First Things First, Get The Champagne

by Brad Jackson | Dec 13, 2017 | Taking Stock

Article by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief

With attendee registration opening online January 1 (www.pelice-expo.com), the 2018 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELCE) kicks into high gear. Panel World  magazine serves as the media host for the biennial event, which will be held April 13-14, and which will be held for the sixth time at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

This PELICE will also celebrate a special anniversary that almost caught us by surprise. It’s been 10 years since the first PELICE in 2008. Which begs the question, what were we all doing in the spring of 2008 when the first PELICE was called to order.

Frankly, the organizers of that first PELICE, including yours truly, were quite nervous. We were saying to each other, “We must have been out of our minds,” and accusing each other of “getting us into this.”

When I say “we,” I mean FredKurpiel of Georgia Research Institute, who had approached me in the summer of 2006 with the idea of starting PELICE, and I mean me, who had responded to Fred that it sounded like a good idea.

By the time we got serious about it, in mid 2007, a booming housing market had already stalled, home foreclosures were increasing drastically by the month, and the subprime mortgage industry was collapsing. About the time of our first PELICE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen more than 20% in five months.

Our country hadn’t named it yet, but we were in The Great Recession, which the Federal Reserve would ultimately recognize as beginning in December 2007 and ending in June 2009, though its aftershock permeated our industry at least into 2012.

Despite all of that, the first PELICE attracted 500 industry personnel, which told us there was a need for an event that combined the non-structural and structural segments of the panel and engineered wood products industries. If you were there, you may be thinking there was no way 500 people were there. That’s because the conference was spread out all over the Omni on three floors. Now you remember. Fortunately since then PELICE has been exclusive to the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel.

Also fortunately since then the economy has continued to improve. Particularly during PELICE 2014 and PELICE 2016 much of the discussion was about new plant projects and expansions, and PELICE 2018 looks to have more of it.

The recession of 10 years ago taught us that things can change in a hurry. We seem to be rolling along rather smoothly now and we know there’s potential for more building growth. So as the good times roll, PELICE is planning a champagne brunch on the second morning of the event not only in recognition of its modest longevity, but also to salute the resiliency of the panel industry during the same period.

By the way, the above headline is a quote from Winston Churchill. See you April 13-14.

2017: The Year Of Activity

by Brad Jackson | Oct 11, 2017 | Taking Stock

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-In-Chief, Panel World November 2017

In the publishing world we’re always working on next year’s media kit or next year’s conference, so sometimes we stumble and have to think a moment about what year we’re actually in.

2017, right?

Okay, so where has it gone? To refresh my memory of what transpired in the panel industry in 2017, I pulled out the issues of Panel World. Here are just some of the highlights of 2017, in chronological order:

—Freres Lumber of Lyons, Ore. started putting in machinery to produce Mass Plywood Panel.

—Huber went full speed into preparing its OSB plant in Spring City, Ten—closed since 2011—for reopening in 2018

—Siempelkamp became majority owner of Pallmann Industries.

—RoyOMartin celebrated the 10th anniversary of its OSB facility in Oakdale, La.

—Our friend Brian Luoma, former vice president at LP, became President and CEO of Westervelt.

—Raute purchased high speed strength grading technology leader Metriguard.

—Arauco held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of its new particleboard facility in Grayling, Mich.

—Bernd Deffland became president of Dieffenbacher USA.

—Long-time influential industry figures Paul Ehinger, John Fery, William Whelan and Robert Crawford passed away.

—After 20 years of pursuit, CalAg closed on financing for a new rice straw-based MDF plant in Willows, Calif.

—CalAg named plywood veteran Fran Eck as Chief Operations Officer. —Brad Southern succeeded Curt Stevens as CEO of LP.

—Two new plywood mills

—Winston Plywood & Veneer in Louisville, Miss. and Swanson Group in Springfield, Ore. went into manufacturing mode after courageously rebuilding from tornado and fire destruction, respectively.

—The Ligna wood products show in Hannover, Germany featured 1,500 exhibitors and 93,000 visitors from more than 100 countries.

—Sandvik divested its Sandvik Process Systems steel belt producer to FAM AB.

—Roseburg announced it’s building a laminated veneer lumber facility in Chester, SC.

—International Beams announced it is building the world’s first southern yellow pine cross-laminated timber plant in Dothan, Ala.

—Tolko announced it will restart its OSB plant in High Prairie, Alberta, which has been closed since 2008.

—Katerra reported it will build a CLT plant in Spokane, Wash.

—Logs began showing up in the wood yard at RoyOMartin’s new Corrigan OSB mill in Corrigan, Texas.

 

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Projects: Here, There and Everywhere

by Brad Jackson | Aug 10, 2017 | Taking Stock

Article by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief

You may recall that the major theme of the Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) held last year in Atlanta was “new plant development and construction.” Several speakers addressed ongoing plant projects that were in various timeline stages. We featured the startup of one of those plants, Winston Plywood & Veneer in Louisville, Miss., in the last issue of Panel World. We hope to write about a couple of others that were addressed at PELICE in upcoming issues, such as Swanson Group’s new plywood mill in Springfield, Ore. and RoyOMartin’s new OSB plant in Corrigan, Texas.

You may be aware that Panel World is the host magazine of PELICE and its editors are heavily involved in the planning of PELICE. So when the subject of PELICE 2018 came up recently, it took about two seconds to come up with a major theme: New Plant Development and Construction, Part II.

How could it be anything else? For example, this issue of Panel World reports on Roseburg’s announcement to build a new LVL mill in Chester, SC, and Egger’s plan to build a particleboard mill in Lexington, NC. And for a different (non-wood) twist, how about the Calag rice straw based MDF plant in Willows, Calif. that is approaching construction following 20 years of trying to get there?

There’s plenty more going on: Arauco’s construction of a particleboard mill in Grayling Mich.; Swiss Krono’s construction of an HDF plant in Barnwell, SC; Kronospan’s construction of a particleboard plant in Oxford, Ala. And for another different (product) twist, how about Freres Lumber’s construction of a MPP line in Oregon. MPP? That stands for Mass Plywood Panel, a veneer-based competitor of lumber-based cross-laminated timber.

Then there are the “re-starts” that will require considerable investment, such as Huber’s OSB mill in Spring City, Tenn.; Tolko’s OSB mill in High Prairie, Alberta; and possibly Norbord’s OSB mill in Chambord, Quebec, among others.

And these don’t take into account the dozens of mills that are making incremental upgrades.

So, New Plant Development and Construction, Part II, it is.

By the way, PELICE 2018, which is scheduled for April 13-14 again at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, will be the sixth PELICE, and it will mark the 10th year since the first one was held in spring of 2008.

You remember the spring of 2008 don’t you? The theme of that first PELICE was definitely “not” New Plant Development and Construction.

Ten years later, and not surprisingly, the resiliency of the wood products industry and the American economy has won the day. Panel World and PELICE don’t mind riding those coattails at all.