Arauco is conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment as the first step toward evaluating the viability of a new $200 million MDF production line in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. If the project proceeds, subject to the approval of local and state authorities, production is expected to start during 2024. It would double the company’s MDF capacity in Mexico.

“We are investing in Mexico to meet the growing demand in the construction and furniture industries,” remarks Pablo Franzini, president of Arauco North America. “This is a demonstration of our commitment to the market and will ensure we continue to develop and maintain successful relationships with our commercial partners.”

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An oriented strandboard plant in Allendale, SC will now have its third ownership since starting up in 2006. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is purchasing the facility from Georgia-Pacific for $280 million. The Allendale facility has been idle since late 2019 when GP shut it down citing market conditions. The plant has an estimated annual production capacity of 760MMSF (3/8 in. basis).

West Fraser intends to invest $70 million to upgrade and optimize the facility in preparation for a restart in nine months. The mill is expected to employ 135. West Fraser states the mill will be one of the lowest cost mills in the company’s OSB portfolio after the optimization is completed and the mill has ramped up to full production, a process that it says typically takes 18-24 months after restart.

In 2005 Ontario-based Grant Forest Products announced it would invest $400 million in building two OSB mills in South Carolina, one in Allendale and the other in Alcolu in Clarendon County. When the U.S. economy went into a recession Grant sold the two OSB plants to Georgia-Pacific in 2010. In 2019 GP idled the Allendale OSB facility along with a sawmill in South Carolina.

Early this year West Fraser entered the OSB arena when it completed the purchase of Norbord Inc., the world’s largest OSB producer, for $3.1 billion. Norbord operated 15 OSB mills in the U.S., Europe and Canada. West Fraser was known primarily as a sawmill company, while operating a handful of non-OSB panel facilities.

GP continues to own five OSB plants in North America.

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Organizers of the eighth Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) have announced a partial list of keynote speakers for the event, which will be held Thursday-Friday, March 31 to April 1, 2022 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Keynoters signing on early include Scott Poole, president and chief operating officer of Louisiana-based RoyOMartin. He’ll talk about confronting the less than predictable variables in today’s business environment, and will also address the construction progress of the company’s second OSB plant at the site in Corrigan, Texas.

Jake Elston, senior vice president of Operations at Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products, will discuss the company’s growth through geographic diversification, including project development and timberlands acquisition on the Eastern side of the U.S.

Wedig Graf Grote, chief operating officer of Swiss Krono USA, will speak about the successful evolvement through the pandemic of the new MDF facility in Barnwell, SC and address Swiss Krono’s enhanced position in North America and worldwide.

Doug Pauze, president of Coastland Wood Industries, will address the company’s continuing expansion in British Columbia and trends in veneer-plywood markets.

No building products conference is complete without an economics forecast, and Roger Tutterow, highly esteemed director of the Econometric Center and Professor of Economics and Kennesaw State University, will provide his insights and forecasts on the economic, business and political climate, including recent implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several additional keynoters will be announced in the coming weeks.

In addition, PELICE will include numerous technical sessions encompassing subjects such as: Air Emissions Control; Resins & Wax; Veneer & Plywood Technologies (Green & Dry); Greenfield & Brownfield Project Planning & Implementation; Quality Control through Board Scanning & Analysis; Fire Prevention & Suppression; Press Technologies & Components; Digital Capabilities & Integration; New Normal Supply Chain. A special session will address Cross-Laminated Timber—Where It Stands Today.

The number of exhibitor sponsors for PELICE had already reached 65 by early October and nearly 100 exhibitor companies are ultimately expected to fill up the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel. The exhibitor floor is located immediately adjacent the speaker-meeting rooms.

All PELICE exhibitors are either Gold, Silver or Bronze sponsors, and this PELICE has already has signed on more Gold sponsors than any PELICE in history, with more expected.

Gold sponsors include Dürr Systems (Megtec), IPCO, TSI-Sigma Thermal, Dieffenbacher, Siempelkamp, Meinan Machinery, Cogent Industrial Technologies, Timber Products Inspection, Hexion, Raute, Biomass Engineering & Equipment and Georgia-Pacific Chemicals.

A complete list of Gold, Silver and Bronze exhibitor sponsors can be viewed at www.pelice-expo.com.

PELICE is hosted by Panel World magazine and Georgia Research Institute.

Immediately preceding PELICE will be the seventh Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo on March 29-30 also in the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel. Many PELICE exhibitors participate in both events because their products and technologies apply to both the panelboard and wood energy industries.

