In August 2018 Caterpillar Inc. announced plans to sell its forestry business to Weiler Forestry Inc. Caterpillar and Weiler have now entered into a definitive agreement to sell Cat’s purpose-built forestry business. The deal will close in Q3 2019.

In November last year, Gough Cat announced that they’d entered into an agreement with United States company Weiler Incorporated to distribute its forestry product line in New Zealand.

“We remain committed to supporting our forestry customers and the forestry industry,” said Ramon Younessi, Caterpillar Construction Industries Group President, in a statement.

“Caterpillar and our dealers have an established relationship with Weiler that spans many years. The process of developing this binding agreement has further enhanced our confidence in Weiler’s ability to deliver purpose-built forestry machines, while Caterpillar continues to offer forestry excavators and other core equipment, allowing the dealers to provide a complete product portfolio and the optimal solution for forestry customers.”

Among the core equipment Caterpillar will continue providing is forestry excavators designed for log loading, processing and other forestry applications. As part of the agreement, Weiler will acquire Cat’s purpose-built forestry product line, including wheel skidders, track feller bunchers, wheel feller bunchers and knuckleboom loaders. The company will also own Cat’s operations in LaGrange, Ga., Auburn, Ala., and Smithfield, N.C.

Once the deal is closed, Weiler Forestry will design and produce purpose-built forestry products, which will be available through the Cat dealer network.

Source: woodbusiness.ca

PotlatchDeltic Corporation reported net income of $6.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, on revenues of $181.7 million for the 1Q ended March 31, 2019. Excluding after-tax special items consisting of a gain on the sale of the legacy Deltic MDF facility and a loss on the extinguishment of debt, adjusted net income was $5.3 million, or $0.08 per diluted share for the 1Q 2019.

“Our 1Q results reflect seasonally lower activity and challenging operating conditions,” said Mike Covey, chairman and CEO. “We continue to expect improvement in lumber prices as the building season gets underway in earnest. Meanwhile, our balance sheet remains strong and provides the flexibility to drive shareholder value,” stated Mr. Covey.

PotlatchDeltic is a leading Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that owns nearly 1.9 million acres of timberlands in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota and Mississippi. Through its taxable REIT subsidiary, the company also operates six sawmills, an industrial-grade plywood mill, a residential and commercial real estate development business and a rural timberland sales program.

Stora Enso has joined the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to eliminate plastic waste and pollution at the source. The Global Commitment and its vision for a circular economy for plastic is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with UN Environment.

For Stora Enso, signing the commitment is another step to combat the global problem of plastic pollution by providing renewable alternatives. Stora Enso will contribute by cooperating with customers and suppliers to develop circular and low carbon solutions to replace plastic packaging.

The materials are based on wood fibres from sustainably managed forests and plantations. This commitment is an example of the increasing demand for alternatives to plastic, also demonstrated by the EU’s recent policy on single-use plastics.

The Global Commitment aims to create “a new normal” for plastic packaging. Commitments and targets will be reviewed every 18 months, and become increasingly ambitious over the coming years. Businesses that sign the commitment will publish annual data on their progress to help drive momentum and ensure transparency.

Stora Enso is a leading global provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions and paper.

Linck to present a new profiler unit VPM 350 at LIGNA 2019. The family of VPM profiler units was extended by an additional machine model.

In addition to the high end machine VPM450, the smaller VPM 350 was developed to be used for cant heights of up to 350 mm and cutting depths of up to 75 mm.

The smaller adjustment paths and chip removal volumes made it possible to simplify drive and cutting tool design. There is only one drive motor per side whose power is distributed to the two profiler heads of one side according to requirement. The reduced adjustment paths allowed a shortening of the profiler head drive shaft with positive effect on the machine width and thus to keep to the dimensions of the VPF profiler unit. As a result, the VPM 350 corresponds to the VPF machine in size and processing possibilities and is perfectly suited to be installed in existing saw lines.

Downsizing the machine dimensions allowed for a further reduction of the masses to be moved, thus resulting in smaller gaps between cants for operating modes with sawing optimization.

And with the new VPM 350, you also benefit from the special features of the VPM profiler unit series, namely sawn lumber surfaces without tear-outs, the possibility of diagonal profiling by using tilting tool axes and the possibility of curve profiling by pivoting cutting tools.

