Equipment and technology supplier Ledinek reports it has been selected to supply a CLT line for a new venture, Arboreal, in Tacuarembó, Uruguay.

In March 2021, businessman Mark Crandall from the United States and Matías Abergo, CEO of construction systems firm Enkel Group from Uruguay, established Arboreal upon the acquisition of Frutifor Lumber Co., a pine sawmill in Tacuarembó.

They announced an immediate investment in the sawmill’s drying capacity, doubling production to 250,000 m³, while also announcing the implementation of the largest and most advanced CLT plant in South America, with production capacity initially at 50,000 m³ per year. Installation is scheduled for the beginning of 2022.

Arboreal’s investment contributes to the generation of added value from Uruguay’s forest resources, boosting industrial activity in the northern part of the country and promoting the development of environmentally sustainable construction.

“Uruguay has very competitive forestry resources,” comments Abergo as Arboreal President. “When we envision the future, we see mass timber as a solution to reduce CO2 emission by 2030. The construction sector is responsible for almost 40% of the greenhouse gases; this plant is the first step to reduce and sequestrate CO2. We need to start thinking about our homes as big CO2 warehouses.”

Abergo adds: “When selecting the supplier for the CLT line, Arboreal needed to rely on a provider like Ledinek with many years of experience in the market and is capable of providing state-of-the-art machines. Choosing Ledinek as a supplier was a strategic decision; a project of this scale has never been done before in South America.”

 

Martco L.L.C. (RoyOMartin) announced that its Texas subsidiary, Corrigan OSB, L.L.C., will invest $211 million and construct a stand-alone oriented strandboard (OSB) manufacturing facility near its current OSB plant located in Corrigan on U.S. Highway 287 between Lufkin and Livingston.

Construction is scheduled to begin this year, with startup anticipated in 2023. The new facility is expected to significantly increase production capacity at Corrigan, while focusing on existing and new value-added OSB products.

RoyOMartin CEO Roy O. Martin III points to a population surge of more than 4 million residents in the past decade, and more families and companies relocating to the Lone Star state. The increase in home prices and rising costs of building materials, appliances, and labor in the past year indicate a severe shortage of OSB supply, Martin notes. Corrigan OSB is stepping up to meet this increased demand with the addition of the new facility.

“We recognize the trend, and we believe most families want to eventually own their own home in America,” Martin says, noting the ongoing increase in housing starts. As the country and the world make their way out of an historic pandemic, home starts are on the rise, and a growing number of millennials and their families are entering the housing market.

RoyOMartin started up the first Corrigan OSB plant in 2018, and also operates an OSB plant in Oakdale, La., which started up in 2007.

“With this new OSB plant, we will be well positioned to meet the backlog of demand for quality building products, produced from renewable, sustainable resources abundant in our region,” adds Scott Poole, RoyOMartin President and COO. “Our growth in East Texas has given us an influx of talent with a tremendous work ethic, a long-term, sustainable, raw-material base, and access to a growing and vibrant residential market.”

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Mercer International Inc., a global forest products company based in Vancouver, BC, reported it received approval from the applicable Bankruptcy Court for the purchase by its subsidiary, Blue Varsity, of the cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing facility in Spokane, Wash. formerly owned by Katerra for $50 million through a bidding process.

Katerra, a mass timber and modular turnkey construction business founded in 2015, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early June. The $150 million CLT plant, which was commissioned in May 2019, was subsequently shut down.

The facility is located on 54 acres and is equipped with extensive automation technologies including one of the largest CLT presses in the world. The plant has capacity of approximately 13MMSF of 5-ply panels annually or 140,000 m3 of annual production.

David Gandossi, CEO of Mercer, states, “We are very pleased with our impending acquisition of the facility. It represents an attractive entry point for us into the CLT business with a near new state-of-the-art facility. It fits well with our strategy to expand in the solid wood products space and aligns with a core value to provide sustainable and carbon reducing alternatives for a warming planet.”

Mercer International has operations in Germany and Canada and reports a consolidated annual production capacity of 2.2 million tonnes of pulp and 550MMBF of lumber.

