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.