Exhibitor Information: E-mail fredkurpiel@gmail.com

Presentation Information: E-mail rich@hattonbrown.com

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Following its cancellation of the Phase 2 Request for Proposal (RFP) and bid selection in September, which caught everybody by surprise, the Forest Service “has gone back to work” on how to move forward with stewardship and treatment of the 520,000 acres that was included in Phase 2, which was part of the 4 Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) seeking to improve forest health conditions on more than 2.5 million acres across four Arizona national forests while establishing wood products manufacturing and biomass processing infrastructure.

The agency hosted an industry roundtable of 4FRI stakeholders on October 12 in Heber, Ariz. that addressed restoration strategies and “lessons learned.”

“Our critical work will continue with the goal of increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration across the 4FRI landscape,” the agency said, adding that the cancellation of Phase 2 does not affect any ongoing forest restoration or fuels reduction work, including stewardship agreements in place and plans to issue new timber sales in 2022.

“It was a surprise for sure,” comments John Godfrey, principal of Godfrey Forest Products, after the FS cancelled the Phase 2 RFP, just when it appeared the agency was about to award the winning bid on the 20-year, 520,000 acres stewardship contract.

Godfrey’s bid, apparently one of two in serious contention, included the construction of an 850MMSF oriented strandboard plant in Winslow, Ariz. Godfrey has developed several OSB facilities through the years.

The Forest Service cited “performance risk” concerns as a reason for the cancellation. The Phase 2 contract award announcement had been delayed several times since 2019 due to 13 contract modifications including reductions in stewardship acreage from as high as 800,000 acres during initial discussions. Upon the cancellation, the FS stated, “The requirements for meeting the restoration objectives (as currently defined in the RFP) are not reasonably aligned to industry needs. In addition, significant financial and investment risks remain which ultimately represents a performance risk to the government.”

In so many words, over a 20-year period what happens if FS timberlands dedicated to the project are somehow made unavailable due to fire damage or administrative withdrawal? How does the FS replace those resources and how are Phase 2 investors to be placated or compensated?

The FS statement added, “It is in the best interest of the government to thoroughly reassess the requirement so that any new solicitation issued would better address all risks to offerors and the government, including financial and investment risks.”

Gofrey remains committed to the process. In addition to a site for the plant, Godfrey’s OSB project has completed an engineering design, preliminary air work, and he has a number of contractual relationships lined up.

“It’s a great place to build a mill,” he says. “It’s in the middle of a big market. It’s also meaningful to be part of forest restoration, fire reduction and preserving the water supply. There’s no reason to throw this away. If it takes another year then that’s what it takes.”

News of the cancellation brought outcries from several stakeholders, including politicians and others. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and other elected officials slammed the decision, citing the federal government’s inability to step up to address wildfire risks and protect Arizona communities.

The Phase 2 setback continues a tough run for the 4FRI effort: Phase 1, initially awarded in 2012 then transferred in 2013 to its current owner NewLife Forest Restoration, and including 300,000 acres over 10 years, has been hampered due to lack of logging and conversion capacity and is just now appearing to turn the corner on infrastructure needs while the number of acres actually treated remain well below initial projections.

NewLife, which is in the process of installing a sawmill at Bellemonte, Ariz., was apparently the other major bidder for the Phase 2 contract. There was some speculation that both Godfrey’s and NewLife’s bids would be partially or fully awarded.

A big sticking point in operating the Phase 1 contract (and the same for Phase 2) is a lack of biomass markets in the state, while the overall 4FRI will require producing mountains of the low-quality material. There’s only one dedicated biomass power producer in Arizona, Novo Power, which has utilizing material produced in ongoing forest health operations in the White Mountains area, but at 24 MW can only process so much.

Novo Power, operating at Snowflake, Ariz., participated in both the sawmill and OSB bids to take the biomass resulting from those two projects.

“I was stunned by the cancellation,” comments Novo Power President Brad Worsley. “I knew that there was always a possibility of cancellation but the stated reasons for cancellation were true a year ago; the US FS should have cancelled then if the gap could not be bridged.”

Novo Power has less than two years remaining on its current PPAs. “At this point we need resolution on our PPAs so that we can move forward, invest and maintain the critical employee base that we have today,” Worsley says. “We will support whatever comes in the future but our future needs certainty now.”

Funding for forest health and forest fire prevention programs and contracts is included the Biden administration infrastructure bill that is still under debate.

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