Nothing Like Going Back

Nothing Like Going Back

by | Aug 22, 2019 | Taking Stock

Nothing Like Going Back

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—the RoyOMartin southern pine plywood mill in Chopin, La. Panel World editors have visited this mill and written articles on it four times since it started running in 1996.

I went there almost exactly 23 years ago, several months after it peeled its first block in February 1996. After considering the construction of a southern pine sawmill, Martco (Jonathan Martin and Jerry Buckner in particular) realized a plywood mill would better address its wood utilization situation. Martco officially announced the project in 1994 at a cost of $50 million and with a stated production capacity of 250MMSF (3⁄8 in.).

It was very special to be able to visit with these gentlemen and tour the mill for the article. Martco had gone with Durand-Raute for most of the machinery, having come away impressed with some similar equipment it had seen in action at Plum Creek Timber’s plywood mills in Montana.

The next time Panel World went back to Chopin was in 2007. Our senior editor Dan Shell made that journey, mainly because the mill had started up a second plywood line—heavier to USNR (Coe) and SparTek this time (including a seven ply foam glue layup line—and had increased annual production capacity to 470MMSF, going after smaller logs in longer lengths.

It was my turn again in 2011, and while the mill had made some equipment improvements, boosting production to nearly 490MMSF, the brunt of the article was on the company’s Living With Wellness Program, which emphasized the idea that a healthier employee is also a safer worker. Looking back on it, I think I went back mainly because I just wanted to see how the mill had evolved since my initial visit.

A few things caught our attention for this latest visit for the article in this issue. The trip to the mill had brought in some dryers since our previous visit, and had recently undergone considerable upgrade to its automation systems and controls throughout the mill. Production had hiked again to 510MMSF, more than double the original output. But what really caught our eye was that a couple of years ago the mill had implemented a timbers sawmill line, utilizing the non-plywood stems from the optimized multi-saw bucking line.

The editor who visited the mill and wrote the story in this issue, Jessica Johnson, was all of eight years old when I visited the new mill in 1996. Maybe now you can begin to see how a mill can traverse our editorial landscape.

RELATED ARTICLES

ROYOMARTIN ADDS PRODUCTION LINE IN CORRIGAN

HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY CHOPIN PLYWOOD

TIME IS FREE BUT IT’S PRICELESS

ROY MARTIN III PAINTS REFRESHING, POSITIVE PICTURE

 

 

Latest News

Kronospan Completes Simsboro Particleboard Purchase

Kronospan, a producer of wood panel products, has announced the closing of its purchase of Roseburg’s Simsboro, La., particleboard facility following the expiration of the required regulatory review period. Ownership of the plant has been transferred from Roseburg to Kronospan…

Hymmen’s Dr. Werner Pankoke Dies

Werner Pankoke, died at the age of 85 following a stroke. Born March 29, 1938 as the third child of Bielefeld, Germany dentist Dr. Wilhelm Pankoke, Werner decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps when he began his studies. Instead, he was drawn to Munich Technical University, where he pursued his grandfather Theodor Hymmen’s engineering interests—studying mechanical engineering…

Metsä Group, Sweco Sign Agreement For Design Of LVL Mill

Metsä Group and Sweco have signed an agreement for the implementation planning of the new Kerto LVL mill in Äänekoski, Finland. “We have strong confidence in Sweco’s expertise and resources from our previous collaboration projects. It is therefore natural that we continue our cooperation in this project to develop the Äänekoski mill area,” says Jaakko Anttila, Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood…

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

Latest News

Kronospan Completes Simsboro Particleboard Purchase

Kronospan, a producer of wood panel products, has announced the closing of its purchase of Roseburg’s Simsboro, La., particleboard facility following the expiration of the required regulatory review period. Ownership of the plant has been transferred from Roseburg to Kronospan…

Hymmen’s Dr. Werner Pankoke Dies

Werner Pankoke, died at the age of 85 following a stroke. Born March 29, 1938 as the third child of Bielefeld, Germany dentist Dr. Wilhelm Pankoke, Werner decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps when he began his studies. Instead, he was drawn to Munich Technical University, where he pursued his grandfather Theodor Hymmen’s engineering interests—studying mechanical engineering…

Metsä Group, Sweco Sign Agreement For Design Of LVL Mill

Metsä Group and Sweco have signed an agreement for the implementation planning of the new Kerto LVL mill in Äänekoski, Finland. “We have strong confidence in Sweco’s expertise and resources from our previous collaboration projects. It is therefore natural that we continue our cooperation in this project to develop the Äänekoski mill area,” says Jaakko Anttila, Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood…

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

Sweet Sixteen

Sweet Sixteen

by | Apr 16, 2019 | Taking Stock

Sweet Sixteen

Taking Stock Panel World May 2019Article 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 one at the end of May as planned.