Linck is the largest European manufacturer of sawmill equipment.

Looking back –  Report 2009  http://forestportal.efi.int/content/view/169/15/

Land areas around the world totalling more than the size of Canada have been identified as having potential to be restored to good quality, healthy forests, a new study has found.

As the global effort to help tackle climate change by reversing the alarming loss of forests steps up, scientists using sophisticated satellite mapping have produced a world map identifying areas in which more than a billion hectares of former forest land and degraded forest land has restoration potential. That is about 6% of the total land area of the planet, and restoring forests to some of these lands could be achieved without prejudicing other vital land uses, such as food production. The Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) also says that the needs and rights of indigenous peoples and others who depend on forests must be respected when considering restoration projects. GPFLR will now work with individual countries and local communities to deliver restoration where communities benefit.

Preliminary analysis indicates that by 2030 the restoration of degraded forest lands could make the same contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases as that which could be expected from avoided deforestation (70 Gt of CO2 emissions), and perhaps as much as twice that amount. The GPFLR will work with countries over the next year to clarify and refine these figures on a country-by-country basis.

The findings were announced on 26 November 2009 in London, England, at an international meeting of the GPFLR, of which the IUCN and the British Forestry Commission are founding members.

Also 2015 – Visit https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24/wa-scientist-part-of-world-first-pilot-program-restoring-forest/8051460

Wood is an established and versatile construction material, used to build everything from high-rises and airports to apartment buildings. It also, however, is not immune to catching fire. A new coating could help keep that from happening, and it’s actually made from wood.

Developed in Finland by scientists at the VTT Technical Research Centre, the solution incorporates nanocellulose, which in turn consists of microscopic cellulose fibres obtained from wood pulp.

Manufactured utilising a patented technology known as HefCel (High- Consistency Enzymatic Fibrillation of Cellulose) the gel-like nanocellulose reportedly has 10 times the solids content of similar materials. As a result, when applied to wood – which nanocellulose naturally adheres to – it’s very good at forming an airtight barrier that keeps oxygen from reaching that wood’s surface. This means that the wood is significantly less likely to combust when exposed to a flame.

It is thought that the coating could be particularly useful when mixed with a pigment, then applied to wood in the form of a sprayed- or brushed-on paint or stain.

Initial batches of the HefCel-based coating have reportedly performed well in lab tests, and an energy-efficient production process has been developed. The scientists are now working on scaling up that process, making it simpler yet at the same time even more efficient. They’re also currently looking for an industry partner to help commercialise the technology.

Photo: HefCel-coated wood (left) and untreated wood (right) after 30 seconds flame test. (Photo: VTT)

While both New Zealand and Russia are at the top of the leaderboard for softwood log imports into China, as the accompanying table shows, Russia tops the leaderboard for sawnwood imports.

That is largely driven by export tariffs on logs by Russian government which incentivises sawing Russian logs on their side of their border with China.

Source: MIS ITTO Report

Log export markets – This week WoodWeek.com has received it’s monthly update from the Champion Freight team. In short China is up again, all other key Asian log markets are down.

The chart shows total log export values to China year-on-year to the end of March were up 20 percent year-on-year contributing to overall log exports growing 16 percent across all markets.

To the end of March, China shipments month-on-month are up 39 percent and overall log exports up 21 percent.

Over 22 million tons of wood pellets were shipped globally in 2018, up 21% from 2017. The US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia and Russia, accounted for 69% of global exports in 2018, reports the North American Wood Fiber Review

Global trade of wood pellets jumped more than 21% year-over-year in 2018 when a new record of 22.3 million tons was shipped, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review. The five major pellet exporting countries (the US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia, and Russia) have remained the top exporters for over five years. They accounted for about 69% of the world’s export volume in 2018.

Following the “big five” in 2018 were Estonia, Austria, Malaysia, Denmark and Germany, in descending order. Pellet production in the US South continued at record pace in, driven by a European move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. From the 1Q/18 to the 4Q/18, exports from the region were up almost 50%, further manifesting US’s role as the world’s largest producer and exporter of wood pellets, reports the NAWFR. The United States ships practically all its pellets to three countries: the United Kingdom, Belgium and Denmark. Only a small share of the pellet production in the US is consumed domestically.

