New building codes for the use of mass wood products continue to spell good news for Southern Pine forestland owners. According to Houston Chronicle writer, R.A. Schuetz, the revised building codes have the potential to transform both foresting communities and cityscapes. “We are very excited about it,” Schuetz’s story quotes Texas Forestry Association President Rob Hughes. “There’s still a place for a skyscraper built of concrete and steel. But if it’s a smaller building, within what’s allowable, we hope that people consider buildings made of wood instead.”

The East Texas region’s native trees have been harnessed into what’s known as the “wood basket” of the nation, Schuetz’s story continues, by foresters such as (Hughes).

Mostly used until now to frame single-family home and for everyday products such as paper and furniture, the southern yellow pine grown along the Gulf Coast could soon be destined for structures unlike anything the United States has ever seen: wooden high-rises 18 stories tall.

Engineering advances have greatly increased the strength, rigidity, and stability of wood as a building material. As a result, the International Building Code, which forms the basis of many cities’ building regulations, decided in January to more than double the allowed height of a wooden building to 18 stories.

It will likely take another two years before cities begin adopting the code, but developers have begun to push up against current limits. Houston-based Hines has built multiple 85-foot-tall wooden buildings (which is the current height limit) and says there is no reason it could not go higher when limits increase.

The inside of the first CLT (cross-laminated timber) factory in Texas waits to be loaded with equipment in Lufkin, Texas. Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer

The inside of the first CLT (cross-laminated timber) factory in Texas waits to be loaded with equipment in Lufkin, Texas.

“We’re just on the forefront of this wave,” said Gensler architect Taylor Coleman, who designed the first building in the nation to use southern yellow pine in a mass timber product known as cross-laminated timber. Cross-laminated timber, which has its origins in Germany in the 1990s, consists of several layers of boards that are dried and then glued and stacked in alternating directions before being placed under pressure to form panels suitable for construction use.

More cross-laminated timber buildings are in the works, with developments announced in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Sherman.

The first cross-laminated timber factory in Texas is under construction and once running, will employ at least 150 full-time employees and process 33 truckloads of southern yellow pine a day. That demand will have a ripple effect. Adjacent to the factory, a new sawmill named Angelina Forest Products is gearing up to provide another 135 jobs.

Eight drying kilns of the 1306 system from Mühlböck went into operation at Binderholz’s mill in Baruth, Germany.

At the Baruth location, the typical Brandenburg pine is dried with new Mühlböck drying kilns. The main benefits of System 1306 have been a compelling argument in favour of this project. The saving of thermal energy by heat recovery of up to 20% compared to classical systems is one of these reasons.

Binderholz stands for a responsible use of the natural raw material wood. Binderholz pursues the “no-waste principle” by processing the entire trunk, from the core to the bark, resulting in a value added of 100%.

In addition, continuous optimizations at the individual sites increase resource efficiency, which also includes the expansion of drying capacity through the use of Mühlböck drying kilns.

In January-February 2019, Canada increased its lumber exports to China by 65% to 906 thousand m3, according to Woodstat. Ukraine has become the fourth largest supplier of lumber to China, beating the exports from Sweden, Germany, Chile and the United States. Lumber exports from Ukraine to China grew by 223% to 152 thousand m3. Russia is the largest lumber supplier to China with volume in January-February of 2.16 million m3 (+ 15%). However, the country’s share in the Chinese market for imported lumber declined from a maximum of 63% last year to 56% in January-February 2019.

The United States had the largest reduction in lumber supplies to China in January-February by 57%, shipments from Sweden decreased by 39%, and from Finland by 28%.

Softwood lumber import in China during January-February 2019 totaled 3.82 million m3 (+16% compared to 2018). Of softwood lumber, China imports mostly pine. The import of pine increased by 8% during January-February (compared to 2018). The import of spruce increased by 26%. The import of other lumber (mostly larch) increased by 31%.

Companies based in Portugal, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Poland have been importing timber from Industrie Forestière du Congo (IFCO) – a logging company which Global Witness accuses of flouting forest laws in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Together, the ten companies placed more than 1,400m3 of IFCO’s so-called high-risk timber on the EU market, with a value of approximately €2 million, in the space of five months during 2018.

IFCO is a recently created entity which has inherited logging operations previously belonging to Cotrefor.

Under the European Timber regulations (EUTR), companies must be able to show they have taken clear steps to reduce the risk that timber imported to the EU has been illegally harvested. Failure to do so can result in high penalties.

“It has been over six years since the EU Timber Regulation came into force, and this is yet another case of illegal or high-risk timber coming into EU ports, seemingly unchecked. Illegal logging is a serious contributor to climate change, and weak enforcement risks undermining the EU’s efforts to combat it”, said Colin Robertson of Global Witness.