There are certain things in life that serve to remind us of our advancing years—birthdays obviously, marriage anniversaries, the news of a forthcoming grandchild, the age of an old truck still in the driveway. Another indicator for me is the Ligna show.

The number 16 doesn’t sound that many, except that Ligna is held every two years, and so it’s 16 x 2, and that equals 32 years, which is half of my age. In other words, I’ve been attending Ligna shows the vast majority of my adulthood.

1989 was the first one I attended. My post-show report on it spent a lot of words on Bison, the Springe, Germany manufacturer that was selling a good number of presses, including continuous, into North America then. The continuous press was overall a hot topic at Ligna. LP was cranking up several Siempelkamp versions in the U.S. Speaking of Siempelkamp, the 1989 Ligna was where it introduced the company logo it continues to adorn today. A Küsters continuous press was going in at John Godfrey’s new gypsum fiberboard plant in East Providence, Rhode Island.

Our issues of Panel World around that time were also heavy with articles on OSB. In fact 1989 was in the middle of the OSB boom in North America. We visited Huber’s new OSB mill in Commerce, Ga., and Peter Grant’s new OSB line with Dieffenbacher multiple-opening press in Englehart, Ontario, headquarters of Grant Forest Products.

We were also writing a lot about plywood in 1989, which was only beginning to feel the market pinch from OSB. Champion International renovated its plywood mill in Libby, Montana, giving the mill “new life” as our story said. Indeed the plant would run into the early 2000s under Stimson Lumber before giving out.

Information on new technologies for air emissions control began appearing with regularity, and so did advertisements from such companies as Geoenergy with its E-Tube wet ESP.

In the same issue as my post Ligna article, a barely noticeable news release reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to list the northern spotted owl of the Northwest U.S. as a threatened species. Industry interests said if that happened it would mean the loss of billions of board feet of timber harvest from federal lands per year and that the industry would tragically and permanently shrink. It happened.

One thing that hasn’t shrunk is the Ligna show. In a way, it’s like going back in time.

 

Latest News

Kronospan Completes Simsboro Particleboard Purchase

Kronospan, a producer of wood panel products, has announced the closing of its purchase of Roseburg’s Simsboro, La., particleboard facility following the expiration of the required regulatory review period. Ownership of the plant has been transferred from Roseburg to Kronospan…

Hymmen’s Dr. Werner Pankoke Dies

Werner Pankoke, died at the age of 85 following a stroke. Born March 29, 1938 as the third child of Bielefeld, Germany dentist Dr. Wilhelm Pankoke, Werner decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps when he began his studies. Instead, he was drawn to Munich Technical University, where he pursued his grandfather Theodor Hymmen’s engineering interests—studying mechanical engineering…

Metsä Group, Sweco Sign Agreement For Design Of LVL Mill

Metsä Group and Sweco have signed an agreement for the implementation planning of the new Kerto LVL mill in Äänekoski, Finland. “We have strong confidence in Sweco’s expertise and resources from our previous collaboration projects. It is therefore natural that we continue our cooperation in this project to develop the Äänekoski mill area,” says Jaakko Anttila, Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood…

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

After All These Years GP Still Knows Plywood

After All These Years GP Still Knows Plywood

by | Feb 15, 2019 | Taking Stock

After All These Years GP Still Knows Plywood

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 basically in the past dozen years, leaving 58 or so in operation. They note that Boise Cascade and Georgia-Pacific have the two largest softwood plywood capacities in North America. But things happen quickly in the plywood industry, and I believe it has been since they wrote the article that Georgia-Pacific closed its plywood mill in Warm Springs, Ga. and Boise Cascade sold its mill in Moncure, NC.

Upon hearing that GP had closed Warm Springs, the editors at Panel World began guessing how many softwood plywood mills GP has left. How many do you think? Here’s a hint: They are all southern pine plywood mills. Here’s another hint: The list doesn’t include GP’s original plywood mill site in Fordyce, Ark., which started up in 1964 and was recognized as one of the first three southern pine plywood mills to start up that year (along with Kirby’s mill at Silsbee, Texas and Temple’s mill at Diboll, Texas). Neither GP’s mill at Fordyce or its mill at Crossett, Ark., which started up in 1965, made it out of the recession.

Our best educated guess is that GP’s oldest softwood plywood mill site still in operation is at Emporia, Va. GP started it up in 1966. We think the next oldest GP site still going is Taylorsville, Miss., which started up in 1969. Third oldest GP site still producing plywood? Perhaps it’s Prosperity, SC, which began production in 1975.

