by Web Editor | May 15, 2017 | News
Mass Timber: The Next Great Disruption Of Construction, Wood Products Industries
The seeds of Andrew Waugh’s great disruption were planted in 2003. “Back then, people were saying we could ‘fix’ climate change by putting a solar panel on top of everything we built,” he remembered. “But we knew that wasn’t even close to enough.”
So Waugh’s East London architectural firm started studying mass timber, knowing it was the truly renewable building material – albeit largely unknown and untested in large-scale developments. “We were entranced by the opportunities this new material could provide,” he said.
It took five years for Waugh Thistleton Architects to hone their ideas – “so we could talk about the economic benefits of this kind of building” – and to bring that vision to reality in the world’s first mass timber tower, Murray Grove. The nine-story apartment complex in London’s Hackney borough was made from cross-laminated timber manufactured by KLH, an Austrian company.
Spruce strips were stacked crosswise three layers thick and glued together, producing horizontal beams and vertical structural wall boards that were harder than steel or concrete, with none of the associated carbon loss. The economic savings came at the construction site. Murray Grove was built in 27 days by four men, without a tower crane.
Using wood saved 1,150 tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent of running a wind turbine on top of the building for 210 years. And 29 families moved into new homes in a country with an overwhelming housing shortage.
From Treesource: treesource.org.
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by Web Editor | May 12, 2017 | News
Residents and officials eager for a new siding plant to open in northeast Minnesota are going to have to wait a bit longer. Louisiana-Pacific — which last year announced the purchase of a former mill in Cook, Minn., to expand its thriving engineered wood siding business — now says it will first convert a mill the company operates in British Columbia to make siding.
In a conference call with analysts, LP’s chief operating officer Brad Southern said it makes sense to develop the Canadian site first because of its proximity to the company’s West Coast customer base, and because the mill is already staffed and operating.
But that doesn’t mean a northern Minnesota plant is off the table. The Cook location and another site in Quebec “are likely options for future siding expansion,” said Southern. He added the company is “continuing our planning process for both locations with a focus on Cook.”
Still, the earliest the Cook mill would likely open is 2020, Southern told analysts. The company would first need to construct buildings and equip the entire mill. “The advantages of Cook, though, is it is a larger mill,” said Southern. “Cook gives us a lot of upside on volume. It’s a beautiful piece of land, a beautiful site to construct the mill and then expand it.”
State legislators and economic development officials on the Iron Range have had high hopes for the Louisiana-Pacific plant as something that could kickstart the region’s wood products industry.
From MPR News: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/05/08/hotly-anticipated-northern-minn-wood-siding-plant-delayed
by Web Editor | May 8, 2017 | News
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) announced today that SmartLam, LLC, is the first U.S. manufacturer of cross laminated timber (CLT) to be certified to the SFI 2015-2019 Chain-of-Custody Standard. SmartLam is also the first manufacturer to produce CLT in the U.S.
SmartLam manufactures CLT for a variety of applications, including floor, roof and wall systems. SFI’s Chain-of-Custody Standard helps companies address the growing demand from governments, customers, and consumers for responsibly sourced forest products.
CLT is the next-generation of engineered wood products. Extensively tested and already widely used in Europe, CLT has vast applications for construction, industrial matting and bridging. Architects and builders choose wood because it looks great, has numerous environmental characteristics – including renewability – and it’s easy to work with. In addition, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, sequestering and storing the carbon while producing oxygen which reduces greenhouse gases and improves air quality.
“At SmartLam, we make CLT, but we like to tell our clients what we really sell is time. CLT increases construction speed and reduces a project’s cost and carbon footprint. Now, with certification to the SFI Chain-of-Custody Standard, we can also offer our clients supply chain assurance that our products are sourced from well-managed forests that are third-party certified to SFI’s rigorous standards,” said Casey Malmquist, President and General Manager at SmartLam.
SmartLam produces CLT at its Columbia Falls facility in Northwest Montana and is part of a global movement to use wood in tall buildings. Advances in technology are producing more engineered wood products and mass timber products that increase the capabilities of building with wood.