This follows a detailed investigation published last summer by Global Witness, which revealed systemic illegal logging by a major European company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Norway and France are on the brink of funding expansion of the country’s industrial logging sector.

Global Witness said that a two-year investigation revealed that European company Norsudtimber was the biggest single owner of logging concessions covering over 40,000 km2 of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Portugal, China, Vietnam and France are also all said to be recipients of Norsudtimber’s timber trading.

The majority of timber exports to Europe went to either Portugal or France.

Almost 60 percent of the timber exported is said to come from endangered or vulnerable tree species.

New Zealand’s billion trees planting project has attracted the eye of some of the world’s most deep-pocketed timber sector players interested in growing much more than raw radiata logs.

A director of Kronospan, the world’s largest manufacturer of wood-based boards and panels, was among European visitors recently to New Zealand forests and the Beehive office of Forestry and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, as they explored investment opportunities.

“One billion trees by 2028” is Jones’ brainchild. He wants one billion trees – including native trees – planted between 2018 and 2028, with support funding available from the Government. It is estimated about half that number will be achieved by existing industry planting programmes.

Two of his visitors were specialist forestry and agriculture investors from Germany whose company GlenSilva last year formed a joint venture, Kauri Forestry, with New Zealand farm and forest manager Craigmore Sustainables.

Kauri is awaiting word from the Overseas Investment Office on whether it’s cleared to buy 5000 hectares of Wairarapa and Northland land to further its programme of growing sustainable native tree and radiata forests for commercial timber use.

GlenSilva founding partners Matthias Graf von Westphalen and Josef Nagel have been visiting New Zealand and investing here for several years – and introducing other European investors to primary industry here.

Via GlenSilva, or in partnership with Craigmore, the pair have invested more than $65 million in agriculture and forestry in the North Island.

Coming from Europe, where commercial forests and farms are many hundreds of years old and intergenerationally-owned and managed, the pair are big fans of the Government’s billion trees project for its drive to build a long-term, sustainable forestry industry, its support for ecosystems, and its potential contribution to climate change management through this country’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Graf von Westphalen called one billion trees a “beautiful” programme.

Source – NZ Herald

Deere & Company has announced that its Board of Directors elected John C May, 49, as President, Chief Operating Officer, effective from 1st April 2019. May will be responsible for leading Deere’s efforts to maximise operational excellence throughout the company.

May has been with Deere for 22 years and joined the senior management team in 2012 as President, Agricultural Solutions and Chief Information Officer. Last year he was named President, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, with responsibility for the Americas and Australia, the Global Harvesting, Turf & Utility and Crop Care Platforms, and the Intelligent Solutions Group. Earlier in his career, John headed the company’s China operations, served as factory manager at the Dubuque Works in Iowa, and was Vice President of the Turf & Utility Platform.

“John’s record of success and proven leadership skills make him highly qualified for this broader role,” said Samuel R Allen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In addition, his leadership of the company’s precision agriculture initiative and experience as chief information officer will serve him well as Deere moves ahead on its digitalisation journey.”

Deere also announced the election of three other leaders to new positions, effective from 1st April. These include:

• Cory J Reed, 48, to the position of President, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, Americas and Australia, Global Harvesting and Turf Platforms, and Ag Solutions. Reed joined the company in 1998 and most recently has been President, John Deere Financial.
• Rajesh Kalathur, 50, to the position of President, John Deere Financial and Chief Information Officer. Since joining Deere in 1996, Kalathur has held positions in finance, business development, logistics, operations and marketing. Since 2012, he has been a member of the senior leadership team as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He assumed the added responsibilities of Chief Information Officer in 2018.
• Ryan D Campbell, 44, to the position of Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Campbell joined John Deere in 2007 and has held a number of management positions within the finance function. He became Vice President and Comptroller in 2016 and last year was named Deputy Financial Officer.

Raute Corporation has received orders worth over Euro 12 million from CJSC Plyterra to Russia. The orders consist of veneer drying and patching lines and plywood lay-up and overlaying lines to be delivered to Plyterra’s birch plywood mill located in Umet, Zubovo-Polyanskiy region in Mordovia. The ordered machinery and equipment will be delivered during the 1Q 2020 and production on the new lines will be started during summer 2020.

The equipment will be engineered and produced in Raute’s production unit in Nastola and partly in the Kajaani unit, and also in the company’s partnership network. The equipment now ordered from Raute is part of Plyterra’s investment program through which the mill’s annual capacity will be increased up to 180,000 cubic meters.

Raute is a technology and service company that operates worldwide. Raute’s customers are companies operating in the wood products industry that manufacture veneer, plywood, LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) and lumber.

