Timber Queensland is calling for the development of a new timber industry plan in partnership with the Queensland Government to help guide and deliver on the opportunities for industry expansion over the next decade. This is a particular focus of discussions at the timber industry’s 2nd biennial ‘Doing Timber Business in Queensland: Room to Grow’ conference that ran in Brisbane last week.

Timber Queensland Chief Executive Mick Stephens said “The recognition of the importance of the industry to the state and its growth potential in the opening address by the new Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner, has been well received.”

“Indeed, a major focus of the conference is on the opportunities for industry growth, given the demand for timber as a renewable and carbon friendly material and innovative use in the emerging markets of mid-rise and high-rise construction.”

“What we have in Queensland is essentially a supply chain challenge, in terms of tapping into opportunities for resource expansion through higher volumes and wood quality in our major resource regions, as well as through technical innovation and increased product recovery.”

“The opportunities for growth are quite significant and reflect the extent and diversity of the state’s timber industry, which can draw upon existing and future potential resources from softwood plantations, crown forest resources, indigenous forestry development, farm forestry and private native forest management,” Mr Stephens said.

In 2012, the State Government and timber industry jointly developed a Forest and Timber Industry Plan. “This Plan has essentially run its course with many of the initiatives around market awareness and resource inventory completed. In 2018, its time for a renewed focus on resource development and manufacturing competitiveness, including through better resource security, energy savings, infrastructure, value adding initiatives and training capability,” Mr Stephens said.

“This is fully consistent with the Palaszczuk Governments election commitment to secure future supplies and create additional value from the timber industry. We look forward to working with Minister Furner and his Parliamentary colleagues in implementing this policy agenda and generating new investment.”

“Particular actions that can help drive these changes include our proposal for a decade long $10 million Farm Forestry development initiative and call for a new forestry harvesting and haulage training centre in Maryborough, amongst other measures.”

Photo: Timber Queensland Chief Executive Mick Stephens

A key focus for this year’s WoodFlow 2018 event running in June is log measurement, scaling and tracking. Tasmania’s largest private forestry management company, Forico, has for a couple of years now been evaluating log measurement systems best suited to their operations. As well as managing 100,000 ha of timber plantations the company also operates two woodchip mills in NE Tasmania at Bell Bay and NW Tasmania at Hampshire.

Over the last 12 months, the viability of installing a 3D laser measurement system to get the solid volume of bulk hardwood logs has been top of their mind. In addition to cost and operational improvements, the company’s aim has been to shift from log measurement in green metric tonnes to cubic metres to enable log drying across the estate to improve freight outcomes for woodchip and the log transport task.

Forico have opted for a 3D laser measurement system which has been supplied by a Chilean technology development company, Woodtech Measurement Systems. It has already been installed and is being used by mills in Europe, the US and in Latin America. In addition to highly precise measurements (more than one million measurements per vehicle load) the measurement system reduces operational costs. Fewer operators are involved, quicker measurements can be taken and truck turn-around time is able to be reduced. Measurements are also taken on moving trucks. With 100% of the loads being measured, no sampling or conversion factors are required.

The system was commissioned by Forico in late March and trials are still underway at the company’s NW operation. It’s the first time the Logmeter system has been deployed at a mill in Australia, New Zealand or South East Asia. Darren Herd, Strategic Resource and Logistics Manager with Forico will be outlining the company’s investigations into suitable log load measurement systems and results from their recent trials. Woodtech, the Chilean supplier of the laser measurement systems will also be involved in the WoodFlow 2018 June series.

In addition to log measurement systems, an array of new international and local technologies and innovative operating practices around vehicle fleet operations, planning and safety as they apply to the wood transport businesses are being covered in this two-yearly tech update. Companies at the forefront of these innovations like Scania from Hong Kong, the LOTS Group based in Sweden, Chile’s Forestal Mininco, JRP Solutions from Canada and NZ’s Zero Emission Vehicles will be presenting as part of the series. Local forestry companies also play a major part in this event with Forestry Corporation NSW, Forico, Nelson Forests, HQPlantations and OneFortyOne Plantations all sharing their experiences.

