OneFortyOne New Zealand (formerly Nelson Forests) to recommence business activities in its forest estate and Kaituna sawmill in New Zealand.
OneFortyOne Executive General Manager Lees Seymour said: “Whilst the country was at Alert Level 4 we were able to pay the team’s full salary and the wage subsidy did help us achieve that. We are now looking forward to getting back to work, supporting our employees, contractors and the economy.”
Over 50% of the timber from the Nelson Forest Estate is delivered to the domestic market and 60% of timber customers are Australasian. Supporting New Zealand’s economy during the COVID-recovery period continues a long history of support for local jobs and domestic processors for OneFortyOne.
Seymour says: “We are a vertically integrated company, with forests and a mill. OneFortyOne continues Nelson Forests practice of offering log fibre first domestically and developing its strategy to increase domestic processing in New Zealand. We’ve had a local mill as a customer since the 1950s and have increased volume to a growing number of local customers over the last decade.”
The Forestland Group has appointed Tommie Herbert as Director of Investor Relations. She will be responsible for new product development, investor outreach, and relationship management. Her background includes a combination of conservation finance, forestry, and ecosystem markets research. Most recently, she served as the National Conservation Finance Lead at the USDA Forest Service headquarters in Washington D.C.
Tommie will be working with Benjie Tarbutton, current VP of Investor Relations, as he will be transitioning out of his investor relations position by the end of the year. Benjie will remain engaged with The Forestland Group as an advisory member of executive team.
The Wilkins family owns two mills: WKO at Carson, WA and Mt. Hood at Hood River, OR. Both mills installed USNR’s Lineal High Grader (LHG) a few years ago, and are now updating these systems with the latest technology that provides the benefits of Deep Learning technology for improved lumber grade classification and recovery.
The latest platform that USNR provides for all of its grade scanning systems – both green mill and dry mill, includes Deep Learning technology along with other advancements. New vision sensors, computer hardware, and the latest software load will be installed. Deep Learning technology will provide enhanced detection of knots, pith, bark, and more defects.
These systems will be upgraded later this year. Click here to learn more about Deep Learning technology, and click here to read about the LHG projects that took place at WKO and Mt. Hood operations
Gruen-Wald Laminates is investing in a new radio frequency (RF) generator and 24′ long curing tunnel for its fingerjoint line at its plant in Tea, SD. This is the second tunnel at the plant, and the new equipment will provide increased capacity. The equipment is scheduled to be installed in Q3 of this year.
Gruen-Wald produces engineered building components for many industries including residential, commercial, and civil construction, production and storage facilities for farming, etc.
USNR is a leading supplier of systems for the manufacture of engineered wood products using RF gluing technology, dating back several decades. The RF generator produces radio waves used to create a field with alternating polarity, through which the wood and glue pass. Glue molecules are alternately attracted to one electrode or the other and become heated by the friction generated by this molecular agitation.
Thermosetting glues become cured within seconds of reaching the elevated temperature, so glued joints can be handled in minutes instead of hours or days. Another advantage is the glue begins curing throughout the joint instead of working in from the outside surfaces. For dimensional lumber sizes, hot oil or steam-heated platens would take much longer for the heat to get to the middle of the joint.
This equipment complements USNR’s other product lines for mass timber, panel press, and other engineered wood processing systems.
Given the small surge last week, North American softwood lumber prices have bounced from lows of two weeks ago. Whether they will remain there in the short term, or if restricted supply will drive another surge upward, remains to be seen. The upheavals of the past month or two are far from over, states Madison’s Lumber Reporter.
The wholesaler price of several benchmark softwood lumber commodities last week recovered losses from two weeks previous, to land at levels of early April. Prices of benchmark softwood lumber commodity item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr (RL) kissed exactly those of the same week last year, at US$336 mfbm (FOB sawmill).
In addition to the sudden changes in business and indeed life, brought on by this global virus pandemic, right now the northwest of Canada is experiencing some severe flooding. A late spring break-up has brought large volumes of snow-melt and ice down the immense rivers of northern Alberta and British Columbia. While the Canadian west coast sawmilling industry always welcomes with glee the spring freshet on the mighty Fraser River, there is a temporary lull in log hauling and lumber deliveries as the usual floods across highways and rail lines arrive.
Improving on increases made the previous week, for the week ending April 24, 2020, benchmark Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2×4 prices were US$336 mfbm, up +$20, or +6%, from the previous week. Last week’s price was down -$20, or -6%, from one month ago. Compared to one year ago, this price is up +$4, or +1%.
Canadian Western Spruce-Pine-Fir producers described a persistent upward price trend developing in most of their wares, while buyers were beginning to get spooked by the palpable lack of wood available last week. Swathes of sawmills remained shut down or heavily curtailed, and those that were operational were “running for Asia”. Two-week or more order files at sawmills emerged as the market tightened up with so much production taken out. Sawmills had trouble keeping stock of 2×4 #3/Utility R/L on their sales lists as demand for that item was apparently really hot into Texas.
