LP Building Products, Sherwood Lumber Partner On Engineered Wood

LP Building Products and Sherwood Lumber announce the distribution of the full line of LP SolidStart Engineered Wood Products to the distributor’s locations in Holtsville/Long Island, New York; North Bergen, New Jersey; and Palmer, Massachusetts. This increased distribution of LP’s products—including LP FlameBlock I-Joists—brings the building products to the Northeast.

“Because of their brand excellence and diverse product line, there is tremendous value in doing business with LP Building Products,” said David Gaudreau, senior vice president of sales for Sherwood Lumber. “We are excited to launch the LP program, providing our customers with some of the finest engineered wood products available to help grow sales.”

“Sherwood Lumber has a reputation for providing tremendous logistical and technical support to their customers, and we look forward to working with them in the Northeast,” said Jim Abbott, regional sales manager for LP. “Sherwood’s extensive relationships combined with our innovative products, solutions and sales support to the professional lumber dealer align well to aid future building industry growth within the market.”

From LBM Journal: https://www.lbmjournal.com/lp-building-products-and-sherwood-lumber-partner-on-engineered-wood-in-northeast/

Boise Cascade Gets Antitrust Clearance For Engineered Lumber Acquisition

Boise Cascade Co. has received antitrust clearance from the United States Department of Justice to proceed with its previously announced acquisition of Georgia-Pacific LLC’s engineered lumber production facilities located at Thorsby, Alabama, and Roxboro, North Carolina. Boise Cascade plans to complete the acquisition by the end of March 2016.

The Thorsby facility produces laminated veneer lumber (LVL). The Roxboro facility currently produces I-joists. Roxboro’s LVL production assets are currently idled. Boise Cascade expects to invest capital and hire additional employees to increase production at these mills in 2016 and beyond to obtain significant logistics benefits as well as to meet expected growth in new residential construction. Boise Cascade believes the addition of Thorsby and Roxboro will increase LVL billet capacity by 9 million cubic feet and I-joist capacity by 80 million lineal feet.

“We are pleased to be expanding our engineered wood products business and positioning ourselves to support customers as the U.S. housing recovery continues in the years ahead,” said Tom Corrick, CEO of Boise Cascade, when the acquisition was first announced.

“The additional engineered lumber capacity at Thorsby and Roxboro fit very well with our existing production facilities and will help us cost effectively deliver products to our customers. There are tremendous opportunities to optimize our mill system, and realize freight and other cost synergies. The acquired mills are located in attractive wood baskets with competitive fiber costs and improve our ability to support high growth housing demand.”

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/boise-cascade-gets-antitrust-clearance-engineered-lumber-acquisition?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news

APA Publishes Updated Engineered Wood Construction Guide

The Engineered Wood Construction Guide, APA’s comprehensive and widely recognized guide to engineered wood construction systems, has been updated and is now available on the APA website.

The 92-page guide features information on engineered wood products and recommendations for their use in a wide range of applications in residential and commercial construction. It includes information on plywood and oriented strand board (wood structural panels), glulam, I-joists, structural composite lumber, typical specifications, and design recommendations for floor, wall, and roof systems, diaphragms, shear walls, fire-rated systems, and methods of finishing.

The guide can be downloaded free of charge in PDF format or purchased in printed format for $12 at www.apawood.org/resource-library. The online offering has been enhanced with this edition to simplify the options for downloading selected chapters of the guide or the complete publication.

First published in 1962, this is the 33rd printing of the popular guide.

RedBuilt Engineered Lumber Facility Doubles Capacity

In a move which will double its capacity, RedBuilt LLC is adding a laminated veneer lumber line at its Stayton, OR, facility, one of four manufacturing plants by the Boise, ID-based company. RedBuilt manufactures engineered structural wood products for commercial and multi-family applications.

“This press will nearly double our existing RedLam LVL capacity,” RedBuilt President and CEO Kurt Liebich said. “Our new line will help us meet demand for our engineered wood products. We’re committed to investing in the future of the business and providing the innovative solutions our customers have depended on for decades.”

The new four-foot LVL press is being supplied by Tahei Machinery, a manufacturer of plywood and woodworking machinery in Komaki City, Japan.

“LVL is at the heart of virtually all our products, from RedLam headers and beams and flanges in Red-I I-joists and open-web trusses, to RedPlank scaffold plank and our concrete forming and shoring solutions,” Liebich said. “With this new line, RedBuilt is better positioned to control the supply and quality of products we manufacture and serve our customers’ growing needs.”

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/panel-supply/redbuilt-engineered-lumber-facility-doubles-capacity?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news

PELICE Will Address Greenfield Projects

PELICE Will Address Greenfield Projects

Written By: Rich Donnell

Organizers of the 2016 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) have announced several keynoters from the structural panel segment of the industry. Keynoters from the non-structural composite side will be announced soon.

