Carbon dioxide-capturing pine forests could be nurseries for native trees in New Zealand – Parliament’s environment select committee has heard the case for using quick-growing exotic trees, such as pines and eucalyptus, to capture carbon dioxide is compelling.

Fast and slow-growing exotic and native trees could be grown together to help New Zealand capture carbon dioxide and protect biodiversity, a Parliamentary select committee has been told.

At the third day of the environment committee’s Christchurch hearings into the Climate Change Amendment (Zero Carbon) Bill, University of Canterbury forestry professor Euan Mason said the case for using exotic trees, such as pines and eucalypts, to capture carbon dioxide was compelling.

Unfortunately, indigenous vegetation grew too slowly and could not sequester carbon dioxide fast enough to allow the country to meet its emissions targets.

On warm and damp sites, radiata stands could be a nurse crop for native forest. As long as seed sources were available, the carbon dioxide reservoirs would ultimately change to become native forest, Mason said. He recommended radiata pine and other exotics be established as permanent carbon forests with the proviso that, for every 10ha of exotics, 1ha of local native stands “are either identified or established to act as seed sources for the gradual succession to native forest as carbon reservoirs”.

Photo: Volunteers planting native trees at Rai Valley. About 700 rimu, totara, lowland ribbonwood, matai and other native trees were planted. Native forest may eventually take over as the country’s carbon dioxide reservoirs.

Pölkky Oy has announced the construction of a new planing mill in Taivalkoski, Finland. The value of the investment is 10 million euros and is part of the company’s new investment program.

The new planing mill will produce a variety of processed wood products for both exports and the domestic market. The facility is expected to be up and running in the fall of 2020, and will directly employ 10 people. The new facility will have an annual capacity of over 100 000 m3.

“Investing in the construction of the new planing mill in Taivalkoski is part of our new strategy which aims to increase our ratio of further processed wood products and to improve our profitability. The new planing mill also enables us to react even faster to our customers’ needs. Collaboration with the Taivalkoski municipality has been very good”, says Petteri Virranniemi, CEO at Pölkky Oy.

“The new plant will have a high degree of automation and will use cutting edge technology. In particular we are investing in the possibility to make fast cutting pattern changes”, comments Pekka Tuovinen, Technical Director at Pölkky Oy

Earlier in 2019 Pölkky Oy announced its first stage in the investment program with the modernization of the sawmill in Kajaani, which will also be incrementally implemented starting H2 2020.

Pölkky Oy uses 1 400 000 m3 of raw timber annually, across its four sawmills in Finland. The company’s turnover is 180 million euros. Pölkky has 420 employees in wood procurement, sawing and processing. Pölkky is a family company, now in the third generation.

Pölkky Oy is the largest private wood processing company in northern Finland. The sawmills and further processing facilities run by Pölkky Oy are located in the heart of Finland’s best raw timber region, in Kuusamo, Taivalkoski and Kajaani. Pine represents 75% and spruce 25% of their production. Pölkky also has a pressure treatment facility in Oulu

Contact:
Petteri Virranniemi, Chief Executive Officer, Pölkky Oy
Tel. +358 40 522 4390

A big deficit in the supply of hardwood woodchips is expected in the Asia-Pacific in the next three-to-five years, with demand in China, already the world’s biggest importer, expected to continue growing, according to Australian forestry giant Midway Group. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz

Midway’s managing director, Tony Price, told the recent DANA conference in Brisbane that Japan’ demand for hardwood chips was still strong, while Vietnam remained the region’s biggest supplier, followed by Australia.

Mr Price said China had been a strong and consistent importer of hardwood chips since 2007, with imports now more than 12 million bone-dry million tonnes. Capacity had expanded, with big growth in areas such as tissue production.

“There is an increased appreciation of higher quality eucalyptus woodchips. Customers are moving to longer term contracts and six-monthly pricing. The prices are equivalent to, or better than Japan,” he said.

Japanese imports had increased since 2013 despite predictions of a contraction, but long-term demand was expected to decline.

“With increasing competition from China, Japan has diversified its supply sources,” he said. However, biomass demand was set to take-off, with a number of dedicated biomass power stations active.

