Canada’s lumber production rose 0.5% from March to 5 924.6 thousand cubic metres of lumber in April. Production was 2.5% higher than in April 2017, reports Statistics Canada.
Sawmills shipped 5 807.0 thousand cubic metres of lumber in April, up 7.7% from March but 1.4% lower than in April 2017.
Brousseau will be responsible for overseeing USNR’s global manufacturing operations. After earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at McGill University, he joined the Forano business in 1994 as a mechanical engineer.
He was later promoted to be Forano’s Engineering Manager, which was the position he held at the time USNR acquired Forano in 2001. For the past 13 years, Brousseau has been the General Manager of USNR’s Plessisville operations where he has driven a program of continuous innovation and process improvement.
Van Horn will continue to be responsible for overseeing USNR’s capital machinery projects, but now as a Vice President. This promotion recognizes the critical role he plays within USNR’s management organization.
After studying forestry at Ohio State University and spending four years in the United States Air Force, in 1990 he joined the Hemco business, which was later acquired by USNR.
Starting as a service technician based in Hot Springs, Van Horn has progressed through jobs in electrical design and PLC programming, then later held several management roles in which he was responsible for overseeing service, electrical engineering, and controls engineering departments. Since 2015, he has served as USNR’s Director of Capital Projects.
Along with a team of project managers that he will direct, Culpepper will be responsible for managing all turn-key projects for USNR. He comes into this role after more than 32 years at Mid-South Engineering, most recently as Vice President.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1983 from the University of Arkansas. He is a registered Professional Engineer in multiple US states.
Over the course of his career with Mid-South Engineering, he served as project manager for over 25 greenfield and major brownfield sawmill projects, in addition to managing hundreds of other industrial projects involving wood pellets, LVL, plywood, structural wood products, and other industries outside of wood products.
Mühlböck Eberschwang commissioned three System 606 steam-and drykilns to Hvalsoe Sawmill Ltd. in Denmark.
In the system 606, no pre-heated air is lost to the outside, the total amount of airflow passes through the stacks of wood. There are no active exhaust fans, this can save up to 20% thermal energy and up to 15% electrical energy compared to conventional drykilns.
Due to the uniform fresh air supply, distributed over the entire length of the kiln, a consistently high quality and uniform colouring of the finished wood products is ensured.
With the installation of these three Mühlböck steam-and drykilns Hvalsoe Sawmill Ltd. is perfectly equipped to be completely state-of-the-art of the modern furniture industry and also to remain.
Hvalsoe Sawmill Ltd., Zealand, is one of the largest and most modern hardwood sawmill of Denmark. Hvalsoe Sawmill Ltd. cuts, dries and plans wood for export to the whole world since 1935. The raw material mainly beech, mostly comes from NZ forests
“Conception R.P. are a small company in Quebec City, but our competition are the global giants in the equipment industry. We are very proud of what we accomplished,” says Louis-André Landry Levesque, business development manager. The machinery will be built in Quebec before being sent to the United States where each section will be ready in the equivalent of 18 trucks.
“It is a turning point in our growth. It puts us in a better position regarding the cross laminated wood market. Conception R.P. has carried out projects all over the world (Canada, United States, Chile, China, Australia and in many European countries). We are now looking forward to developing the Brazilian market, which is a huge timber remanufacturing industry” says Mr. Levesque.
As part of the WoodTECH 2018 technology series, Richard Tremblay, President of the company will be travelling to both New Zealand and Australia to outline some of the new technology the company has developed around high speed horizontal finger-jointing and associated material handling systems. Full details on the September WoodTECH 2018 event can be found on the event website; WoodTECH.events.
Higher lumber costs, labor shortages and growing regulations are holding U.S. builders back as they try to ramp up construction to meet the huge demand for housing.
After starting about 850,000 single-family homes nationwide last year, builders around the country are forecast to construct almost 910,000 houses this year and increase production to 1 million homes by 2020, says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders.
The rise in construction still won’t be enough, Dietz said at a meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors. “We probably need about 1.2 million single-family starts,” Dietz said at a gathering this week in Las Vegas. “We continue to under build single-family housing.”
Higher materials costs are also hammering the industry. A spike in lumber prices caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian wood products is one of the biggest burdens on builders, Dietz said. Lumber prices in the U.S. have risen 62 percent since January 2017, Dietz said.
“We get a third of the lumber we use in the U.S. from Canada,” he said. “A lumber tariff is very much a tax on homebuyers. It’s pushed up the price of a typical home by $9,000.” Dietz said a lack of construction industry workers is also limiting homebuilding in many U.S. markets.
