Notice is given to the Shareholders of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA (”SCA”) of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on Wednesday 5 April 2017, at 3 p.m. at Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre, Nils Ericsons Plan 4, Stockholm (registration from 1.30 p.m.)

Notification of attendance

Shareholders who wish to attend the annual general meeting must

–  be listed in the shareholders’ register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB on Thursday, 30 March 2017, and

–  give notice of their intention to attend the meeting no later than Thursday, 30 March 2017.

Notification may be given in any of the following manners:

• by telephone +46 8 402 90 59, weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
• on the company website
• by mail to Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA, Group Function Legal Affairs, P.O. Box 200, SE-101 23 Stockholm, Sweden.

In addition to notification, shareholders who have their shares registered through a bank or other nominee must request to be entered into the share register by Thursday, 30 March 2017, in order to be entitled to attend the meeting. Such registration may be temporary. In such cases, the shareholder should instruct the nominee of this well in advance of Thursday, 30 March 2017.

http://www.sca.com/en/Media/Press-releases/Press-releases/2017/Notice-of-the-Annual-General-Meeting/

Contact

Jan Carlson Senior Legal Counsel jan.carlson@sca.comDirect: +46 8 788 52 59

New research has revealed that Australian Paper’s operations generate almost AU$1 billion per annum in economic benefits for Australia. According to a Western Research Institute report released on Wednesday, the national benefits include AU$911 million in gross domestic profit (GDP), AU$495 million in household income and 5,786 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs. In addition, the business generates AU$1.88 in government revenue per ream of paper produced.

Australian Paper’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr Peter Williams, said that this research demonstrated the significant economic contribution made by local paper manufacturing, not only to Australia, but also to the regional areas where it is based.

The report confirmed the importance of the company’s Maryvale Mill to the Latrobe Valley in Victoria. The Mill contributes AU$451 million or 6.8% of the region’s economy, and supports 2,387 flow-on jobs or 5.5% of jobs in the Latrobe Valley. Mr Williams said, “Pleasingly, the report confirmed that the company’s recent AU$90 million investment in a recycling plant supported 218 jobs in Victoria, of which 82 were in the Latrobe Valley

New Zealand’s Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced NZ$2 million funding for a wood-processing facility which uses automation and robotics to turn low-value pine trees into high-value wood products reports Scoop. This is just one of the local initiatives announced at the release of the Tairawhiti Economic Action Plan in Gisborne.

“Forestry is a major employer in the region and this funding accelerates research and development in this sector. This technology from Wood Engineering Technology Ltd ensures that even low value ‘pulp’ logs, or forestry blocks on remote sites, can become economically viable,” says Mr Bridges.

WET Gisborne Ltd, a joint venture between Wood Engineering Technology Ltd and the Eastland Community Trust, is building a NZ$9 million prototype plant, where this technology is being developed.

It is expected that there will be three plants on the initial site creating 120 highly skilled jobs, and see potential opportunity in opening further plants in the more remote locations of Eastland.

“The processing plant is being partly funded through a Callaghan Innovation growth grant and demonstrates how innovative technology can improve productivity and profitability,” says Mr Goldsmith.

“Delivering commercialised technology to market is a core part of Callaghan Innovation’s mandate, so it is pleasing to see the Gisborne region benefitting directly from the government’s investment in research and development through growth grants.”

Hampton Lumber today announced a multiyear partnership with the Portland Timbers to serve as the team’s Official Wood Products Sponsor. The sponsorship is effective from the beginning of the 2017 MLS season and extends through the 2019 season.

Hampton Lumber is a third-generation, family-owned wood products company, headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Hampton operates four sawmills in Oregon in the communities of Willamina, Warrenton, Tillamook, and Banks. The company also owns 120,000 acres of sustainably managed forestland in the Pacific Northwest and operates a wholesale lumber business out of its Portland office.  Co-owner David Hampton attended the Timbers’ annual log blessing ceremony this year at Camp 18 on behalf of the Hampton family and supplied the Victory Log and tree seedlings, which event participants planted onsite.

“We certainly consider trees a blessing, but this was a first for me!” joked Hampton.  “It’s fantastic to see people come together like this to celebrate the team and honor tradition and each other. We’re excited to be part of the Timbers family.”

This season, Hampton Lumber will supply the Victory Log for the Timbers from the family’s forestland and serve as a sponsor for the annual Stand Together Week and the Timbers’ TREES Youth Soccer Camp program.  At Hampton, sustainability is a guiding principle that extends from the forest to the community.  “We’re in the sawmilling business so the Timbers’ culture is a natural fit for us,” said Hampton.  “But our values as a company align well too,” he said. “We know that people and commitment to community are what makes an organization truly great.”