Woodflow 2018 runs on 20-21 June 2018 in Melbourne, Australia and again on 26-27 June 2018, Rotorua, New Zealand. It’s run every two years for Australasia’s forestry managers, harvesting and wood haulage contractors and transport planners. In addition to the two days of tech updates, conference delegates also this year have the opportunity of registering for two pre-conference workshops, one on cloud-based operations management and the other on transport planning. Both are free to Woodflow 2018 conference delegates and will run on the afternoon before the conference in Melbourne and in Rotorua.

Full details on WoodFlow 2018 series can be found on the event website, www.woodflow.events

Photo: Courtesy of Forico

In a recent article by Russ Taylor, Managing Director of FEA Canada, he outlined how the recent run on lumber prices has put big smiles on the faces of North American sawmill operators and lumber traders.

Mill prices for all lumber species in North America have been trending higher since preliminary U.S. import duties began in February 2017, and especially after permanent duties (averaging 20.2%) started in late December.

While the implementation of U.S. import duties on Canadian lumber was expected to push prices up somewhat, the interaction of several factors — the seasonal impact of summer forest fires in 2017, severe winter weather followed by railcar shortages in 2018, and continued strong demand in export markets — has created an almost perfect storm.

As a result, record-high lumber prices have been achieved for most species before deducting import duties on U.S. shipments. In addition, record prices have been seen in such other markets as Japan: W-SPF J-grade reached US$660/Mbf (C&F Japan) in April and green hemlock squares have just cracked the US$1,000 mark. One of the major exceptions, however, has been in studs: U.S. prices have languished in comparison to dimension lumber.

Are we in the “supercycle” we first predicted some 11 years ago? Maybe/probably. Certainly, the reduction in lumber output in the BC Interior and Eastern Canada has turned out as projected. The wild card has been the level of demand and (particularly) U.S. housing starts: these have recovered much more slowly than almost everyone expected but are now at a level that reveals the supply gap.

This is why European lumber exports to the U.S. grew by 140% in 2017 and are up 125% through the first two months of 2018: Europeans (and Russians), attracted by high U.S. lumber prices, are providing the incremental volumes that Canada and U.S. sawmills cannot supply.

As a result, sawmills are achieving incredible earnings, with some (West Fraser, Canfor, Weyerhaeuser, Resolute) seeing 20+% EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and depreciation) on Canadian and U.S. sawmill operations in Q4/17. This should translate into windfall earnings in 2018 and 2019, and one issue facing some larger firms will be what to do with the cash generated.

Some will likely increase capital expenditures, some will be considering acquisitions, and some will need to resort to buying back their shares. The thing all will need to remember is that their entire supply chain (from loggers through to customers) needs to be properly managed and maintained if strong operating results are to be achieved.

Source: FEA Holdings – Canada Inc.

In celebration of Earth Day at Bleckley Elementary School, Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), made a landmark announcement for the agency recognizing that forest biomass is a carbon neutral renewable energy source.

COCHRAN, GA. (PRWEB) APRIL 23, 2018 Biomass

In celebration of Earth Day at Bleckley Elementary School, Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), made a landmark announcement for the agency recognizing that forest biomass is a carbon neutral renewable energy source. The Georgia Forestry Association applauds Administrator Pruitt for taking this decisive action. Biomass energy markets strengthen the economic viability, health and sustainability of Georgia’s 22 million acres of privately-owned working forests and the communities that depend on them.

“Administrator Pruitt’s announcement today reflects the clear scientific consensus on forest biomass,” said Andres Villegas, president and CEO of the Georgia Forestry Association. “The Agency’s recognition of biomass as a renewable, carbon neutral source of energy will maintain and enhance markets for small-diameter trees, which encourages landowners to invest in forest health, and ultimately, to keep their land in trees.”

Administrator Pruitt’s announcement affirms years of climate research that clearly and consistently documents the carbon benefits of forest biomass energy and recognizes the long-term natural carbon cycle of forests. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for example, points to sustainable forest management as playing a critical role in mitigating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, a position that is supported by more than 100 forest scientists.

