Every now and then a situation surfaces that is troubling to us. Elsewhere in this magazine you’ll read a news item about the controversy over structural plywood manufactured in Brazil that has been exported to the United States, accounting for a decent share of consumption in the U.S…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World July 2020 – We’ve all been confined to our small corners of the world for the past three months, but my wife and I ventured forth and made the drive from Montgomery, Alabama to Denver Colorado at the…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World March 2020 – From the looks of it going in, the Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE), which is scheduled for March 12-13 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Ga., is offering up its best…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World January 2020 – In baseball, 500 is a magical number, and if a player hits 500 home runs during his career he’s on track to make the Hall of Fame. This issue of Panel World is number 500 in its 60-year lifespan, having been founded in 1960; and while Panel World may not be…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World November 2019 – As the year winds down, already, a quick glance back through the pages of Panel World reveals several articles on wood products plants that found new life, and some memorable comments from key players in the industry…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World September 2019 – Through the course of time, as we editors travel to wood products mills around the world, we begin to view some mills as more than just a mill, but rather as a member of our editorial family. Take this issue’s cover story for instance…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World July 2019 – The story in this issue on Georgia-Pacific’s OSB plant in Clarendon County, South Carolina brings back memories. Not memories of Georgia-Pacific, but rather of Grant Forest Products, the Ontario-based company that built an OSB plant…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World May 2019 – No, the headline doesn’t refer to the NCAA basketball tournament and the prestige of reaching the tournament’s Sweet Sixteen finalists. Rather it tells the number of Ligna shows in Hannover, Germany I will have attended, if indeed I make the upcoming…

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Panel World March 2019 – Our friends Dick Baldwin and Rich Baldwin write about the North America softwood plywood industry in this issue. They note that about 28 plywood mills disappeared since pre-recession or…

Plywood mill and OSB mill project startups in the U.S. have received a lot of attention during the past couple of years, and more are forthcoming this year, but 2019 has all the makings as the year of the composite board. Three upcoming board mill startups…