So that’s three GP plywood mills still ticking. But there’s more. As best as we can tell, GP still has eight softwood plywood plants in operation. In addition to Emporia, Taylorsville and Prosperity, there’s Dudley, NC, which GP started up in 1980; and plants in Corrigan, Texas; Camden, Texas; Madison, Ga.; and Gurdon, Ark., none of which, we think, GP actually started up but rather purchased.

GP started up the recently closed Warm Springs mill in 1974. The next year GP started up a mill in Talladega, Ala., which GP idled during the recession, then closed in 2016. But the Talladega site has had a resurgence. After the site sat motionless for 10 years, GP has recently started up a new sawmill there, and in fact was able to restore a couple of the barrel buildings that housed the plywood mill. I visited the sawmill in January, and a local at a nearby convenience store told me they were never so glad as when the log trucks started rolling again.

Of course it’s easy for us to toss around mill statistics, but rest assured we’re very sympathetic to the fact that each time one of these mills closes it’s a major life altering episode for the workers and their families. Unfortunately, mill closures has become a fact of life in the plywood industry, but there are signs that this segment is stabilizing, and in fact new plywood mill production has even come on in the past couple of years.

 

Latest News

Oregon Truckers File Suit Against State

Rob Freres, president of Oregon-based Freres Engineered Wood, a manufacturer of lumber, veneer, plywood and mass timber, has thrown in his support for a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Trucking Assn. and three Oregon-based trucking companies against the state of Oregon for overcharging truckers under the weight-mile tax.

Hasslacher Enters North America

Austria-based Hasslacher group is acquiring a stake in Element5, a mass timber producer specializing in the design, manufacture and assembly of modern engineered timber buildings. Based near Toronto, Can., Element5 employs more than 100 and produces cross-laminated timber and glued laminated timber for the North American market.

Endowment Welcomes New Board Members

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announces that Fritz Mason, Paul Hossain and Anna Torma were elected as new directors at the organization’s fall board meeting. “Drawing upon diverse backgrounds, they each bring a distinctive perspective and unique vision. We look forward to collaborating with them to further the mission of the Endowment,” comments Pete Madden, President and CEO of the Endowment.

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

The Year Of The Composite Board

The Year Of The Composite Board

by | Dec 19, 2018 | Taking Stock

The Year Of The Composite Board

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-In-Chief, Panel World, January 2019

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—with one occurring in each of the first three quarters—come quickly to mind.

Arauco is currently pushing through commissioning toward first quarter startup of its $400 million greenfield particleboard plant in Grayling, Mich. Situated on 160 acres, the 820,000 sq. ft. main building houses a 10 ft. wide by 172 ft. (52.5 m) continuous press and will produce more than 450MMSF annually, complemented by two lamination lines. Log intake began last September.

One of the cool things about this project is that Arauco has been very visible with its progress, sending out periodic updates with site photography and the status of equipment installation.

Swiss Krono is probably looking at a second quarter startup of its new $230 million HDF plant at Barnwell, SC. It’s expected to produce 170MMSF annually beyond what the existing plant there already produces. The new line will also operate a continuous press—this one 10 ft. by 101 ft. (30.5 m). The project has also added a fourth lamination line.

Expected to hit startup in the third quarter is the greenfield CalPlant I (CalAg) rice straw-based MDF plant in Willows, Calif. The $315 million plant will have a production capacity of 140MMSF annually.

Wait. Did I just say rice straw? I did, and it makes me think back to the mid 1990s when ag fiber surged out of the gate—the premise being that instead of farmers burning their crop waste and contributing to carbon dioxide and smoky haze, they could actually sell their waste to board manufacturers.

I visited several of those plants during startup back then—the PrimeBoard wheat straw particleboard plant in Wahpeton, ND; the Isobord wheat straw p’board plant in Elie, Manitoba; the Acadia Board sugar bagasse board plant in New Iberia, La. Prairie Forest Products started up a wheat straw board plant in Hutchinson, Kans. Some other companies built them and some companies announced they were planning to build them but never did.

Why did they fail? Expensive resin? Poor machinery? Weak market promotion and distribution? The scientists got it wrong?

It was about this time that the CalAg principals began researching rice straw MDF, following California state legislation that prohibited farmers from burning rice straw waste. CalAg never gave up on it, through years of trying to tie the financing shoestring but never able to tighten the loops.

At least not until last May, when the money did come together—the majority of it in revenue bonds and the rest in cash equity with an assortment of investors. This plant, too, will operate a continuous press—10 ft. by 116 ft. (35.4 m). The plant will process 275,000 tons of rice straw annually.

