The direct address to the new site is www.komatsuforest.fr. It is also possible to navigate to the site by choosing France in the drop-down menu in the top right corner.
Komatsu ask for your patience in case everything is not working properly in the beginning.
Komatsu Forest joins forces with Komatsu construction machinery distributor, McHale Plant Sales Ltd, to provide and further improve forest machine sales and after-sales support to the Irish market.
During the fall, the company will commence a cooperation with McHale Plant Sales Ltd regarding all sales and aftermarket operations within the Irish operations of Komatsu Forest. McHale Plant Sales specialises in the supply, hire and servicing of machinery and became a Komatsu franchise for Ireland in 1994. The company has a good reputation and their focus is to provide all their customers with the best products and support.
“Ireland is an important market for Komatsu Forest and by cooperating with McHale Plant Sales Ltd to provide and further improve sales, parts and after-sales support for our customers, we will further strengthen our presence on this market,” says Mitsuru Ueno, CEO and President of Komatsu Forest AB.
Komatsu Forest customers will experience many benefits with the new organization, when it takes effect on October 1st. The after-sales support services will be improved since McHale Plant Sales maintains two full-service units with both workshop and technical support centre. One in Birdhill and the other in Rathcoole. Birdhill will be the centre for all forest related machinery and will also display used forest machines.
McHale Plant Sales has a service team to support customers, consisting of in-house technicians and parts personnel as well as 15 mobile technical support specialists, located throughout the country for best proximity to customers. This team will now be reinforced with current Komatsu Forest staff, which ensures that well-established relationships will continue at the same time as new ones can be built.
Photo: Mitsuru Ueno, CEO and President of Komatsu Forest AB.
Tigercat has announced that Tony Iarocci will be stepping away from his position as president effective October 16, 2017. Tony has held the position of president since Tigercat’s inception in 1992, steering the company through rapid growth both in terms of product development and geographic market expansion amidst an often fierce competitive landscape, major economic downturns and other challenging externalities.
“I have immensely enjoyed my work at Tigercat — the initial research of potential business opportunities that was necessary to warrant the formulation of a new company, recruiting start-up staff, product development and all the sales, marketing and customer service functions that went along with my role,” says Tony. “I wish to convey my deep appreciation to Ken MacDonald for having provided me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I also want to thank everyone at Tigercat and all the Tigercat stakeholders for their much appreciated assistance, dedication and cooperation.”
Tony will be passing his day to day responsibilities over to Grant Somerville. Grant got his start in the forestry industry in 1978 as a harvester operator. He is a long serving executive at Tigercat who worked with Tony at Koehring Waterous in the early eighties on several development projects, including the design of the company’s first purpose-built track feller buncher. An integral part of Tigercat, Grant has led many important design initiatives since joining the team in 1992 and has held several positions with increasing degrees of responsibility, including product manager for track machines, advanced engineering, and most recently vice president, engineering.
“Opportunities to work with and learn from individuals like Tony and Ken are rare,” says Grant. “I feel very fortunate to have been included in the creation and growth of Tigercat over the past 25 years, and to now assume more leadership responsibility. 2017 marks my 40th year working within forestry and machinery manufacturing. I see a promising future for our industry and look forward to continuing Tigercat’s role as a leader in innovation.”
CEO Ken MacDonald answers the burning question of what comes next for Tony. “Tony remains in great health and he has agreed not only to join the board of directors but to continue to contribute to the company’s growth, focusing on the recruitment and development of design talent and working with fellow team members and suppliers on both product and component improvement.” Tony will also consult on special projects and new product development.
Photo: Ken MacDonald
Vermeer is expanding its line of recycling equipment with the addition of a new trommel screen. Outfitted with a 74 hp (55 kW) Deutz TD 2.9L Tier 4 Final (EU Stage IV) engine, the powerful Vermeer TR5300 trommel screen delivers a drum speed of 0–24 rpm to handle multiple material types.
The trommel screen’s conveyors have the ability to lower parallel to the ground giving the operator more control over dust and wind, while also allowing for easier maintenance area access. The new unit features convenient controls through the machine display mounted on the control panel or through a remote control. Changing product sizing can also be done quickly with the quick-change screen design.
“We focused on the needs of the operator when designing the new TR5300 trommel screen,” explains Jeff Bradley, product manager for recycling and forestry equipment at Vermeer. “The unit has four programmable presets that allow the operator to save settings for different material types, or the operator can quickly make adjustments on the fly based on incoming materials.
There are also several features that make the TR5300 easy to adjust and service, including access doors around the engine compartment and dual-hinged doors on both sides of the drum for ease of maintenance and machine inspection. These service doors give full-length access to the trommel drum at ground level.”