“Georgia’s economic vitality is heavily dependent on working forests,” said Hugh Thompson, GFA chairman and President of Pierce Timber in Blackshear, GA. “This announcement will have a direct impact on rural Georgia, supporting jobs and continued economic growth for Georgia’s most sustainable industry.”

Healthy markets for forests have been shown to significantly impact the overall volume, health and vitality of Georgia’s forests. Georgia is recognized as a global leader in biomass production, leading the nation in the overall harvest volume and the export of wood pellets and wood chips. Georgia has been able to achieve this status while increasing overall tree volume since 1953. According to a recent report from the US Forest Service, Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) data for 2016 showed overall net growth of Georgia forestland exceeding removals by 44 percent.

Located in the heart of one of the world’s most productive wood baskets, Georgia’s working forests have been sustainably managed – with landowners continually planting more trees than are harvested – for more than a century. They provide more than 144,000 jobs and $35.2 billion in economic impact to the state while providing clean air, clean water, diverse habitats, and recreational opportunities. Thanks to healthy markets for forestry – including 5,000 life sustaining products – and a commitment to public policy that supports forest landowners, Georgia is consistently ranked as the top forestry state in the nation.

About the Georgia Forestry Association
Since 1907, the Georgia Forestry Association, headquartered in Forsyth, Georgia, has served the state’s forest landowners, forest-based businesses and forest product manufacturers, advocating for a healthy business and political climate for forestry in the state. As the state’s authoritative voice in the industry, GFA works to engage its members and to help establish a foundation for their continued prosperity. The Association’s promise is to serve its members by keeping them protected, connected, and empowered. Learn more at http://www.gfagrow.org.

PHOTO:  Administrator Scott Pruitt with a group of forest landowners and forestry-related business owners in Cochran, GA.

The Beck Group (Beck) and Forest2Market, Inc. today announced a partnership to launch Sawmill TQ (Top Quartile), a new service for gathering and delivering Southern Yellow Pine sawmill benchmark data to industry members.

The partnership combines Beck’s sawmill benchmarking experience and knowledge with Forest2Market’s SilvaStat360 cloud-based interactive business intelligence platform. Sawmill TQ subscribers will have fingertip access to historic and current sawmill benchmark data that represents a large portion of the industry, is updated quarterly and available on a 24/7/365 basis, and lets mill managers focus on the key factors leading to their mill achieving Top Quartile financial performance.

Sawmill benchmarking allows mill managers to objectively identify competitive strengths and weaknesses and opportunities for improvement in key areas such as productivity, sales realization, log to lumber recovery and manufacturing costs. “It’s a heady time to be in the sawmill business – especially in the South as an unprecedented amount of capital is flowing to sawmills. Sawmill TQ is launching at the perfect time to help mill owners and mill managers understand their competitive position in the South’s changing sawmill landscape,” said Pete Stewart, President of Forest2Market.

Tom Beck, Chairman of The Beck Group said, “Forest2Market has excellent data on fiber costs and lumber sales values and Beck has been benchmarking Southern Yellow Pine sawmills for more than two decades. Combined, we offer unique data covering the whole Southern Yellow Pine lumber manufacturing chain, which we think will be very valuable for the industry.”

The Beck Group and Forest2Market are actively enrolling Sawmill TQ subscribers. The first quarterly release of data is scheduled for 3Q2018.

“Participating in Sawmill TQ is easier than ever,” said Bryan Beck, President of The Beck Group. “The last time we prepared a benchmarking study, participants spent hours manually filling out a workbook. Going forward, a straight data dump from current systems into a file that can be transferred to Beck is all that is required. Our goal is to make the process streamlined and simple, eliminating strain on resources.”

Please contact Bryan Beck, Pete Coutu or Joe Clark to arrange a personal meeting or online Sawmill TQ demo.