China is continuously exploring new sources of softwood logs around the world. Minor log exporters, such as Japan, Poland, Chile and South Africa all expanded their shipments to China in 2018, reports the WRQ. Of the major log supplying countries, only Russia and Canada reduced their exports to China, while New Zealand, the US and Uruguay all increased their shipments year-over-year.

China had another record year of softwood log imports in 2018, when over 40 million m3 of logs landed at Chinese ports. This was the third consecutive year of year- over-year- increases, with 2018 volumes being up 37% from 2015. Although import volumes fell slightly from the 3Q/18 to the 4Q/18, the December numbers were the second highest monthly imports on record.

Over the past five years, import volumes have declined from the key supplying regions of Russia and Canada, while they have increased from New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand continues to expand its market share, supplying 44% of the total import volume in the 4Q/18, up from 30% just three years earlier, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ).

The biggest decline in market share has been that of Russia, which has fallen from 36% to 18% in the past three years. The only other major change the past few years has been an increase in pine log shipments from Uruguay. These have increased from just a few thousand m3 in 2016 to almost 2.5 million m3 in 2018, making the country the fifth largest log supplier to China last year.

The average log import price fell three percent from the 3Q/18 to the 4Q/18, mainly because of lower costs for logs originating from New Zealand and the US. The total average import price has gone up for three consecutive years. Although the prices have trended upward over the past few years, they are still lower than import prices in 2013 and 2014, when high-cost suppliers in the US and Canada had a larger market share.

Another interesting development is that Japan, the sixth largest softwood log importer in the world, has almost tripled log exports to China over the past few years, from just over 300,000 m3 in 2014 to almost a million m3 in 2018. Other smaller log supplying countries that have increased shipments to China in 2018 include Poland, Chile, South Africa and Germany.

Source: Wood Resources International LLC, www.woodprices.com

Four forestry companies operating in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand have announced the formation of Log Distribution Limited, a joint venture company which will commence operations on 1 April 2019.

Log Distribution Limited is a collaboration between FOMS Ltd, Forest Enterprises Growth Ltd, Wairarapa Estate Ltd and Norsewood Estate Ltd which aims to improve efficiencies in log export through the collaborative management of log marketing and shipping, marshalling and stevedoring, road and rail transport and log storage.

The company’s operations will be based at Masterton and will ship logs from the Wellington and Napier ports. Log Distribution Limited will be supported by TPT which has been engaged to oversee the company’s export marketing and shipping.

Forest Enterprises Growth Chief Executive Officer Bert Hughes says the four founding companies share common interests in the supply chain. The companies collectively identified the opportunity to improve the efficiency and safety of log export operations through increased coordination and scale.

“We believe the formation of Log Distribution Limited will result in reduced waste across the supply chain and better use of our critical rail and port infrastructure,” Mr Hughes says. “A key focus of Log Distribution Limited operations will be to improve efficiency in log cartage across the southern part of the North Island. This includes initiatives that will assist in alleviating bottlenecks in the supply chain, as we expect to see local harvest levels steadily increase over the next five years.”

Recognising the increased demand to provide the region’s growers with a route to market, Mr Hughes says Log Distribution Limited will place focus on reducing the reliance on road transport over the Rimutaka Range and lessen port congestion at Centrepoint Wellington.

As New Zealand’s forestry harvest levels continue to grow, Mr Hughes is confident Log Distribution Limited will strengthen the supply chain and deliver a wealth of benefits to stakeholders. “The formation of Log Distribution Limited is a great example of positive collaboration in the forest industry that will benefit both community and industry stakeholders,” Mr Hughes says.

Wairarapa Estate Ltd and Norsewood Estate Ltd properties are managed by New Forests, an international funds management business specialising in responsible forestland investment. Local management of both properties is overseen by IFS Growth Ltd a New Zealand company specialising in forest management.

Source: Campbell Squared

The Mjösa Tower was officially opened in Brumunddal, Norway, taking over the title of the world’s tallest wooden building. The 18-floor building reaches up to a height of 85.4 metres. The building includes a hotel, private homes and office space. Metsä Wood’s fast, light and green Kerto® LVL (laminated veneer lumber) products were used in the intermediate floor elements of the building.

The Mjösa Tower symbolises environmentally friendly thinking in construction, and it is proof that tall buildings can be built using wood.

The structure is similar to conventional buildings, but the dimensions of the elements are much larger than usual. Both the structure and facade of the Mjösa Tower are made of wood. The load-bearing structure consists of glulam columns, beams and diagonal members, which suits high-rise buildings well. The first ten floors are made of prefabricated wooden elements. The decks on the upper floors are made of concrete, to restrain the building and keep it from swaying.

Metsä Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. Metsä Wood is part of Metsä Group.