Mr Price said demand in Taiwan and South Korea remained stable, focussed on cheaper, lower quality fibre, but biomass demand could grow in Korea.

“Indonesia is now an importer. It has rapidly moved from an exporter to an importer due to increases in consumption and reduced availability of domestic fibre,” he said.

Imports had grown significantly this year and were on track to exceed one million BDT. In contrast, India was not yet a significant player.

“The market is yet to develop,” he said.

Mr Price said Vietnam’s hardwood woodchip supply had been predicted to tighten, but it continued to grow.

“They have very short rotations so have the ability to quickly respond to demand. There are good margins along the entire supply chain from grower to exporter,” he said. “The Government would prefer longer rotations and domestic value-adding.”

Vietnamese supply continued to grow to fill reductions from other countries.

“Other suppliers are expected to reduce due to a combination of domestic demand and limited plantation availability,” he said. These countries included Chile, Thailand, South Africa, Malaysia and Ecuador.

Mr Price said Australian plantation supply had doubled since 2013 due to the maturing of the hardwood plantation resource. However, further rises in plantation supply were limited and would drop from 2023 for at least five years, he said.

Demand for hardwood logs had affected the woodchip supply.

“There is potential to increase supply from managed regrowth forests,” he said.

NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia had certified, well-managed forests. In the longer term, additional supply required reinvestment and expansion of the plantation base, he said.

Mr Price said potential competitors to Australia in the Asia-Pacific were South America – Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. However, prices would have to cover the high shipping costs. “It is difficult to see where further additional supplies will come from,” he said.

One possible source was Mozambique, or possibly Cambodia or another new South-East Asian supplier.

Midway’s managing director, Tony Price

In response to the heavily growing demand, Clark Tracks is pleased to announce it is expanding the production facilities in Dumfries, Scotland. The new 4100 m2 production space is adjacent to the existing one, increasing the total space to 7500 m2, which is more than twice than before.

“In the new factory we are investing in automation and streamlining the production process whilst maintaining the flexibility for bespoke products” says Stewart Kelly, director, Clark Tracks.

The new space and additional capacity is taken into use in Q4-2019. During the next two years Clark Tracks will be able to double its production capacity. Total investment is approximately £2.5M.

Clark Tracks Ltd, part of Nordic Traction Group, specialise in developing and manufacturing forest machine tracks to suit almost all Cut-to-Length machines and Skidders. The company has manufactured forest machine tracks for over 30 years.

More information:
Stewart Kelly, stewart@clarktracks.com
Director, Clark Tracks

Tero Järvinen, tero.jarvinen@nordictraction.fi
CEO, Nordic Traction Group

Dynamic growth for desalination and water reuse in 2019

In The News

Non-conventional advanced water treatment solutions are considered essential to coping with increased water scarcity. The IDA Water Security Handbook, released in January 2019, provides the latest market overview for the global desalination and water reuse markets.

In 2019, the seawater desalination market is set to experience its most dynamic year since the late 2000s, according to the new IDA Water Security Handbook, published by the International Desalination Association (IDA) and Global Water Intelligence (GWI) in January 2019.

In the past 3 years, the overall desalination market has remained steady; however, several factors are driving the surge in desalination projects. These include rising demand for clean water, decreasing capital and operational costs of desalination, and the need to replace older facilities with energy-efficient processes, among others. At the same time, water reuse has become an increasingly important part of water resources management around the world. The global contracted reuse capacity has almost doubled since 2010, with cumulative contracted capacity increasing from 59.7 million m3/d in 2009to 118 million m3/d in 2017.

According to the 31st desalination inventory, which covers July 2017–June 2018, the total global installed desalination capacity stands at 97.4 million cubic meters per day (m3/d) while the total global cumulative contracted capacity is 104.7 million m3/d. As of June 30, 2018, more than 20,000 desalination plants had been contracted around the world.

IDA Secretary General Shannon McCarthy relates this industry growth to global trends. “As climate change continues to impact our world, along with industrial and population growth, the demand for clean water increases. Desalination and water reuse: non-conventional, environmentally sound water supply solutions are in keeping with the circular water economy and offer solutions to water scarcity. The trends we are seeing point to a broad recognition that these advanced water treatment solutions are essential to the health and well-being of people and economies around the world, both now and in the future.”