Another new facility formerly owned by Katerra, a component manufacturing plant in Tracy, Calif., was acquired through a bidding process by Philadelphia-based Volumetric Building Companies (VAC). The company defines itself as a “volumetric modular business that simplifies complex issues by integrating architecture, logistics, manufacturing, and construction into a single package to produce multifamily housing solutions in less time at a greater return.”

Katerra went through $3 billion in equity investments since its founding. In the bankruptcy filing Katerra estimated liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion

Katerra wasn’t shy about wanting to shake up—and speed up—the conventional construction industry. In addition to building manufacturing plants, it bought everything from architectural firms, to construction firms to dirt contractors. But many of the projects it entered into appeared to experience the same hiccups and cost overruns that conventional on-site construction projects sometimes encounter, and perhaps with less quality, as Katerra tacked on substantial costs related to re-work issues.

Katerra experienced nearly $2.8 billion in financial losses in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Both Mercer and VAC were stalking-horse bidders whose original bids prevailed for their respective acquisitions.

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Huber Engineered Woods LLC (HEW), a subsidiary of J.M. Huber Corp., has announced that it will build a new oriented strandboard (OSB) facility in Cohasset, Minn., representing a $440 million investment. The plant will increase the company’s production of ZIP System and AdvanTech structural panels.

“We look forward to being an integral part of the community and a key partner in the future success of the county and the state. We are pleased and excited to bring this new investment and set of employment opportunities to Itasca County and the surrounding areas,” says HEW President Brian Carlson. “It is our desire for our new Minnesota operations to be a shining example of our company’s commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

Contingent upon site acquisition, approval of certain legislative initiatives and financial assistance from additional state entities, the Cohasset location will be HEW’s sixth mill in the U.S. and its first presence in Minnesota, as well as its largest capital investment to date. The new mill will expand HEW’s current production footprint of five mills located in Georgia, Maine, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Virginia and represent a production increase of 30%.

Carlson adds, “We’ve seen a strong start to 2021 and are optimistic for continued growth of our specialty products in the coming years. We are pleased to share our plans for increased production to help keep pace with the growing demands of our customers for ZIP System and AdvanTech products, as well as future innovative solutions that we strive to deliver.”

The new 750,000 sq. ft. HEW manufacturing facility will be located on more than 400 acres, and is located next to Minnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center. Announced earlier this year, by 2035 the utility intends to close and convert Boswell’s remaining coal-fired units.

“This new chapter of growth for our company is the result of tremendous collaboration between our organization, Governor Walz and the state of Minnesota including Dept. of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB), and MPCA, and the local community, the city of Cohasset, Itasca County and Minnesota Power,” says Carlson.

“I support and recognize the significance of this project, as does my leadership team,” remarks Governor Tim Walz. “Minnesota’s state government commissioners are making the success and expedition of this project a top priority. Huber is an innovative and unique leader in the building products industry, and we are excited they are joining the successful companies that operate and thrive in northeastern Minnesota.”

This project coming to the state of Minnesota, and the selected Boswell site, is contingent upon financial assistance from IRRRB (which has voted to approve a $15 million forgivable loan requiring the plant employ at least 100 for its first six years), the state of Minnesota, DEED (which has committed to a $20 million investment in the project), the city of Cohasset, Itasca County and Minnesota Power. The manufacturing facility is projected to provide over 150 direct new jobs, while contributing growth opportunities in adjacent local industries including timber and trucking.

 

APA–The Engineered Wood Assn. has announced the winners of its 2020 Safety and Health Awards, the industry’s premier safety award program encouraging and recognizing operation excellence with the goal of reducing injury and illness rates.

The 2020 average Weighted Incident Rate (WIR) for the industry was 7.14, an improvement over last year’s WIR of 8.11. The 2020 average Total Incident Rate (TIR) was 1.25, a nearly 22% reduction over last year’s TIR of 1.60, setting a new benchmark for the mills participating in the program. These 2020 values signify the industry’s commitment to injury prevention and the health and well-being of its employees. 2020 marks the fourth consecutive year the average TIR was below 2.00. The WIR is calculated using both the number and the severity of recordable incidents.