Demand for imported pellets in Japan and South Korea continued a three-year growth trend in the 4Q/18 when import volumes reached new record highs of 339,000 tons and 993,000 tons, respectively. In 2018, the total annual import volume for the two countries was just over 4.5 million tons, more than doubling in just two years. With the increased trade, prices for pellets landed in both Japan and South Korea have moved upward over the past three years.

In the 4Q/18, the price for pellets imported to Japan averaged $182/ton, up almost six percent from the 4Q/17. Pellet import prices to South Korea, which were nominally lower than those in Japan, rose almost 25 percent during the same period. The lower average cost for South Korea can be explained by that country’s reliance on pellets from low-cost countries in nearby Vietnam and Malaysia. This is unlike Japan, whose major pellet supplier is British Columbia, a more expensive producer of high-quality FSC and SFI certified pellets.

About the North American Wood Fiber Review: The NAWFR has tracked wood fiber markets in the US and Canada for over 30 years and it is the only publication that includes prices for sawlogs, pulpwood, wood chips and biomass in North America. The 36-page quarterly report includes wood market updates for 15 regions on the continent in addition to the latest export statistics for sawlogs, lumber, wood pellets and wood chips. To read more about our subscription services, please go to www.WoodPrices.com

Contact Information
Wood Resources International LLC
Hakan Ekstrom
Seattle, USA
info@woodprices.com
www.WoodPrices.com

A company is now producing drones designed to fire seed missiles into fields, aiming to help restore the world’s forests. According to National Geographic, between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 502,000 square miles of forest due to a combination of humans cutting them down, and natural factors including wildfires.

With deforestation affecting all life on Earth, it needs addressing urgently, and Biocarbon Engineering believe they can help. The company have designed drones which, in September, planted seeds in a field just south of Yangon, Myanmar. These seeds have now grown into mangrove saplings, about 20 inches tall, and now Biocarbon Engineering are looking to ‘replicate this success’ elsewhere.

The company’s cofounder, Irina Fedorenko told Fast Company “We now have a case confirmed of what species we can plant and in what conditions. We are now ready to scale up our planting and replicate this success”.

Biocarbon Engineering also used drones to plant both trees and grasses at abandoned mines in Australia, as well as other locations over the world. Since the project started in 2012, more than six million trees have been planted by non-profit organisation Worldview Impact, which has recently been working with Biocarbon Engineering.

Many of these six million seeds were planted by hand which takes time, so Worldview Impact hopes to use more drones in the future now they’ve proven to be successful. It’s estimated two operators working with 10 drones can plant an amazing 400,000 trees a day.

After flying over the areas, the drones then map it, while collecting data about the soil condition and topography to determine the best locations to plant seeds. They then fire biodegradable pods into the ground, which are filled with a germinated seed and the nutrients it needs.

The project in Myanmar is all about community development and enabling people to care for trees, providing them with jobs, and making environmental restoration in a way that it’s profitable for people.

The forest didn’t vanish by itself — the forest was cut down by local people. We train local people to be drone pilots, and they want that. They want to be in IT. They want to process data, they want to fly drones, they want to do agroforestry, they want to do regenerative agriculture, they want to create vertical farms, they want to do all this cool stuff. It’s not the ambition to be a seedling planter for $1 a day.
So, the drone project isn’t just helping the forests themselves, but the local communities too by helping provide new economic opportunities. The project will hopefully have a huge impact with climate change, as researchers recently calculated there’s enough room on the planet to plant 1.2 trillion trees, enough to suck up more carbon each year than humans emit. Amazing!

Source: unilad.co.uk

Biodegradable Seedpods

Providing a scalable wetland solution

Wetland restoration has the potential to sequester carbon at rapid rates. The BCE pod is fully biodegradable, designed to ensure seed penetration to minimise tidal impact on germination

• Designed to biodegrade in moist soils
• Can carry multiple seed types and sizes
• Scalable for challenging planting conditions

Suite 3, 112 John St, Singleton, NSW, 2330, Australia
Monday to Friday
+61 0476 896 924
hello@biocarbonengineering.com