Desalination costs down

“The big breakthrough in the past year has been on the cost of desalination,” says GWI Publisher Christopher Gasson. “Recent project tenders in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi have seen the price fall below $0.50/m3 for the first time. After a decade in which price drifted upwards as a result of high materials costs and higher energy costs, this is very good news. Indeed, we expect 2019 to be the best year ever in the desalination market. In terms of water reuse, prices for indirect potable standard water are in the $0.30-$0.40 range, but the market is still held back by public perceptions.”

Significant price reductions in desalinated water pro-diction costs are related to several factors not only specifically linked to technological progress, says Carlos Cosín, IDA officer and CEO of Almar Water Solutions. “From my perspective, the contractors’ experience after years of building large-scale projects in the region has led to a cost-efficient optimization of the construction process. New contractual and financial models have contributed to the creation of strong, solid consortiums, which have the knowledge to accommodate risk in a more efficient manner. Together with lower interest rates in the financial sector, these are all important factors that are helping to push tariffs down.”

Material and design changes have also contributed to price reductions, Cosín explains. Lower petroleum prices have reduced the cost of desalination plant components, many of which are manufactured from oil-derived materials, such as membranes and plastic pipes. Additionally, energy savings has been realized through advances in membranes that require less inlet pressure, energy-efficient recovery devices, and larger reverse osmosis trains with larger pumps and motors capable of higher efficiencies.

Construction activity gains momentum

The expected surge in desalination is largely a result of gathering momentum in construction plans in the Middle East, especially for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. According to the 2018-2019 IDA Water Security Handbook, 1.9 million m3/d of seawater capacity was contracted in the first half of 2018, up 26 percent over the same period in 2017. Since that time, preferred bidders have emerged on projects totalling well over 1 million m3/d in additional new capacity in the region.

No single factor is catalysing the boom of desalination projects in GCC countries, says IDA President Miguel Angel Sanz, who is also the director of strategic development for treatment infrastructure at Suez International. Instead, he explains that several elements are driving the momentum in a region with limited natural water resources that are decreasing each year. These include high population growth, the need to update old desalination facilities, and the crude oil crisis.

Sanz also notes that the boom of renewable energies producing electricity at a cost as low as US$20 per megawatt hour (MWh) has finally put into the market a trend to reduce drastically the production cost of desalinated water, where the energy is half of the tariff. In the case of the UAE, another special catalyzer is the next commissioning of nuclear power reactors that will force the end of coupling conventional power plants to thermal desalination.

“All these factors have shifted the balance toward building new mega plants in the area, producing water more efficiently and drastically reducing the cost by economy of scale, ‘aligning the planets’ in a very short period and causing this desalination boom,” Sanz adds.

Global construction trends

Not all of the contracted large seawater plants are located in the Middle East. The largest seawater desalination award listed in the 31st desalination inventory is the 378,000-m3/d seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) project in Rosarito, Mexico. This was followed by projects at Hamriyah (Sharjah, UAE, 272,760 m3/d), Shoaiba 3 expansion 2 IWP (Saudi Arabia, 250,000 m3/d) and Al Khobar (Saudi Arabia, 210,000 m3/d).

Globally, contracted capacity for brackish water desalination declined by 19 percent over the prior year, but in the United States (US), contracted brackish water desalination rose significantly, totalling 205,600 m3/d, the highest level since 2012 and a 26-percent increase over 2016, with a fairly even split between municipal and industrial plants.

Desalination of lower concentration feedwater, such as waste-water and low-concentration surface water, also increased, comprising almost 25 percent of total capacity in 2017 compared to approximately 15 percent in 2016. The majority of this capacity is made up of large wastewater treatment plants in China and India.

From a geographic perspective, contracted capacity in the Middle East – the largest market for desalination – fell from 2016 to 2017, but this decline was offset in 2018 by the awarding of several large projects in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as well as expansion projects in both Dubai and Sharjah. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) awarded contracts for a 181,840-m3/d SWRO expansion at its Jebel Ali power and desalination complex as well as a 272,360-m3/d SWRO expansion of Federal Electricity and Water Authority’s (FEWA) Hamriyah desalination plant in Sharjah.

