe.
Coe’s downfall appears to have stemmed mostly from the sawmill machinery end of its business in Salmon Arm, BC, known as Coe Newnes/McGehee Inc., more so than the plywood machinery end, known as Coe Manufacturing, Painesville, Oh., which frankly was always Coe’s forte.