On behalf of American Softwoods, two recent presentations in Semarang and Surabaya, Indonesia, introduced importers and key decision makers to American softwood products. SFPA’s Eric Gee introduced the features and benefits of Southern Pine materials, including treated products. While markets for pressure-treated lumber exist, a better understanding of proper retention levels and recommended preservative types is needed in the country’s severe wood decay hazard environment. Eric addressed the merits of using SP for interior applications, too, especially doors, stairs and windows. He also covered abundant Southern Pine resources, forest management practices, sustainability, and the legality of timber harvesting.

Eric teamed with Chris Knowles of Oregon State University who spoke about several U.S. softwood species available from the northeastern and western states. The seminars provided an interactive learning environment where the audience eagerly engaged both speakers on a variety of subjects. During the reception which followed each event, attendees continued their inquiries about American softwoods, asking more questions about sustainability, stand rotation, and product qualities.

“Several opportunities exist for increased exports of American softwoods to Indonesia,” Eric noted. “Low manufacturing costs and an abundant labor supply make Indonesia a prime market for softwood usage in furniture, doors, and molding,” he added.

Click here to see a collection of photos Eric made on the trip.

Next Week: Spring Meeting with SLMA
The Southern Pine lumber industry assembles in New Orleans next week for the 2017 SLMA/SFPA Spring Meeting & Expo, to be held at the historic Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter. Click here to review the agenda, including all events and sessions to be held March 8-10. Nearly 200 industry representatives are registered to attend; click here to see the updated list.

A total of 34 companies are participating in the Trade Expo, with tabletop displays Thursday evening. Click here to read a profile of each exhibiting company.

Financial Administrator Retires
Following 32 years of service to SFPA members, Chief Financial Administrator Vernon Barabino retired yesterday. A native of New Orleans, Vernon came to SFPA to work in the mailroom for one year while he earned his accounting degree attending night school. More than three decades of SFPA record-keeping followed, managing complex accounts for international activities, Expo, as well as annual audits.   “It has been a great run,” Vernon said. “I’ve enjoyed the many great people I’ve met in this industry and I thank the association for providing this opportunity to serve the members,” he added.

“On behalf of all members, SFPA greatly appreciates the dedication Vernon has brought to his work throughout his career with us,” said Executive Director Tami Kessler. Rachel Elton has been promoted to the position of Accountant and will assume Vernon’s duties.

Vernon’s immediate retirement plans include preparing tax returns for family and friends, plus tackling a few home remodeling projects his wife Roz has in mind.

Housing Analyses Available
A pair of new reports provides insights into the U.S. housing market. Urs Buehlmann is Professor in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech and Delton Alderman is a Research Forest Products Technologist at the US Forest Service. Recently, they released a two-part housing market commentary for December 2016 that provides in-depth data on the U.S. housing market and related economic conditions.

“The housing report is a service of Virginia Tech and is intended to help those in the industry to gauge future business activity,” Urs notes. SFPA members can review his analysis within the Members Only section of SFPA.org, listed under “Construction & Economic Reports”.

Within the same location, economist Al Schuler (retired) provides his popular observations on U.S. housing statistics. His notes for February are based on the most recent housing data. Among other points made, Al comments: “Housing remains a problem. When adjusting for population growth, single-family construction remains at recession levels of the 1980s. Home ownership is the lowest in 50 years; of the 805,000 households formed in the 4th quarter, 55% were renters.  Many young people – those first-time buyers – just can’t afford the down payment so they remain on the sidelines.  We need a strong economy if housing is to get back on track.”

A truck roll-over prevention program being delivered in the Green Triangle region of southwest Victoria and south-east South Australia, is showing signs of success with the number of incidents decreasing by 65% in 2016.

Alan Pincott from Australian Trucking Safety Services and Solutions, said the Green Triangle area has been over represented in heavy vehicle crashes, particularly log and woodchip truck roll-overs, so these numbers are an encouraging sign that the program and subsequent activities are having an impact.

“The roll-over prevention program, which is driven by the timber industry, was delivered to 230 participants at various locations in the Green Triangle area in 2015 and to a further 300 in 2016. It is supported by a marketing program including high quality posters, and large roadside banners, featuring local trucks, which were strategically placed in the area as a reminder of the dangers and the key learnings of the rollover program,” he said.

Truck roll-over data shows that in 2015 there were 14 recorded rollovers in the Green Triangle area. In the time since the prevention program work began, there was a steep decline with only 5 rollovers being recorded. There was also a 35% reduction in overall recorded heavy vehicle crashes from 2015, all of which is a benefit to all heavy vehicle industries in the area, all road users, and the general community.