The Asia-Pacific desalination market grew in 2017, primarily due to the Chinese desalination market where contracted capacity reached its highest level since 2010. In the Americas, 2018 was the most active year for desalination since 2013. In sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya’s Mombasa County awarded two projects of 100,000 m3/d and 30,000 m3/d while three smaller projects were awarded in Cape Town to help avert its looming “Day Zero” water crisis.

In terms of technologies, mem-brane technologies continue to dominate the desalination market. Ninety percent of desalination capacity contracted since 2010 employs membrane technologies, with the use of thermal technologies for large-scale projects remaining concentrated in the Middle East.

Industrial desalination grows 21 percent

The industrial desalination market grew by 21 percent in contracted capacity between 2016-2017, according to the IDA Water Security Handbook. Increased activity in upstream and downstream oil and gas accounted for more than one third of contracted industrial capacity in 2017 while rising commodity prices have revived desalination activity in the mining industry, with 201,000 m3/d of new capacity contracted in the first half of 2018 alone. Rapid growth in the microelectronics industry is also creating opportunities for desalination technologies, with contracted capacity in this sector more than doubling from 2016-2017.

IDA Director and Managing Director of Aquatech Devesh Sharma sums up the principal reasons for the recent 21-percent rise in the industrial desalination market: “The intersection of water scarcity and corporate water risk is driving growth in the use of desalination and other forms of advanced water technology in industry. Concerns about operational risks, corporate social responsibility,

sustainability, and water’s direct impact on P&L [profit and loss] have made this a boardroom issue for a majority of large companies.”

The most significant driver of expenditure on advanced water technology is water scarcity, he explains. “Most industrial development occurs either in highly water scarce regions or densely populated regions where there is an emerging and extreme competition for fresh water resources. Water scarcity has driven more stringent environ-mental regulation demanding lower volumes of discharge as well as higher purity of wastewater, thus driving the need for water reuse, particularly in industry.

“All of this, coupled with industry’s demand for higher purity, is creating an interesting and emerging market need for better advanced water technology. Water is a widely used raw material in industry, and the way in which it is treated can have a significant impact on process efficiency. In certain cases, it takes more water to mine the same element than it did in the past, and end-users are also finding opportunities where higher purity of water in the process results in better production yields. This is also being seen in the oil and gas industry with the advent of smart water processes that adjust the water quality to the geology in the well to minimize issues such as biological fouling or precipitation, all with the objective to maximize yield.

“Removing dissolved salts from water and other technologies, which turns low-quality wastewater and raw water sources into high-quality process water, will be an important driver of industrial efficiency moving forward.”

Global water reuse market strengthens

The importance of water reuse as a solution to the world’s growing water issues has escalated significantly in the past few years. Increasingly, many regions are looking to wastewater reuse over large-scale desalination as a solution to drought-induced water scarcity. For example, both Cape Town and California are pursuing potable water reuse of wastewater, and reuse of wastewater in industry plays a vital part of policy responses to degradation of water resources in China and India.

As contracted capacity continues to rise, the epicentre of the global wastewater reuse market has shifted from North America to Asia, with China accounting for 49 percent of capacity contracted between 2010 and 2017. However, new capacity in India and Taiwan is also significant. India is now the fastest growing market in the region, with new environmental legislation as one of the drivers.

The Americas is the second largest region according to installed capacity, with the majority of water reuse focused on the agricultural and industrial sectors in the US, which remains the world’s second largest market by contracted capacity at 10 percent of the total. However, the awarding of three projects in Latin America accounts for the majority of the region’s increase in contracted capacity.

Water reuse is gaining traction in the Middle East as well although desalination remains the primary unconventional water source for arid countries in the region. Large-scale upgrades of sewage treatment plants in the Gulf and Egypt have driven strong growth in reuse.

Spain has led the European wastewater reuse market since 2010, with large projects aimed at agricultural users in that country. However, a proposed EU directive that would require treatment of microbiological pathogens to facilitate water reuse for agricultural irrigation has the potential to increase water reuse in the EU from 3 million m3/d to 18 million m3/d.