The Equipment-Based Innovation in Safety Award went to Resolute-LP Engineered Wood in Larouche, Quebec, for its miniature nester. After a close call with I-joist manipulation at the rework station, the team chief envisioned a simple and compact leverage concept. The I-joist bundles that came from the rework station had been manually nested, as there was no automatic nester. Fortunately, there were no serious incidents, but hazards remained. Deep depth I-joists can weigh 200 pounds or more. The miniature nester is placed on the I-joist bundle and leveraged to raise the I-joist into the proper location. This innovation has eliminated crushing and entrapment hazards to employee hands in the manipulation process. Operators are now completely outside operations, resulting in zero contact between hands and I-joists. The first tests took place in June 2020, and after conclusive tests, the mill implemented the tool, and positive results were seen immediately. Since implementation, there have been zero related incidents reported.

The Jeff Wagner Process-Based Innovation winner was Boise Cascade Co. in Thorsby, Ala., for its Lock-Out Simulator Training Board. The innovation was sparked by the vision of the plant’s safety committee to build a lock-out training board to help new-hire team members understand how to control risks associated with energy sources. The board is powered through a 120 V system and is programmable, allowing the trainer to simulate different scenarios. Each lock-out point has a hidden switch, which is connected to a programmable logic controller. During the verification phase of the lock-out procedure, the control panel will show any mistakes made by a team member when the test button is pressed. The Lock-Out Simulator Training Board was put into effect June 2020 and is now being used for new-hire training, to teach employees where to stand to help minimize the safety impact should an arc flash occur and for supervisors to complete annual refresher training.

Sixty-nine APA-member structural wood panel and engineered wood product facilities in the U.S., Canada and abroad participated in the 2020 program. A total of 17 facilities representing seven APA member companies earned awards in various competition categories. Some mills were multiple award winners.

Besides the Safest Company and Innovation awards, other competition categories include Safety Improvement (2018-2020), Annual Safety and Health Award and Three-Year Safety Award. The annual award, three-year average and safety improvement categories are divided into three divisions based on the type of product manufactured at the mill (plywood; OSB; and glulam, CLT, I-joist, LVL and SCL).

While the program awards are limited to APA members, data is collected from both member and non-member mills to provide a broad-based industry performance benchmark. A total of 80 mills reported data for 2020.

The full list of award winners:

Innovation In Safety Award

• Equipment-Based Innovation Winner: Resolute-LP Engineered Wood; Larouche, Quebec
• Jeff Wagner Process-Based Innovation Winner: Boise Cascade Co.–Thorsby EWP; Thorsby, Ala.

Safest Company Award

• Three or Fewer Mills: PotlatchDeltic Corp.
• Four or More Mills: Norbord Inc.

Annual Safety And Health Award

• Division I – Plywood
  1st Place: PotlatchDeltic Corp.; St. Maries, Id.
  2nd Place: Murphy Plywood Co.; Rogue River, Ore.
• Division II – OSB
  1st Place: LP Brasil; Ponta Grossa, Brazil
  2nd Place: LP Chile S.A.; Lautaro, Chile
• Division III – Glulam, CLT, I-Joist, LVL and SCL
  1st Place: LP; Red Bluff, Calif.
  2nd Place: Anthony Forest Products Co.; Washington, Ga.

Three- Year Safety Award

• Division I – Plywood: RoyOMartin; Chopin, La.
• Division II – OSB: Norbord Inc.; Nacogdoches, Tex.
• Division III – Glulam, CLT, I-Joist, LVL and SCL: Boise Cascade Co.; White City, Ore.

Safety Improvement Award (years 2018-2020)

• Division I – Plywood: PotlatchDeltic Corp.; St. Maries, Id.; 97.6% improvement
• Division II – OSB: Norbord Inc.; Joanna | Kinards, SC; 100% improvement
• Division III – Glulam, CLT, I-Joist, LVL and SCL: LP; Red Bluff, Calif.; 100% improvement

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