“Labor has been an issue of the industry for the last four or five years,” he said. “The job openings rate in the construction industry is now is actually higher than it was at the peak of the building boom,” even though builders are producing fewer houses than in the early 2000s. Almost 230,000 building sector jobs are unfilled, Dietz said.
Source: postbulletin.com/news
Photo: Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders.
Together, they have designed the eagerly awaited WoodTECH 2018 series. It’s set to run firstly in Melbourne, Australia on 11-12 September and then again in Rotorua, New Zealand for wood producers on 18-19 September.
“Last year, we had a record turnout to the WoodTECH series” said FIEA Director, Brent Apthorp. “Over 400 sawmill managers, production and operational staff along with key tech providers attended. Exhibition booths actually sold out well in advance of the series being run. In fact, it was the largest gathering yet seen of sawmilling companies, saw-doctors and sawing technology providers from around the globe in Australasia”.
So, what’s on this year? Based on the feedback from last years’ event and discussions with producers on both sides of the Tasman, WoodTECH 2018 will be focussing on innovations and new technologies around dry-mill and wood manufacturing operations.
“The previous two WoodTECH events, 2017 and 2015 have both concentrated on sawmill scanning, sawing and green-mill optimisation technologies. It’s actually eight years ago since we’ve run a tech event in this area so it’s long overdue”.
The September series will be covering;
Registrations are already coming in. Programmes for both Australia and New Zealand have now been posted onto the event website, www.woodtech.events. Check them out.
“As well as more practical sessions aimed at mill production and operational staff, we have this year been able to build in technologies right at forefront of scanning, optimisation and wood handling technologies” says Brent Apthorp. “We’ve included advanced technologies like robotics, industrial exoskeletons which are being used increasingly in to reduce worker fatigue in the manufacturing environment, wearable technologies to harness the power of mobile connected employees on-site and laser cutting of wood in the series”.
Already, aside from leading Australian and New Zealand presenters, they have secured major tech providers from Sweden, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, the USA and Canada who have lined up to present at WoodTECH 2018. As they did in 2017, exhibitors likewise, are going to provide an important tech update to local producers as part of this year’s series.
Programme information is on line. Registration details are also now live. Special discounted registration rates have been set up and limited spaces for exhibiting are still available. You can check all of the details out on the event website Woodtech.events.
The average price for structural S1 logs increased to $135 a tonne this month, from $134 a tonne last month, and marking the highest level since 1993, according to AgriHQ’s monthly survey of exporters, forest owners and saw millers. The average price for New Zealand A-grade export logs hit a four-year high of US$145/JAS from US$144/JAS last month, and US$132/JAS a year ago.
In New Zealand, sawmills are competing with the export market to source logs for local construction, at a time when demand in China has stepped up after Asia’s largest economy clamped down on the harvesting of its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet demand in its local market.
“Export markets have remained an enticing avenue for log traders and there’s little to suggest this will change in the coming months,” AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick said in his report. “China’s appetite for NZ logs means it’s still the price-setter for sales into other countries.”
Nearly all AgriHQ survey respondents reported steady or marginally firmer pricing across structural S1 logs in the latest market survey, Brick noted. The winter weather had slowed harvesting in some areas but had come at an opportune time as some North Island mills were experiencing softer-than-expected local demand for structural timber due to caution across the New Zealand housing sector, he said.
“Whether or not harvesting remains disrupted in the coming weeks is unlikely to make much difference to the medium-term direction of the domestic sales,” Brick said. “The pull of the export market is still pushing forest owners to try and negotiate contracts at or near the export market level. This is a situation that is very unlikely to change in the next few months.”
The volume of logs being taken from Chinese ports had slowed as a result of shorter working hours due to hot summer temperatures, however isn’t uncommon at this time of year and coincides with slower harvesting in New Zealand, which should keep the market in balance in coming months, Brick said.
Source: BusinessDesk
In March 2018, Anderson Tully Company announced the closure of its Vicksburg operations as of May 15th. Jackson-based Vicksburg Forest Products purchased the assets associated with Anderson Tully and is investing in significant plant upgrades. Once operational, Vicksburg Forest Products will manufacture Southern Yellow Pine lumber with a goal of producing up to 100-million board feet per shift. The company plans to purchase raw materials from a number of landowners in the surrounding area.
The company plans to begin operations in Vicksburg in late July and is currently accepting applications for employment.
Vicksburg Forest Products plans to manufacture Southern Yellow Pine lumber out of its Vicksburg manufacturing facility, with the goal of producing up to 100 million board feet on a single shift basis.