“The first step to success has been to create knowledge and awareness of the issues through face to face educational programs. Giving people the opportunity to use this knowledge and awareness in finding and implementing the solutions gives them ownership, which is the key to engagement,” Mr Pincott said.

Other key actions undertaken to reduce truck roll-overs in the region include:

• New electronic vehicle activated flashing light rollover warning signs on the Portland- Nelson Road, warning drivers of high risk corners and sections of roads;
• Extra curve warning signs; and
• Clearing of vegetation along the Portland Nelson Road for improved alignment & sight distance for drivers. Mr Pincott said “We have had great buy in from the local industry in this program, with all major plantation companies in the region taking part. They all recognise how important road safety is and we will continue to work with drivers and operators to identify potential black spots and issues and work with the industry to find solutions. We are all committed to further reductions.”

Media contact: Natalie Kimber – nkimber@vafi.org.au – 0401 757 172

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report prompts call for ban on log exports from old growth forests

One of the planks in NDP Leader John Horgan’s election platform is made from raw logs (he wants their export “curtailed”), and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is helping him hammer it down trports Business Vancouver.

Horgan has criticized a sharp increase of raw logs from coastal forests over the past decade and has promised to curtail those exports, if the NDP forms government, although he has stopped short of promising an outright ban.

The CCPA published a report Monday February 27 that says one out of every three trees cut on the B.C. coast were sold as logs to export markets in 2016 – 6.6 million cubic metres, which is slightly short of the 6.9 million cubic metres record in 2013.

This is at a time when the Interior forest sector is facing a long-term shortage of timber, thanks to the Mountain pine beetle epidemic that wiped out half of the merchantable timber in B.C.’s interior.

“If you believe – and the writing clearly is on the wall – that there are going to be significant declines in available log supply in the Interior of the province, then the future of the forest industry – at least the immediate future  – is going to be much more dependent on coastal forest industry activity,” said Ben Parfitt, who authored the report.

Based on the findings of the report, two unions – Unifor and the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) –the Wilderness Committee, Sierra Club and Ancient Forests Alliance are calling on the government to implement three policies:

• ban all log exports from old growth forests;
• impose higher taxes on log exports from second growth forests; and
• implement policies to encourage more value-added manufacturing from wood.

The export of 26 million cubic metres of raw logs – mostly to China – between 2013 and 2016 is valued at $3 billion.

An average sawmill produces 300,000 cubic metres of lumber annually, so the amount of logs exported in 2016 would have been enough to supply at least a dozen sawmills.

“If we continue down the road that we’re on, we run a very real risk of fewer and fewer sawmills, and more and more log exports, which means more foregone job opportunities,” Parfitt said.

Rick Jeffery, president of the Coast Forest Products Association, says the reverse is true.

“Log exports are very important part of the economics of the coast, ensuring that we can harvest the entire profile of the allowable cut, and that means getting into some of the harder, more economically challenged area into the lower quality stands,” Jeffery said. “Log exports help you do that and they help you do that in a manner that puts logs in front of domestic mills.”

It also helps marketing lumber in Asia, Jeffrey added. The increase in raw log exports has been driven largely by demand in China, which imports both raw logs and B.C. lumber.

“One of the things that people overlook in this whole equation is that sale of hemlock logs, for instance, into places like China and Japan also pave the way for lumber exports,” Jeffrey said.

“If a jurisdiction is used to using your product and is familiar with the characteristics and qualities of that species, they’re as likely to buy the logs and the lumber. If they don’t have the experience with it, they won’t. So log exports and lumber exports go hand in hand.”

Parfitt said one of the most disturbing things about the trend of increased log exports is that, whereas most log exports in the past came mostly from private timberlands owned by TimberWest and Island Timberlands – an increasing amount raw log exports are coming off of Crown land.

“It is public lands that is supplying the bulk, and that is increasing,” Parfitt said.

nbennett@biv.com

The long wait for Australian-made cross laminated timber (CLT) is nearly over reports Wood Week.

Xlam Australia will open its first CLT manufacturing plant in Wodonga and be producing panels for construction by the close of 2017.

The company shared its plans to build a factory in the Albury Wodonga region with Architecture & Design last year, but only now do we know that it is actually going to happen.

Fairfax is reporting that the plant has the backing of local, state and federal government and will be complete by April.

The facility will produce 60,000m3 of CLT each year and at capacity production will produce enough to build a project the size of Forte Melbourne – Australia’s largest timber apartment building – each week .

It will be produced from local pine, increasing demand for the plantation industry and shortening delivery time and distance.

Currently, CLT is being purchased overseas from companies like Stora Enso, Meyer Timber and Novatop. Australia’s Lendlease has opened a prefabrication plant in Sydney that manufactures CLT framework but it doesn’t create the actual CLT.