Maybe where others failed, this ag fiber plant has a strong sales agent going in, namely Columbia Forest Products, which was one of the minority investors.

Maybe all of those problems from 20 years ago have been solved.

 

Latest News

Oregon Truckers File Suit Against State

Rob Freres, president of Oregon-based Freres Engineered Wood, a manufacturer of lumber, veneer, plywood and mass timber, has thrown in his support for a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Trucking Assn. and three Oregon-based trucking companies against the state of Oregon for overcharging truckers under the weight-mile tax.

Hasslacher Enters North America

Austria-based Hasslacher group is acquiring a stake in Element5, a mass timber producer specializing in the design, manufacture and assembly of modern engineered timber buildings. Based near Toronto, Can., Element5 employs more than 100 and produces cross-laminated timber and glued laminated timber for the North American market.

Endowment Welcomes New Board Members

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announces that Fritz Mason, Paul Hossain and Anna Torma were elected as new directors at the organization’s fall board meeting. “Drawing upon diverse backgrounds, they each bring a distinctive perspective and unique vision. We look forward to collaborating with them to further the mission of the Endowment,” comments Pete Madden, President and CEO of the Endowment.

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

The Year Of The Composite Board

The Martins Do It Again

by | Oct 11, 2018 | Taking Stock

The Martins Do It Again

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-In-Chief, Panel World November 2018

Nearly ninety-five years after Roy Otis Martin purchased Creston Lumber Mill in Alexandria, Louisiana for $32,000 and renamed it Roy O. Martin Lumber Company, the Martins have started up a $280 million Greenfield oriented strandboard plant in Corrigan, Texas.

Let that one sink in a while.

Much has been written in the pages of this magazine and elsewhere through the years about the Martin family and its remarkable forest products business, which we know best as RoyOMartin or even Martco. The family itself published a book some years ago, but as demonstrated by the new Corrigan OSB plant, it’s a story that apparently has no ending.

My familiarity with the company and its current chairman, Jonathan Martin, goes back to when he was focusing less on their pine sawmill in Castor, La., where he had been plant manager, and more on the startup in 1983 of their first OSB plant in Lemoyen, La. The company had started up the Castor sawmill way back in 1933, and the founder’s son, Ellis, who was Jonathan’s father, became plant manager there in his early years.

Many years later Ellis led the company into OSB and Jonathan took the lead on the construction of the OSB plant. Martco’s mill at Lemoyen, GP’s OSB mill at Dudley, NC and LP’s “waferwood” mill at Corrigan, Texas were the first three in the South, all reporting production in 1983. Unique to Lemoyen however was that its raw material was hardwood, as the Martins owned considerable timberland in the area packed with low grade hardwood. The company also started up a hardwood sawmill at Lemoyen shortly after.

Speaking of sawmills, as the company continued to invest heavily in OSB—starting up a second one in Oakdale, La. in early 2007 and of course the Corrigan facility this year—sawmills always had their place: Alexandria, La.; Castor, La.; Lemoyen, La.; Mexia, Ala.—all of them since sold, but now running a timbers mill adjacent the Martin softwood plywood mill in Chopin, La.

And speaking of Chopin, by the time it began production in 1996, Jonathan was president and CEO, and his cousin Roy III was executive vice president and CFO. While I had conversed with Jonathan many times, it wasn’t until 2004 when I visited the new and very impressive headquarters in Alexandria that I had the good fortune to converse with Roy. Their official titles have changed through the years, not that anybody ever had their titles straight anyway.

I don’t recall ever asking them if they felt they were lumber guys or panel guys, but I’m guessing they would respond that they are simply forest products guys and point to the 550,000 acres of certified timberland the company owns. They are also very spiritual guys, philanthropical guys and employee-centric guys. At the fear of leaving somebody out, I won’t even begin to name the talented personnel they’ve always surrounded themselves with.

I’ve always been very appreciative that they have continued to let our editors into their mills so we could write and publish articles such as the one that starts on page 10 of this issue.

May many more chapters be forthcoming.

RELATED ARTICLES

MARTCO ANNOUNCES CORRIGAN “TWO”

ROYOMARTIN ADDS PRODUCTION LINE IN CORRIGAN

HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY CHOPIN PLYWOOD

TIME IS FREE BUT IT’S PRICELESS

ROY MARTIN III PAINTS REFRESHING, POSITIVE PICTURE

 

Latest News

Oregon Truckers File Suit Against State

Rob Freres, president of Oregon-based Freres Engineered Wood, a manufacturer of lumber, veneer, plywood and mass timber, has thrown in his support for a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Trucking Assn. and three Oregon-based trucking companies against the state of Oregon for overcharging truckers under the weight-mile tax.