Industrial water demand is a key driver of the wastewater reuse market. This trend is especially apparent in water-intensive manufacturing and extraction industries as well as in regions where population growth has created a conflict between industrial and municipal water users, driving the industry to seek alternative water sources, as municipal users are typically prioritized, especially in times of drought.

The 2019 IDA World Congress will be held on October 20-24 in Dubai, UAE. For more information, visit www.wc.idadesal.org

An intergovernmental report on climate change released late last week highlights the need for a whole-of-landscape approach to tackling climate change, and the vital role the agriculture and forestry sector can play in reducing emissions and storing carbon, according to Climate Proofing Australia (CPA). Source: Timberbiz

The CPA is pleased to see that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recommendations are consistent with its call on the Australian Government to better target the Climate Solutions Fund (formerly the Emissions Reduction Fund) to incentivise carbon projects from the agriculture and forestry sectors that deliver the co-benefits of biodiversity, productivity, water quality and landholders and employment.

“The Fund’s current conditions limit the land sector’s capacity to generate co-benefits associated with carbon sequestration, such as reinstating wildlife habitat, supporting sustainable agriculture, increasing the plantation forestry estate, and cleaner waters in our rivers,” Australian Forest Products Association CEO Ross Hampton said.

“This next phase of the Fund is an opportunity to address these barriers and make it more accessible to primary industries and landowners.”

Mr Hampton said the IPCC Special Report backs Australia’s forest industries to help fight climate change.

“This latest IPCC report is further evidence that Australia’s forest management practices of sustainable harvest and regeneration are as good as anywhere in the world when it comes to emissions reduction and carbon mitigation benefits. It is better for the environment to have well managed multiple-use forests that continue to produce renewable forest products that store carbon and bioproducts that substitute for fossil fuels-based alternatives, than to lock forests up,” Mr Hampton said.

Greening Australia CEO Mr Brendan Foran said that with land-based activities also accounting for around 20 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, carbon farming presents a really important opportunity not just to reduce these emissions, but to improve the landscape at the same time.

“A strengthened CFI and the introduction of ‘premium credits’ will mean that large-scale tree plantings can also achieve important co-benefits, such as reinstating wildlife habitat, supporting sustainable agriculture and cleaner waters in our rivers.”

CPA reiterated its call on the Federal Government to commit a proportion of the Climate Solutions Fund to projects that deliver multiple benefits, and to remove barriers to the Fund that currently limit opportunities for the agriculture and forestry sectors.

The latest IPCC report states:
Sustainable forest management aimed at providing timber, fibre, biomass, non-timber resources and other ecosystem functions and services, can lower GHG emissions and can contribute to adaptation. B5.3.

Sustainable forest management can maintain or enhance forest carbon stocks, and can maintain forest carbon sinks, including by transferring carbon to wood products, thus addressing the issue of sink saturation…Where wood carbon is transferred to harvested wood products, these can store carbon over the long-term and can substitute for emissions-intensive materials reducing emissions in other sectors. B5.4.

Most mitigation pathways include substantial deployment of bioenergy technologies. B7.4.
The use of residues and organic waste as bioenergy feedstock can mitigate land use change pressures associated with bioenergy deployment. B3.3.
Photo: Australian Forest Products Association CEO Ross Hampton

More than seven million pine seedlings are being dispatched from Forestry Corporation of NSW’s Blowering Nursery near Tumut this winter, which is one of the largest crops since the nursery began producing containerised seedlings a little over a decade ago.

Phil Green, Plantation Improvement Manager, said the 7.4 million pine seedlings will be sent out to restock timber plantations near Tumut, Bombala, Bathurst and Walcha.

“Over the last 20 years, Forestry Corporation’s Blowering nursery has seen over 140 million seedlings pass through our gates to help build people’s homes and workplaces,” Mr Green said.

“We have 16 staff on board to help with the grading and dispatch program which runs for five months.

“At the height of the dispatch program, it is not uncommon to send upwards of 800,000 seedlings out of the nursery gate in a week.

Mr Green said preparations for the massive seedling dispatch began in October last year, when the team at the nursery planted more than 340 kilograms of seed into individual cells.

