by Web Editor | May 2, 2016 | News
Fourteen composite panel facilities and one corporation as a whole were recognized for their safety achievements during the Composite Panel Association’s annual spring meeting held last week in Tucson, Arizona.
Louisiana-Pacific Corp. received the Safety Innovation Award for its Behavior-Based Safety Observation Program.
Awards were also given to participating manufacturing plants with exemplary safety records, including acknowledgments for long-term, annual, safety improvement, and safety achievement. Awards were given to plants with low/less than 277,000 worker-hours per year (Class I) and high/more than 277,000 worker-hours per year (Class II).
The awardees for the best long-term safety record over the past three years were Arauco North America, Malvern, Arkansas (Class I) and Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Roaring River, North Carolina (Class II).
The annual safety award for having zero incidents among Class I plants during 2015 was shared by Arauco North America (MDF), Bennettsville, South Carolina; Kronospan LLC, Eastaboga, Alabama; Plummer Forest Products, Post Falls, Idaho; Roseburg, Taylorsville, Mississippi; and West Fraser Mills Ltd. (WestPine), Quesnel, British Columbia.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/panel-supply/composite-panel-plants-awarded-safety-records?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
by Web Editor | Apr 20, 2016 | News
Capacity for the North American composite panel industry is expected to increase 4.21 percent in 2016, Composite Panel Association Chairman Steve Stoler told a record crowd at the CPA’s spring meeting in Tucson, Arizona. Increased usage of engineered wood panels in cabinetry, furniture, flooring and other products is helping spur the growth.
The upward trend follows a three-year capacity decline, reported Stoler, general sales manager of Boise Cascade. Capacity is defined as the amount of panels produced, based on maximum press utilization.
“I’ve been encouraged by signs of growth an new investment in our industry after a long period of inactivity,” Stoler said, citing recent announcements of plant upgrades and new lines. The addition of three mills in Mexico also is projected to increase North American MDF capacity by 10 percent.
The CPA also projects shipments of particleboard and MDF to grow 3 percent in 2016. Last year’s shipments of U.S. and Canadian panels hit 5.561 BSF, which was up 3 percent from 2014 figures.
More than 300 people from more than 100 companies attended the April 17-20 CPA event.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/composite-panel-market-to-grow-4-percent?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
by Web Editor | Dec 4, 2015 | News
Arauco has acquired 50 percent of Tafisa’s assets, including 10 composite panel mills in Europe and South Africa, for $150 million.
Announced Nov. 30, the acquisition does not include Tafisa’s North American operations and its laminates and components businesses, which will continue to be fully owned by parent firm Sonae Indústria.
When completed, the new company will be called Sonae-Arauco. According to information from Arauco, estimated annual sales for the new business are $900 million. Located in Spain, Portugal, Germany and South Africa, the 10 mills produce 4.2 million cubic meters of composite panel products and employ 3,000 people.
Sonae-Arauco’s production capacity will be about 460,000 m3 of OSB, 1.45 million m3 of MDF, 2.27 million m3 of particleboard and 100,000 m3 of sawn timber.
With the acquisition, Arauco says it is now the second largest producer in the wood panel global ranking, with an annual production of 9 million m3.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/arauco-buys-50-interest-tafisa-0?ss=wood,wood,wood_of_the_month,wood,pricing_supply,wood,components_sourcing,wood,panel_supply,wood,wood_veneer,wood,lumber_quotes_charts
by Web Editor | Nov 2, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Jackson Morrill, president of Composite Panel Association, updated the executive committee’s recommendations on “policy positions” with regard to energy/biomass issues that impact wood fiber supply during the September Fall Meeting in Banff, Alberta.
CPA opposes government policies that distort the market for woody biomass raw material, Morrill noted, adding that market forces should determine all uses of wood and wood residuals for renewable energy; policies that have the direct effect of diverting biomass supply to subsidized energy should be avoided; and governments that choose to initiate policies intended to increase demand for biomass energy production should couple them with policies that increase the available long-term supply of wood to meet future demand of composite wood panels as well as new and growing markets for energy and other uses.
Morrill said CPA will stay silent on the carbon neutrality of wood-to-energy, noting however that forest derived biomass should be treated as carbon neutral where there is a sustainable growing forest; within carbon accounting frameworks, the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals to make long-lived products should be treated as a higher value use than energy recovery; the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals is an important alternate use that should be considered when determining the scope of “qualified biomass” under the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan.
Morrill said CPA will advocate that composite wood products be recognized for their carbon sequestration benefits; that public policies should recognize that sustainably managed forests and forest products sequester and store carbon and reduce CO2; the use of biomass in creating long-lived products that serve as carbon sinks should be formally recognized in any carbon calculations that might be referenced in a future carbon economy.
by Web Editor | Sep 25, 2015 | News
Today, ARAUCO North America announced plans to build a new particleboard mill located in Grayling, Michigan, to produce 424 million ft2 (750,000m3)/year of panels, along with full lamination capabilities to support the Prism TFL decorative surfacing program.
This $325 million investment will be the single largest continuous particleboard press in North America, and one of the highest capacity presses in the world. Ground-breaking is estimated for late 2016, with the rollout of the first panel during the latter part of 2018.
This investment will generate approximately 250 direct permanent jobs, and is expected to yield important economic and community development benefits to the Crawford County region. The addition of panel capacity to this geographical area will improve customer access to a stable, cost-efficient supply of high quality particleboard and decorative panel products. The location of this plant will also complement the supply of MDF from our neighboring mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Together with the ARAUCO North American Executive Management Team, Kelly Shotbolt remarks, “There is no better way to signal the commitment we have to the renewal and modernization of the North American composite panel industry. Our objective with this investment,” Mr. Shotbolt adds, “is to improve the logistics of our entire manufacturing footprint, and support the growth of our customers in the Mid-Western Region.”
From Arauco North America: https://www.arauco-na.com/resources/media-center/news-and-press-releases/arauco-announces-325-million-investment-for-new-particleboard-mill