Spring breakup of ice on the mighty Fraser River in British Columbia was in full swing, halting most timber harvesting and log hauling operations for the time being.
Recovering some of the losses of recent weeks, last week’s Western S-P-F 2×4 price is down -$39, or -10%, relative to the 1-year rolling average price of US$375 mfbm and is down -$79, or -19% relative to the 2-year rolling average price of US$415 mfbm.
Eastern Canadian lumber and studs suppliers described a mixed market last week depending on the source, destination, and item. While pricing of #2&Btr dimension lumber into the American Great Lakes market held firm for the most part, that of delivered prices into the Toronto market — aside from 2×4 which nudged up $5 to US$495 mfbm — crashed down.
The below graph shows current benchmark softwood lumber item prices 2012 – April 2020:
In Q1 2020, Vologda loggers of Segezha Group (part of Sistema JSFC) purchased 11 new timber carriers equipped with trailers and manipulators, as well as 22 all-terrain vehicles. The total investment amounted to around RUB 300 million.
“State-of-the-art SCANIA, MAN and Volvo timber carriers will guarantee handling of the scheduled timber hauling volumes,” says Kipelovo LCS JSC Executive Director Fedor Potapenko. “The new vehicles will be operated by our best employees. We believe that their proficiency, advanced machinery and smooth business processes will help improve the company’s performance.”
The new vehicles are expected to reduce the cost of logging and reliance on the wood hauling contractors. For instance, МАN timber carriers have completely substituted the services of contractor companies in Kharovsky area. Volvo short log trucks have increased in-house transportation volume from 70 to 85% in Kovzhinsky area.
Another important task is to procure feedstock for CLT panels manufacturing at the new enterprise, Sokol CLT LLC. The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade included construction of the plant in the list of priority investment projects for forest development. The controlled felling rate allotted for the project amounts to 618 thousand cubic meters per year. Starting from Q3 this year, logging at the allotted forest areas will be managed by Kipelovo LCS. For that purpose, a new branch, Vostok, has been established within the logging enterprise.
“The new all-terrain vehicles have been purchased on time to perform field research of the forest resources, demarcation of timber cutting areas, and road construction planning,” comments Andrey Nazarov, Head of Vostok production branch of Kipelovo LCS JSC. “We are working on schedule which is very tight.”
The second stage of KsilotekSibir LLC fuel pellet plant has been launched five months in advance of the project schedule at the manufacturing site of Lesosibirsky LDK No. 1 JSC, asset of Segezha Group (part of Sistema JSFC). The new plant has brought the total pellet production capacity of the company to 110.5 thousand tons of pellet granules per year.
The first construction stage of the third manufacturing line with an output of 30 thousand tons per year lasted from August to December 2019. It resulted in the commissioning of the third pellet press with an output of 4.5 t of fuel pellets per hour.
Equipment for the second, conclusive stage of construction was received at the mill on March 3 this year. The team of Lesosibirsky LDK No. 1 JSC started the installation in parallel with unloading and transportation of the line’s constituent units. The works had been in progress for one month and used only the mill’s own resources, without disruption of the existing production process or demolition of buildings, and with participation of Hekotek, the Estonian equipment producer.
Lesosibirsky LDK No. 1 Technical Director and Project Manager Evgeniy Verevkin says that successful project completion was driven by cohesive co-operation between LDK No. 1 and Hekotek teams and proactivity in implementation of the team’s own improvement ideas. “During installation the team, including workers engaged at the construction site, acted with a high level of competence and professional skill. The implemented improvement ideas have significantly reduced the project timing and costs. Launch of equipment without fail or hitch was possible owing to the high efficiency and commitment of the team.”
The first two fuel pellet manufacturing process lines with a capacity of 70 thousand tons of finished product were launched at the industrial site of KsilotekSibir LLC, part of Lesosibirsky LDK No. 1, in December 2018.
The equipment is intended for manufacturing of 6 mm and 8 mm diameter pellets from sawn timber production and processing waste – natural humidity sawdust and wood chips. The disposal of wood logging byproducts is effected by means of transforming these products into biofuel and heat.
Presently Lesosibirsk mill dispatches three container trains per month to the Baltic ports for further shipment to Denmark and other EU countries.
In 2020 SegezhaGroup (part of Sistema JSFC) will spend around RUB 10.5 million on restoration of forest crops in Kirov Oblast. Employees of Vyatsky Plywood Mill, the holding’s asset, will plant about 775.5 thousands of fir and pine seedlings from the local forest nurseries across the area of 258.5 hectares. Other activities are scheduled to ensure natural restoration of forests, particularly to preserve the undergrowth and soil surface mineralization across the area of 1,450.8 hectares.
“Despite the current difficulties due to combatting the coronavirus infection, the annual activities will be performed as scheduled,” assures Andrey Sharov, Director for Forest Management and Certification of Vyatsky Plywood Mill Branch for Forest Resources. “Compensatory forest planting will be performed in all felled areas within one or two years after completion of timber logging and hauling.”