“These seedlings are going to become future generations’ homes and furniture, so we go to great lengths to ensure we produce high quality, robust seedlings that will produce strong and straight timber when they are ready for harvest in 30 years,” Mr Green said.

“We use different seeds for seedlings destined to be planted in different parts of the estate so that the seedlings have the best chance of thriving in their environment and growing into high-quality timber.

“Over the past eight months, we have carefully fertilised, watered and nurtured our seedlings, regularly measuring the stem diameter, height and nutrient status of seedlings in sample plots throughout the nursery and we are now assessing each individual seedling to ensure it meets our high standards.

“Forestry Corporation replants the equivalent of almost 300 times the area of Sydney’s CBD to pine plantations each year and around 85 per cent of the seedlings replanted state-wide are grown here at Blowering, so it’s a role we take very seriously,” Mr Green concludes.

For more information about Forestry Corporation of NSW, visit www.forestrycorporation.com.au

Gough family to sell Caterpillar dealership after nearly a century – The wealthy Gough family has sold Gough Group for $211 million to a Malaysian company after a 90-year history in New Zealand owning the Caterpillar heavy machinery dealership.

The Gough family fortune is collectively valued at nearly $400m but members have been split in recent years and been embroiled in a High Court battle for control over the family trusts that controlled the company.

Family members include property developers and investors Antony and Tracy who are brothers, and their nephew and son respectively, Jamie, who is a Christchurch City councillor.

Gough Group employs about 950 people across its network in more than 50 locations in Australia and New Zealand. Over the past year Gough Group grew its revenue by more than 18 per cent $540m from higher sales sales for its Caterpillar and transport and materials handling businesses.

The buyer is Sime Darby Berhad, one of the largest Caterpillar dealers globally. It purchased Continental Car Services in 1999. In New Zealand, Sime Darby Motors operates under the Continental Cars and City Nissan dealerships in Auckland representing brands such as BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi, Ferrari and Nissan. It also has a commercial transport arm representing brands such as Volvo, Hino, Mack and UD Trucks.

The conditional agreement depends on Overseas Investment Office approval but is expected to be completed by the end of September, Sime Darby said.

With an international workforce of more than 20,000 employees, they are headquartered in Malaysia with operations in 18 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region. Sime Darby Berhad is listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.

Rayonier Inc. reported 2Q 2019 net income of $18.8 million, or $0.14 per share, on revenues of $184.8 million. This compares to net income of $36.3 million, or $0.28 per share, on revenues of $245.9 million in the prior year quarter.

2Q operating income was $31.4 million versus $51.6 million in the prior year period. 2Q Adjusted EBITDA was $60.6 million versus $111.3 million in the prior year period.

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand.

Timber Forest, part of Rodoparaná Group, appointed Rafael Macedo as marketing coordinator. The Timber Forest is the dealer for the Ponsse and Sany machines in the southern region of Brazil. Rafael Macedo has MBA in marketing and 16 years of experience in forestry sector. Previously he was the editor of Referência Florestal Magazine, the main forestry magazine in Brazil.

“It’s a great opportunity and honor to be able to contribute to Timber’s continued growth. My role will be to serve as support for the sales team, to maintain and increase customer relationships, which Timber already does a very good job, through communication and strategics programs we will develop together”, said Macedo.

“We are growing a lot in recent years, and we realize it was time to establish a model of communication to strengthen our relationship with our clients and the market, that is the reason to hire Rafael, who has experience in the field and can also contribute with new marketing actions. We all are very excited about the novelty and ready to work”, says Claumar Baldissera, Sales and Marketing manager. In addition to the forestry machines of the Finnish brand Ponsse and the construction and mining equipment of the Chinese company Sany, Timber also represents in the south of Brazil the implements of Satco, manufacturer from New Zealand.

Timber was responsible for the beginning of the popularization of forest mechanization in Brazil, more than 15 years ago. Based in the three southern states (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul), the company, which represents world-renowned brands, also customizes forestry machines, provides its own fleet monitoring called Timber Fleet, and provides maintenance service. “We work tirelessly to deliver solutions to our customers, when they have a problem, it becomes ours too”, says Jober Fonseca, Director of Timber.