The Vermeer TR5300 trommel screen’s unique chain-driven direct drum drive permits the drum to lift off the cog for service. This top-load design allows the drum to be quickly changed out with proper equipment. This design also makes changing out the bolt-on sprockets fast and efficient.
Rhenus will be reorganizing its timber operations as of 1 October. The two Rhenus Fehring units in Bielefeld, which currently trade independently, and the Brenner Group in Plaidt will be grouped together under the umbrella of the newly founded Rhenus Forest Logistics and form one single unit in the future.
“With the merger of Rhenus Fehring and the Brenner Group, we would like to take even better account of the aims and requirements of our customers. Since regional proximity is very important to us, we will retain both the Bielefeld and Plaidt sites with their associated truck fleets. We will be running further offices in Switzerland and Luxembourg,” says Olaf Mohrmann, a manager at Rhenus Forest Logistics.
Rhenus Forest Logistics specializes in the transport of and trade in sawmill waste, scrap wood and biomass. Within Germany, the company operates in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as in neighbouring European countries such as Belgium, France and Switzerland.
The company’s core component is a modern truck fleet, which is directed using state-of-the-art IT and can be supplemented and/or combined with rail and ship transportation.
Rhenus Forest Logistics is certified according to criteria laid down by the German Waste Management Facility Directive, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and PEFC (Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes), thus ensuring smooth and quality-assured production planning for all of its suppliers and customers.
The Rhenus Group is a logistics services provider with global business operations and annual turnover of EUR 4.8 billion. Rhenus has business sites at over 580 locations worldwide and employs more than 28,000 people.
In the 1H 2017, China’s sawnwood imports totalled 18.12 million cubic metres valued at $4.75 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16% in volume and 24% in value, ITTO reports.
The average price for imported sawnwood in the 1H 2017 was $262 per cubic metre, up 7% over the same period of 2016.
Of total sawnwood imports, sawn softwood imports rose 37% to 12.41 million cubic metres, accounting for 68% of the national total. The average price for imported sawn softwood in the first half of 2017 was $192 per cubic metre, up 12% over the same period of 2016.
On the other hand, sawn hardwood imports fell 13% to 5.71 million cubic metres. The average price for imported sawn hardwoods in the first half of 2017 was $414 per cubic metre, up 20% over the same period of 2016.
Of total sawn hardwood imports, sawnwood from tropical countries amounted to 3.02 million cubic metres valued at $1.127 billion, up 14% both in volume and in value. Sawn hardwood imports from tropical countries accounted for 17% of the national total.
The average price for sawnwood imported from tropical countries was $373 per cubic metre, a year-on-year slight increase of 0.3%.
Setra has set in motion the sale of its operation in Rolfs, Kalix, Sweden, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
Hannele Arvonen, Setra’s President and CEO, comments: “We are focusing on increasing the synergies within the Group as a means of improving our long-term competitiveness. The level of integration between Setra Rolfs and Setra’s other production units is low when it comes to raw material supply and marketing concepts, and it therefore makes sense for us to explore other ownership structures for the unit.”
Setra has previously sold units that did not directly link up with or support its core business.
Setra’s mill in Rolfs, Kalix – one of the Group’s ten production units – manufactures sawn wood products such as construction timber, cladding and a range of other building products. The production volume amounted to 73,000 cubic metres in 2016.
Photo: Hannele Arvonen, Setra’s President and CEO
Autolog has announced an agreement with FPInnovations™ for the commercialization of a real-time automated system for identifying and separating wood species based on existing technology using near infra-red spectroscopy.
Research by FPInnovations™ has shown that it is possible to separate Canada’s softwood species with a high success rate. Autolog begins work to industrialize the process, make it robust and facilitate the use of this technology in the sawmills.
Remarkably, this innovative technology does not use consumable products. By eliminating recurring costs, this solution provides a definite advantage with regards to its Saptek™ drying optimizer, or other solutions in the market.
Production cost margins for sawmills in Brazil, Russia and Finland have fallen during the first half of 2017, while they increased to their second highest level in 13 years in the US South in the 2Q/17, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly
Resource Quarterly
The sawmill margins to cover non-wood costs and profits have been squeezed in a number of countries in the first half of 2017 because of relatively higher raw-material costs and lower lumber prices, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly. Since the wood costs account for about two-thirds of the production costs when manufacturing softwood lumber, it is essential for sawmills to control the wood cost/lumber price ratio.
Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International LLC
Seattle, USA
www.woodprices.com
Weyerhaeuser Company has announced the completion of the sale of its timberlands and manufacturing business in Uruguay to a consortium led by BTG Pactual’s Timberland Investment Group for US$402.5 million in cash. The transaction includes over 120,000 hectares of timberlands in north-eastern and north central Uruguay, as well as a plywood and veneer manufacturing facility, a cogeneration facility, and a seedling nursery.
Source: Weyerhaeuser Co