Bryan Beck
The Beck Group, Inc.
503-684-3406
bryanb@beckgroupconsulting.com

Pete Coutu
Forest2Market, Inc.
980-233-4027
peter.coutu@forest2market.com

Joe Clark
Forest2Market
980-233-4028
joe.clark@forest2market.com

About The Beck Group
The Beck Group is a forest products planning and consulting firm located in Portland, Oregon. In business for more than 35 years, the firm has consistently helped clients, ranging from the largest multi-national forest products industry corporations to small entrepreneurs, achieve better results (http://www.beckgroupconsulting.com).

About Forest2Market
Forest2Market, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in January 2000 to empower participants in the global forest, wood products, paper products, biochemical and bioenergy industries to make exponentially better decisions by providing unique datasets and analytics, and in-depth supply chain and market expertise (http://www.forest2market.com).

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/04/prweb15429365.htm

Atlas Engineered Products appoints M. William (Bill) Woods as CFO. Mr. Woods is a seasoned executive with management and executive experience in North American mining, manufacturing, biotech, telecommunications, transportation, and service industries. He has over 20 years of experience in senior and executive roles with established companies, as well as with various start-up and expansion scenarios.

He previously held the positions of CFO and COO of Athabasca Minerals, CFO of Cardio-Metabolics, CFO of Liberty Mines, and served as VP Finance for companies in the transportation, manufacturing, and business brokerage fields. His experience is diverse in both private and public company contexts.

Atlas Engineered Products is one of British Columbia’s leading suppliers of trusses and engineered wood products.

Pinnacle Renewable Holdings Inc. (“Pinnacle” or the “Company“) (TSX: PL) today announced that it has entered into a long-term, take-or-pay off-take contract with Ube Industries Ltd. (“Ube”), a diversified Japanese conglomerate with annual revenues of approximately US$6 billion. Under the terms of the contract, Pinnacle will supply 70,000 metric tons per annum of industrial wood pellets to Ube beginning in late 2019.

“Japan has made a strong commitment to decarbonization, and biomass is poised to become an increasingly important part of the country’s energy mix,” said Robert McCurdy, Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle. “One third of our $421 million in contracted backlog in 2017 was with customers in Japan, and this new contract with Ube further builds on our strong sales momentum in this growing market.”

Demand for industrial wood pellets in Japan is accelerating, supported by the government’s Feed-in Tariff system. There are more than 10 new biomass projects currently in late-stage development in Japan. According to Hawkins Wright, a leading provider of market intelligence and analytical services to the international pulp, paper and biomass industries, the Japanese market represented 3% of global demand for industrial wood pellets in 2016 and forecasts this market to increase to approximately 10% of global demand in 2021 and 17% in 2026.

About Pinnacle
Pinnacle is a rapidly growing industrial wood pellet manufacturer and distributor and the third largest producer in the world. The Company produces renewable fuel for electricity generation in the form of industrial wood pellets, which are used by global utilities and large-scale power generators to produce renewable and reliable baseload power.

A Terrace-based pellet plant may soon become a reality as Skeena Sawmills moves forward on its plans to begin construction this summer reports Terrace Standard.

The mill is reserving its official announcement on the estimated $20-million pellet plant until construction starts, but operations vice-president Roger Keery has confirmed the project is going ahead.

“All the major equipment is ordered,” Keery said, estimating that the company has already spent roughly $2 million on permits and equipment deposits.

The pellet plant will be built inside the large blue warehouse on the west side of Skeena Sawmills.

Construction is expected to start this summer, with the equipment arriving in June or July. Keery hopes to have it up and running by the end of this fall.

Terrace has had a long history of false starts around pellet plants in the past 10 years, with about six attempts in partnership with the Terrace mill.

“No one has ever been in doubt that there needed to be one,” said Keery.

“It’s just, how do you get to it?”

The pellet business is tough and there’s not a lot of money in it, he said, adding that it can draw a reasonable return if it’s managed well.

But it’s not the economics that is driving the Skeena Sawmills project forward.