Hasslacher Enters North America

Austria-based Hasslacher group is acquiring a stake in Element5, a mass timber producer specializing in the design, manufacture and assembly of modern engineered timber buildings. Based near Toronto, Can., Element5 employs more than 100 and produces cross-laminated timber and glued laminated timber for the North American market.

Endowment Welcomes New Board Members

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announces that Fritz Mason, Paul Hossain and Anna Torma were elected as new directors at the organization’s fall board meeting. “Drawing upon diverse backgrounds, they each bring a distinctive perspective and unique vision. We look forward to collaborating with them to further the mission of the Endowment,” comments Pete Madden, President and CEO of the Endowment.

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us

Turbulent Decade? TP&EE Has The Cure

Turbulent Decade? TP&EE Has The Cure

by | Aug 21, 2018 | Taking Stock

Turbulent Decade? TP&EE Has The Cure

Looking back at the events of 10 years ago this fall, it’s been a turbulent decade indeed: Remember John McCain, down in the polls, suspending his presidential campaign and heading back to DC to help “save” the U.S. economy, which was in free-fall by the end of 2008, losing as many as 200,000 jobs a month before the carnage slowed? The rest is indeed history: The Great (Banker) Bailout, The Great Recession and the sluggish recovery that’s still a bit sluggish in some ways a decade later. I distinctly remember economist Roger Tutterow at the 2010 Panel World Panel & Engineered Lumber Conference & Expo in Atlanta telling a roomful of skeptics that, technically, the economy had actually been getting better since summer 2009. He was right, but it sure didn’t make the audience feel much better.

The early years of the past turbulent decade featured the lowest prices for many forest products since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It’s hard to imagine those business conditions 10 years ago today, as the forest products industry enjoys some of its highest prices ever—ever—especially on the lumber side. Right now there’s swelling demand and much improved or improving pricing throughout lumber and panel markets.

Right now, producers are running wide open, and trying to schedule maintenance, much less major capital improvements, can be tough. There’s also a growing backlog among equipment and system vendors that have orders and projects scheduled well into the future.

Of course, most everyone would rather grapple with these “good” problems to have during positive market conditions like right now. But good problems can also be tough to solve.

One common denominator with all these “good problem” issues is labor: finding not only people but the right people, training them and in many cases introducing them to the industry. All over, people are looking for more and better employees  in an overall improving business environment.

Labor is also a driving force for two trends the forest products industry needs to watch closely: mass timber building concepts and more pre-fab construction in general. Mass timber offers lower labor requirements for installation and quicker overall construction times, and in more traditional building there’s a movement to take as much labor off the job site as possible through pre-fab construction, and moving (and automating) as much labor as possible on a factory floor instead of on the job.

The forest products industry will be asked to provide products that facilitate both trends, and smart operators will keep not only a close eye on current operations, but also an eye on trends and changes that might shape the future not only for the big picture but also in their backyards.

As the forest products industry gathers in Portland, Ore. for the 2018 Timber Processing & Energy Expo October 17-19, these issues will be on the minds of both visitors and exhibitors: more technology and automation leading to smarter, more efficient operations—with the right people to operate and mange them.

At the Portland Expo Center in mid October—timberprocessingandenergyexpo.com—there’ll be plenty of both.

Article by Dan Shell,
Managing Editor

Latest News

Kronospan Completes Simsboro Particleboard Purchase

Kronospan, a producer of wood panel products, has announced the closing of its purchase of Roseburg’s Simsboro, La., particleboard facility following the expiration of the required regulatory review period. Ownership of the plant has been transferred from Roseburg to Kronospan…

Hymmen’s Dr. Werner Pankoke Dies

Werner Pankoke, died at the age of 85 following a stroke. Born March 29, 1938 as the third child of Bielefeld, Germany dentist Dr. Wilhelm Pankoke, Werner decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps when he began his studies. Instead, he was drawn to Munich Technical University, where he pursued his grandfather Theodor Hymmen’s engineering interests—studying mechanical engineering…

Metsä Group, Sweco Sign Agreement For Design Of LVL Mill

Metsä Group and Sweco have signed an agreement for the implementation planning of the new Kerto LVL mill in Äänekoski, Finland. “We have strong confidence in Sweco’s expertise and resources from our previous collaboration projects. It is therefore natural that we continue our cooperation in this project to develop the Äänekoski mill area,” says Jaakko Anttila, Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood…

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.

Subscribe Now
Subscribe/Renew

Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Complete the form
Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!

Contact Us