From PR Newswire: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smartlam-is-first-us-clt-manufacturer-to-earn-sfi-chain-of-custody-certification-300452619.html
by Web Editor | Apr 24, 2017 | News
North Idaho College has been awarded a $482,582 grant by the Idaho Department of Labor to train more than 200 workers in the wood products manufacturing industry.
The two-year grant is a partnership with Lewis-Clark State College and five wood products manufacturing companies in North Idaho. The positions will pay wages ranging from $15 to $25 per hour plus employer-assisted medical benefits.
“This grant will go a long way in training the next generation of wood products manufacturing workers,” said NIC President Rick MacLennan. “These are solid, high-paying jobs and an outstanding opportunity for more than 200 people in North Idaho. We’re grateful for the Idaho Department of Labor’s foresight and the hard work put in by many people to make this grant a reality.”
The funds will be used to address skill gaps for high-wage, high-demand occupations in the forest products industry and increase the employment and wages of Idaho workers in mostly rural areas. The project also supports the Apprenticeship Idaho program, which expands innovative apprenticeships into high-growth occupations and industries. Idaho Forest Group, Potlatch Land and Lumber LLC, Stimson Lumber Co., Empire Lumber Co. and Plummer Forest Products (a total of 11 mills) are the five business partners in the grant. A match is required from industry partners, who gave a total of $141,834.61 in cash and in-kind donations.
The North Idaho College Wood Products Center of Excellence will provide training along with structured on-site training at the mills.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/grant-helps-college-train-200-woodworkers-addresses-skill-gap?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
by Web Editor | Apr 19, 2017 | News
The American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood expressed disappointment in the April 18 announcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce about imposing preliminary countervailing duties of 9.89 percent on Chinese exporters of hardwood plywood.
Commerce separately applied a penalty margin of 111.09 percent to one Chinese company that did not fully cooperate with the investigation as well as companies that did not return the quantity and value questionnaire, possibly because they do not export plywood.
“The federal government has tied one arm behind the backs of the U.S. cabinetmakers and other manufacturing industries by denying them a level playing field in raw material sourcing with their offshore competitors,” said AAHP chairman Greg Simon in a statement.
“This case is presented as cracking down on Chinese trade ‘cheating’ and protecting American jobs but it will benefit nobody in the United States. The cabinet industry, flooring, recreational vehicle and furniture industries use the Chinese plywood for different purposes than the U.S. plywood. The petitioners’ dreams that they will enjoy sales increases are a fantasy, even with these high duties. The government should not be in the business of trying to pick winners and losers. In fact, in these trade cases, nobody wins.”
In 2012-13 DOC also announced combined antidumping and countervailing duties of nearly 150 percent, but ITC threw the case out after a full investigation. That ruling was later affirmed by a federal judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/aahp-critical-new-duties-chinese-hardwood-plywood?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
by Web Editor | Apr 14, 2017 | News
Arauco North America has broken ground on its $400 million particleboard plant. The new operation will employ more than 250 and will make both raw particleboard and TFM. The Grayling particleboard plant is reported to be one of the largest mills of its kind. When completed the new location will feature North America’s largest continuous particleboard press.
Kelly Shotbolt, president of Arauco North America, said the upper Midwest is the largest consuming region of particleboard in all of North America. Shotbolt and Rick Snyder, governor of Michigan, spoke at the groundbreaking event. The plant is expected to be completed in late 2018.
The Arauco Grayling plant will create approximately 700 construction jobs and about 250 permanent jobs. Once complete, the plant will measure 820,000 square feet with an annual capacity of 800,000 square meters or 452 million square feet of particleboard, along with full lamination capabilities.
The company hired Amec Foster Wheeler for construction management services. In addition to Amec, Arauco has engaged multiple local and Michigan-based companies in support of the plant’s design and site development.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/arauco-breaks-ground-michigan-particleboard-plant?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