“We’re building the pellet plant because it’s critical to our business,” Keery said. “We currently cannot operate our mill to its capacity because we haven’t got anywhere to dispose of the (waste) material we produce.”

Keery says about 30 per cent of harvested wood is unusable for lumber products, and until now Skeena Sawmills has been loading it into the Kitsumkalum landfill.

“But it’s now full,” said Keery of the landfill, “so we can’t do that anymore.”

The sawmill is now stockpiling its waste wood in anticipation of what’s hoped to be the pellet plant’s fall startup.

“There’s still some uncertainty (about the timeline),” said Keery.

Roc Holdings Ltd, the Vancouver-based investment company that owns Skeena Sawmills, is starting up a separate company called Skeena Biofuels to build and operate the pellet plant, but Keery says they are considering potential partnerships.

The plant will produce an estimated 75,000 tonnes of pellets per year, and although buyers have not yet been identified Keery said there’s been a lot of interest from markets in China, Japan and Korea.

So far three people, Gary Johnston, Nathan Bond, and Randy Coombes are employed to get the Skeena Biofuels plant up and running.

Once the plant is operational it will provide 12 to 15 jobs, probably two in management positions and 10-13 for operations and maintenance.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into designing our plant to be a state of the art pellet plant in terms of its efficiency, its environmental impact, and its impact on the neighbourhood in terms of noise,” said Keery.

The belt dryer, as an example, will use natural gas instead of wood fuel to dry the pellets at a lower temperature, minimizing wood exhaust.

The complete line of equipment will come from Prodesa, a Spain-based pellet plant and biomass equipment manufacturing company.

PHOTO:  Situated on the west side of Skeena Sawmills, the big blue warehouse on the left is the location of the planned Terrace pellet plant.

Roseburg announced that Pete Hancock has accepted the position of Roanoke Timberlands Manager, effective May 7, 2018. In this role, Hancock will oversee the day-to-day harvest and land management activities on Roseburg’s 158,000-acre fee land base in North Carolina and Virginia.

A 2001 graduate of Virginia Tech where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry, Pete Hancock has built an impressive 17-year consulting, industrial forest management, and supervisory career. He joins Roseburg from GFR Forestry Consultants, where he has provided clients in northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia with high-level timber sale, forest management, strategic harvest, and land use planning services for the past 12 years. During college, Hancock spent his summer months interning for International Paper. After graduation, he leveraged that experience into an Area Forester position in the Roanoke area until the properties were sold in 2006.

“On the operations side, Pete adds immediate value,” said Gabe Crane, Roseburg Director of Resource Operations and Marketing. “His extensive knowledge of local log markets and existing relationships with facilities and contractors in the area will seamlessly integrate our direct log and stumpage sales programs.”

“On the management side, Pete’s passion for best science-based planning, loblolly pine silviculture and the Roanoke land base line up with our long-term management principles and vision,” said Phil Adams, Roseburg Director of Timberlands. “Pete is a great fit for Roseburg, and we look forward to taking our management of the Roanoke timberlands to the next level together.”

Hancock will be based in North Carolina and report to both Gabe Crane and Phil Adams.

As part of the recent restructuring of Roseburg’s Resource business, Keith Eibel has been promoted to Director of Roseburg’s chip business and the Coos Bay Shipping Terminal.

“Keith Eibel has been instrumental in establishing Roseburg as the largest exporter of wood chips in North America,” Senior Vice President of Resources Scott Folk said. “He has spearheaded our strategy to successfully grow and diversify our chip business, and under his leadership, we have become a major player in the Japanese chip market.”

Eibel joined Roseburg in 2008 as the manager of Roseburg’s chip business. His expanded duties now include the procurement and sale of chips to both international and domestic customers, the operations of Roseburg’s Coos Bay shipping terminal, and responsibility for our western fiber business including sawdust, shavings and woody biomass.

Prior to joining Roseburg, Eibel spent six years as chip manager for Weyerhaeuser and managed chip procurement for the company’s Albany and Springfield pulp mills. He worked for Willamette Industries for 23 years, primarily as fiber procurement manager. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Products.