All logging enterprises have approved lists of forest areas subject to protection. Priority areas are water conservation districts, prohibition belts, designated areas, forest territories with high biodiversity, as well as areas of special significance for local communities – habitats of porcini mushrooms and berries, and wood grouse mating places. The company’s logging equipment operators are instructed to leave valuable trees and trunks with caves and nests intact. Each stage of forest management takes into account the variations in wild forest animals’ habitats, state of soils and water resources. Presence of landscapes vulnerable to human impact is also considered. Segezha Group conducts no production activities in the aforementioned areas.
The mill’s logging works are performed within the scope of a priority investment project for forest development (Order of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade No.4313 dd. 11/12/2017). All necessary international certificates for forest areas management are available. Segezha Group has adopted a Policy for responsible forest management and supply mandatory for all its employees. The company draws on the principle of conducting forest restoration works in the territories whose size is commensurate to logging areas. Planting and sowing new trees are scheduled for the period from May to October. Forest renewal will take place without damage to the young stock and undergrowth remaining after felling.
“The company continues its systematic efforts for restoration of target coniferous species from high quality planting material. In order to grow new, strong and resilient trees in place of the felled ones, consistent and meticulous field work is necessary,” says Vyatsky Plywood Mill Executive Director Alexey Stepanov.
In 2019, forest restoration works in all Segezha Group regions of presence required an expenditure of RUB 97 million. The forest has been restored across the area of 26 thousand hectares, an expansion by 13.5% against the previous year.
The new H212 harvester head has been designed specifically for thinnings. The harvesterhead’s dimensions give it agility in navigating even dense thinning stands. Delimbing has beenoptimized for smaller trees, enabling a very high-quality delimbing result. The location and thehigh-speed cutting of the saw increases productivity and minimizes cutting damage. It has thepower and feed speed also for bigger trees. The H212 harvester head is available for JohnDeere 1070G and 1170G harvesters.
The narrow frame of the H212 harvester head offer excellent visibility to the stem. The harvester headis narrow even when the feed rollers are open, making it easy to work in very dense thinning forests.
The long delimbing knives make for an easy grip to the stem. The design of the knives and thelocation of the feed rollers at the lower end of the frame provide an excellent grip on the stem.
The daily maintenance of the harvester head takes less time than before. The easy daily maintenancetargets one point with the harvester head raised.
– Optimum working area 100-250 mm, maximum opening of the feed rollers 440 mm
– Feed power 20 kN
– Highest feed speed 5.4 m/s
– Weight with rotator and link 850 kg
Excellent bundle-handling characteristics The H212 harvester head’s frame, tilt, feed roller arms, and the design of the knives increase theefficiency in bundle-handling. The harvester head’s high frame provides support for stem bundles, and
the long delimbing knives facilitate in grabbing the stems. The firm grip of the feed rollers located onthe lower part of the frame makes it easy to move a bundle of stems upright even in a dense forest.
New SuperCut 100S saw unit for all John Deere harvester heads Starting in spring 2020, all John Deere harvester heads will have a new SuperCut 100S saw unit. Thesaw unit’s next-generation chain tightening unit, automatic chain tightening and mechanical bar
locking give it added efficiency and reliability. Improved chain release facilitates saw chainreplacement. The new saw unit enables also a bigger selection in terms of saw motors and saw bars.
John Deere harvester heads are known for their productivity, reliability and measuring accuracy. John Deere harvester heads are high performance tools that meet the industry’s stringent qualityrequirements in all working conditions. Harvester head testing is part of John Deere’s product testingprocess. Each harvester head model has been field-tested for thousands of hours before the start of serialproduction.
John Deere harvester heads are designed and manufactured in Finland.
In a move that creates the largest wood products scanning company in the world, Microtec has acquired Lucidyne Technologies, Inc.
Microtec has been delivering technologically advanced scanning and optimization systems for 40 years, and is the premier scanning company across Europe. Lucidyne has been the industry leader in scanning and optimization throughout North America since 1985. This acquisition expands both companies’ product lines, geographical reach, and, perhaps most importantly, brings the two most advanced technologies and technology teams together.
The opportunities provided by this acquisition to the wood products industry are significant. Lucidyne’s products will now be enhanced by the availability of the entire Microtec product line. Together there will be a mill-wide integrated scanning opportunity. Microtec and Lucidyne will be introducing co-developed products that bring the best of the companies’ technologies together, including Lucidyne’s patented Perceptive Sight® Intelligent Grading platform.
Microtec’s headquarters will remain in Bressanone, Italy, while Lucidyne’s operations will remain in Corvallis, Oregon. There are no anticipated changes to staffing, support, plant operations or customer interaction. Customer support will remain an important top priority.
Microtec and Lucidyne are eager to work together as the world’s largest wood products scanning company, delivering unparalleled results to our industry worldwide.