Xlam has a number of Australian projects currently underway, including a massive CLT house designed by Fitzpatrick + Partners director James Fitzpatrick.

NZ roundwood log prices jump to a record on demand from construction, horticulture industries – Strong domestic building activity combined with buoyant horticulture and viticulture industries has pushed up the price of roundwood logs to a record reports Wood Week. The average price for roundwood logs rose to $90 a tonne in February, up $5 from January’s average price and at the highest level since AgriHQ began collecting the data in early 2002. New Zealand local councils approved consents for 29,970 new dwellings last year, up 10 percent from the previous year, as record net migration and low interest rates spur demand for additional housing. A booming horticulture industry is also spurring investment activity in that sector, helping stoke demand for roundwood. “The roundwood sector is currently in a period where interest is at unprecedented levels,” AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick said in his monthly forestry market report. “Demand for poles has been especially strong, for the likes of foundations and retaining walls. “Multiple strands of the horticulture and viticulture industries have also maintained their presence in the roundwood markets as well. The sheer volume of activity has meant some mills have battled to fill orders in recent months.” Export prices for New Zealand logs lifted for every grade covered by AgriHQ’s survey of exporters, forest owners and sawmillers. The average wharf gate price for New Zealand unpruned A-grade logs advanced to $128 a tonne, the highest level since AgriHQ records began in late 2008, while prices for various K-grades haven’t been this high since the early- mid 1990s. The $166 a tonne recorded for export pruned logs was firmer than any of the previous six months, although lower than the first half of 2016, Brick said. Shipping rates to New Zealand’s key log export destinations slipped. The rate to China, New Zealand’s largest export market, declined 1 percent, while South Korea and India both dropped 3 percent. The latest data showed New Zealand log exports increased 9 percent to 15,913,512 cubic metres last year compared with the year earlier. China took 69 percent of the country’s logs while South Korea took 17 percent. Forest products are New Zealand’s third-largest commodity export group behind dairy and meat products.

Deltic Timber Corp. of El Dorado on Monday named John D. Enlow, formerly of Weyerhaeuser, as its new chief executive and revealed that it had fired its chief financial officer for misappropriating “certain company assets for personal use” reports Arkansas Business.

The publicly traded timber and real estate company (NYSE: DEL) also reported fourth-quarter and fiscal year results, which showed profit and revenue gains.

In a news release, the company said Enlow, 49, would take over as president and CEO on March 8. Enlow last worked as vice president of real estate and southern timberlands at Weyerhaeuser from 2014 to 2016. Before that, he worked for Rayonier Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, for 16 years.

“We are pleased to welcome a proven leader of John’s caliber and experience to the Deltic team,” said Robert C. Nolan, chairman of Deltic’s board. “John’s broad industry expertise in forestry, real estate development, finance and operations will be invaluable as the company continues to capitalize on momentum in the housing and wood products markets.”

The company said Enlow will receive an annual base salary of $500,000 and a target annual incentive opportunity equal to 85 percent of his base salary. He will receive a sign-on bonus of $75,000 and a sign-on equity award with an aggregate value of $650,000.

Ray Dillon, Deltic’s CEO for 13 years, retired from the company in October, and its board of directors had named D. Mark Leland as an interim replacement.

CFO Fired

Separately, the company said it had fired CFO Kenneth D. Mann and appointed Byrom L. Walker as his temporary replacement. Walker, 55, has been controller since May 2007; he’s been with Deltic for 11 years.

“The termination of Mr. Mann was completed after the board became aware that he misappropriated certain company assets for personal use,” the company said in its earnings release. “This action is not related to the company’s operating or financial performance and is not expected to have a material impact on Deltic’s previously issued financial statements.”

Deltic provided few other details about Mann’s dismissal. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Deltic said Mann told the company’s general counsel on Feb. 20 that Mann had “misappropriated certain company assets for personal use.” Mann was placed on administrative leave and was fired on Friday, according to the filing.

The board revoked Mann’s unvested equity awards, his 2017 cash incentive bonus and equity awards that vested on Feb. 20. The board’s audit committee has retained Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP of New York to help review “matters involving Mr. Mann.” The company said that, after the review, it “intends to seek full reimbursement from Mr. Mann for all misappropriated amounts.”

Last week, shares of Deltic hit a new 52-week high after a filing said the company had been “approached by multiple parties interested in merging with or acquiring” the company.

Deltic Timber Corporation is a vertically integrated natural resources company, which owns approximately 530,000 acres of timberland, operates two sawmills and a medium density fiberboard plant, and is engaged in real estate development.