The fifth biennial PELICE will be held April 7-8, 2016 in the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Hosted by Panel World magazine, PELICE in 2014 attracted 420 industry professionals who enjoyed 10 keynote presentations as well as forecasts and technical presentations delivered by 45 industry experts, supported by 75 equipment and technology companies that exhibited in the Ballroom.

PELICE will be immediately preceded by the fourth biennial Wood Energy Conference & Expo on April 5-6.

“The 2014 PELICE was refreshing because it was the first one going back to 2008 where all the talk wasn’t about the recession,” comments Rich Donnell, co-chairman of PELICE and editor-in-chief of Panel World magazine. “There was a lot of enthusiasm about projects-in-the-making. I believe that enthusiasm will continue into PELICE 2016 as housing and remodeling markets continue to climb. There will also be a definite buzz in the air at PELICE because it will be held right in the middle of the primary season for the 2016 presidential election.”

Donnell also notes that since the last PELICE there have been a number of production technology developments that will be addressed at PELICE 2016, as well as developments in engineered wood products, such as cross laminated timber, and in composite panels.

“We’ve rounded up a great lineup of keynote speakers from the structural segment of the industry,” Donnell adds. “We’ll now turn our attention to the non-structural side for additional keynoters.”

Donnell says two keynoters—Jonathan Martin, chairman & CEO of Louisiana-based Martin Companies, L.L.C.; and Steve Swanson, president and CEO of Oregon-based Swanson Group, will speak under the heading: “If I Could Build a New Plant In 2016, Here’s What I Would Do.”

Martin will address the development of Martco’s new oriented strandboard plant being built in Corrigan, Texas. The company currently operates an OSB plant in Oakdale, La., which it built and started up in 2006. Its history with OSB dates back to 1982 when it built and started up a plant in Le Moyen, La. It also operates a softwood plywood plant in Chopin, La., another greenfield project.

Martin
Swanson will address the new plywood and veneer facility Swanson Group is building in Springfield, Ore. to replace the plant that a fire destroyed in July 2014. Swanson Group operates veneer, plywood and lumber operations in Glendale and Roseburg, Ore. Swanson Group also purchased Olympic Panel Products in Shelton, Wash. in March and is relocating those assets to the new Springfield facility.

Swanson
Also on tap is Kurt Liebich, CEO of RedBuilt and New Wood Resources, both companies part of Atlas Holdings. RedBuilt manufactures I-joists, open web trusses and LVL at several manufacturing plants primarily in the Western U.S.

Liebich joined RedBuilt’s predecessor, Trus Joist, in 1994 and served in numerous senior management roles. He remained with the company when Weyerhaeuser acquired it in 1999, and was appointed vice president of Trus Joist and later VP of marketing for Weyerhaeuser’s iLevel division. When Atlas Holdings acquired the former commercial division of Trus Joist from Weyerhaeuser in 2009, it appointed Liebich as president and CEO of the company, which they named RedBuilt.

Atlas Holdings also appointed Liebich as president and CEO of Wood Resources LLC, which later sold with two plywood mills to Boise Cascade. Atlas subsequently formed New Wood Resources with Liebich as CEO. New Wood Resources operates the long-running plywood plant in Omak, Wash., and is also building a new plywood plant in Louisville, Miss., known as Winston Plywood & Veneer.

Liebich
Brian Carlson, president of OSB manufacturer Huber Engineered Woods LLC, will also join the keynoters lineup. Huber operates five OSB plants. Carlson has worked at Huber for 20 years and in various capacities prior to his promotion to president, including as product and field sales director, VP of sales & marketing and overseeing business development and strategy.

Carlson
The remaining keynoters as well as the complete agenda of speakers and technical session topics will be released in September.

As of early August, numerous equipment and technology companies had already signed on as exhibitor sponsors of PELICE. Leading the way is Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC, which is a Gold sponsor not only for PELICE, but for the preceding Wood Energy Conference & Expo.

Early Silver sponsor exhibitors for PELICE include Baumer Inspection, Biele Wood, Brunette, Cogent Industrial Technologies, Con-Vey, Dieffenbacher, Electronic Wood Systems, Evergreen Engineering, GP Chemicals, Globe Machine Manufacturing, Hexion, Imal-Pal, M-E-C, Merritt Machinery/Meinan Machinery, Mid-South Engineering, MoistTech, Raute, Sweed Machinery, TSI/ Sigma Thermal, USNR, Venango Machine, Veneer Services, Westmill Industries, Willamette Valley, as well as Bronze sponsors Ventek and GreCon.  (Brunette, Cogent, Con-Vey, Dieffenbacher, Evergreen Engineering, GreCon, Imal-Pal, M-E-C, Mid-South Engineering, MoistTech, TSI-Sigma Thermal, Veneer Services/Bio­mass Engineering & Equipment will also join B&W MEG­TEC as exhibitors in the Wood Energy Conference & Expo.)

For more information visit https://pelice-expo.com/.