Raute Receives LVL Line Order From Roseburg Forest Products

Raute Corporation has received an order worth over EUR 11 million for an LVL layup line for Roseburg Forest Products, Inc. (RFP) of Roseburg, Oregon, USA.

The present order received by Raute consists of a very high capacity LVL layup line. The line will be delivered to RFP’s new LVL mill in Chester, South Carolina, USA late 2018. The capacity of RFP’s new LVL mill will be 285,000 m3 per year and will be one of the largest capacity single LVL lines in the world. The equipment will be engineered and produced in Raute’s North American unit in Delta, Vancouver area, Canada.

The cooperation between RFP and Raute has continued for many years. Raute has delivered projects of various sizes to RFP’s plywood and LVL mills. The largest project was RFP’s first LVL line in Roseburg, Oregon, USA delivered in the year 2000.

The demand for LVL in the USA has been growing steadily in recent years. By building this new LVL mill Roseburg will be responding to that demand and intends to maintain their strong market position. Raute was selected as the supplier for the LVL layup line because of its extensive experience from earlier deliveries as well as Raute’s leading LVL process technology.

The present new order has no impact on Raute’s outlook for 2017, but it will strengthen the order book for 2018. Raute’s net sales will grow clearly and operating profit will improve clearly over the levels of 2016.

From GlobeNewswire: https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/07/31/1064708/0/en/Raute-receives-an-order-worth-over-EUR-11-million-to-USA.html

Tallest Timber Building In The U.S. Opens Its Doors

The seven-story T3 tower features 220,000 square feet of prefabricated CLT timber panels and nail-laminated timber cladding.

It became the largest timber building in the U.S. when it opened Wednesday in Minneapolis. Designed by Vancouver-based Michael Green Architecture and Architect-of-Record DLR Group, the office building is named T3, which stands for Timber, Technology, and Transit.

“As businesses compete to attract and retain staff, T3 offers a modern re-interpretation of the historic building that appeals to young professionals,” says Architect Michael Green. “It celebrates the robust character of historic wood, brick, stone and steel buildings, but provides state of the art amenities, environmental performance, and technical capability needed for competitive businesses in Minneapolis.”

In addition to being constructed of sustainable lumber, the building will sequester about 3,200 tons of carbon.

StructureCraft, who worked on the project, said the building, which resembles nearby historic warehouses in the district, features a structural system around a fifth of the weight of a similarly sized concrete building. StructureCraft says it was able to construct the 180,000 square feet of timber required in less than 10 weeks.

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/tallest-timber-building-us-opens-its-doors?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news

World’s Tallest Timber Building Topped Off Ahead Of Schedule

In Vancouver, Canada, the towering timber Brock Commons just had its final panel installed, making the dream of the world’s tallest timber building a reality, reports the website Inhabitat.

In just 66 days – ahead of the original scheduled timeframe – the exterior of the Acton Ostry Architects‘ record-breaking design has come to fruition, which could bump up the projected fall 2017 completion date to next year’s spring semester. The final panel of the University of British Columbia student housing structure was lifted and installed earlier this month.

John Metras, managing director of UBC Infrastructure, said, “Construction just went really smoothly. It was well designed and the construction sequence went smoothly.”

Construction began last November, followed by the erection of the building’s freestanding concrete cores earlier this year.

To ease fire safety fears of an 18-story timber structure, Brock Commons is outfitted with a sprinkler system and the wood is encapsulated in drywall and concrete. The lighter weight of the building also allows for better energy dissipation during an earthquake, making it proficient at withstanding all kinds of disasters. Students will be able to move in next year, quite possibly in the spring semester.

From ProudGreenBuilding: https://www.proudgreenbuilding.com/news/worlds-tallest-timber-building-topped-off-ahead-of-schedule/

Canadian Building Will Be The Tallest Timber Structure In The World

Vancouver-based real estate developer PortLiving and world-renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban have unveiled plans for an upcoming hybrid timber structure said to be the tallest in the world. If so, this would mean it will be higher than other CLT wood structures, such as the 34-story design planned for Stockholm.

The residential high-rise Terrace house, which will be located in Vancouver’s Coal Harbor neighborhood, may set a new standard for urban luxury in design, sustainability and engineering innovation. The high-rise will feature a cross-laminated timber frame supported by a concrete and steel core. Wood for the project will be locally sourced from British Columbia, minimizing its carbon footprint.

Cross-laminated timber has been gaining popularity as of late, due to its lightness, sustainability, and ease of use. Planks of timber are glued and orientated at 90 degrees to each other, and are then crosslaid in layers. Those pieces are then shipped to construction sites and can be assembled by just a few workers, even for large buildings.

Its use in tall wooden buildings has also been growing. London, Stockholm, and Quebec are just a few of the cities who either already have large timber towers or have one in the works. Recent plans include a Swedish firm’s 436 ft. residential wood skyscraper in Stockholm, while a 12-story mixed wood high-rise is planned for construction in Portland, Oregon.

Building codes are being adjusted in Oregon and Washington State to permit the tall wood structures. But CLT hasn’t gone without opposition.

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/canadian-high-rise-will-be-tallest-timber-structure-world?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news

Norbord Riding The Rising Wave Of OSB Sales

For years, it was known as the ugly duckling, cheaper alternative to plywood. One design maven described it as “like the turkey loaf of building materials.” But oriented strand board – OSB for short – has come into its own over the past 3 1/2 decades as a major player in North American wood-frame housing construction and is increasingly used for industrial and other applications.

Structural OSB panels – made of wood strands that are resin-bonded under high pressure and heat – are mostly used as floor, roofing or wall substrate in home building. They’re also getting play these days on fashionable interior-decoration websites as a “shabby-chic” finishing material.

Capitalizing on OSB’s rise like no other forest-products company is Toronto-based Norbord Inc. Norbord, once a diversified forestry company, has shed assets over the years and focused on OSB. Now boasting annual sales in the $1.5-billion (U.S.) range and a market capitalization of about $2.4-billion (Canadian), it bills itself as the world’s largest producer of OSB.

The $763-million acquisition in 2014 of Vancouver-based Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. gave Norbord – whose operations were concentrated in the U.S. southeast – a strong presence in Western Canada as well as a foothold in the promising Japanese market.

Right now, the steadily growing number of housing starts in the United States is giving Norbord a big boost, and low-key, media-shy chief executive officer Peter Wijnbergen says there are major growth opportunities in Europe and Asia.

From The Globe And Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/forest-products-firm-norbord-riding-the-rising-wave-of-osb-sales/article30985989/