by Web Editor | Nov 30, 2016 | News
A new massive plywood building panel developed by an Oregon company and tested at Oregon State University may be the largest such product ever manufactured.
Builders are familiar with standard plywood sheets that measure 4-feet wide, 8-feet long and between a quarter-inch and more than one-inch thick. The new panels made by the Freres Lumber Company of Lyons, Oregon, can be as much 12-feet wide, 48-feet long and 2-feet thick.
The company announced its new panels in October, capping more than a year of development and performance testing at Oregon State’s Advanced Wood Products Laboratory. “The results look very promising,” said Ari Sinha, assistant professor in OSU’s College of Forestry, who oversaw the tests. “This is a unique product with the potential for creating jobs in rural Oregon.”
Versatility is one of the benefits of the product known as a Mass Plywood Panel (MPP). “These panels can be customized for different applications. Because they have very good compression qualities, they could be used for columns as well as panels,” said Sinha. The veneer manufacturing process enables manufacturers to orient wood grain and to distribute the defects found in smaller trees, such as knots, in a way that maintains the strength of the final product, Sinha added.
Tests in Sinha’s lab focused on the panels’ structural and physical properties such as density, adhesive bonding and resistance to the kinds of vertical and horizontal stresses experienced in an earthquake. Additional tests are planned after the first of the year. Mass Plywood Panels can achieve the performance characteristics of a similar product known as Cross Laminated Timber panels with 20 to 30 percent less wood.
From Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2016-11-prototype-plywood-panels-world-largest.html
by Web Editor | Nov 11, 2016 | News
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Officials with major panel industry vendor USNR have announced the acquisition of Ventek, Inc., an industry leader in veneer scanning, grading and handling systems for the plywood industry.
Based in Eugene, Ore., Ventek has designed and built vision-based and moisture-based grading solutions for veneer since the company was founded in 1991. From the very start, Ventek developed a reputation for having some of the best technology in the industry, and for many years the company has been the go-to choice for veneer scanning and grading solutions. Building on its expertise, Ventek formed an internal group to design and build green and dry veneer handling systems, and the group’s patented multi-point diverter is now the flagship product of Ventek’s veneer handling product catalog.
Chris Blomquist, USNR Senior Vice President for Sales and Engineering, commented, “Our customers on the lumber side of our business have long recognized the value of tightly integrated mechanical and optimization technology. With the addition of Ventek’s veneer scanning, grading, and handling solutions to USNR’s lathe, dryer, and downstream product portfolio, we now have an opportunity to bring this integration benefit to our customers on the plywood side of our business as well.”
Rodger Van Voorhis, formerly President of Ventek and one of its founders who has now joined USNR as Director of Sales for Veneer Systems, added, “I am thrilled to join the USNR team, and I am excited to see what we can do with our veneer scanning, grading, and handling products as part of a larger organization. I think there are going to be a lot of great opportunities to learn from each other—such as taking our plywood technology and applying it to lumber grading, and vice versa.”
“I am tremendously pleased that Rodger and the rest of the Ventek team have decided to join USNR to help us build the next generation of products for the plywood industry,” commented Alan Knokey, Vice President responsible for USNR’s plywood and panel business. “The people—the engineers, service technicians and guys who actually build the systems and everyone who supports them—they are the most important part of this transaction.”
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by Web Editor | Oct 14, 2016 | News
Real estate investment trust Weyerhaeuser Co. said on Wednesday it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, for its timberlands and manufacturing operations in Uruguay.
The Uruguay operations include more than 300,000 acres of timberlands in northeastern and north central Uruguay, a plywood and veneer manufacturing facility, a cogeneration facility and a seedling nursery, the company said.
“This is a strategic revision with various possibilities: one is a sale but another is maintaining operations just as they are today,” the company’s South America Director Alvaro Molinari told Reuters.
Weyerhaeuser has been restructuring its business since it bought Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc in February, combining the two largest owners of timberland in the United States. Since then, Weyerhaeuser has said it would sell its pulp business to International Paper Co. for $2.2 billion and its liquid packaging unit to Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd for about $285 million.
Weyerhaeuser said this month it would sell its North Pacific paper unit to private company One Rock Capital Partners LLC.
From Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/weyerhaeuser-divestiture-idUSL4N1CI4DI
by Web Editor | Sep 14, 2016 | News
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “U.S. Hardwood Veneer And Plywood Market – Analysis And Forecast to 2020” report to their offering.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the U.S. hardwood veneer and plywood market. It presents the latest data of the market size and volume, domestic production, exports and imports, price dynamics and turnover in the industry. In addition, the report contains insightful information about the industry, including industry life cycle, business locations, productivity, employment and many other crucial aspects. The Company Profiles section contains relevant data on the major players in the industry.
From 2007 to 2015, U.S. hardwood veneer and plywood market showed mixed dynamics. A significant drop in 2009 was followed by steady growth over the next six years. Finally, the market value reached 4,848 million USD in 2015. An increase in U.S. hardwood veneer and plywood market was supported by the growth of the housing and commercial building sectors and, as a result, the furniture sectors increased as well. That upward trend is likely to continue in the medium term.
Strong employment is the driver of market growth, which creates new income growth and advances consumer spending.
Affordable credit creates another impetus, which propels investments in construction and supports related industries. The performance of the market is forecast to continue with moderate growth, with an anticipated CAGR of +2.6% for the five-year period from 2015 to 2020.
From Yahoo.com: https://sports.yahoo.com/news/united-states-hardwood-veneer-plywood-111900041.html
by Web Editor | Sep 7, 2016 | News
The log yard is filled with two months’ worth of inventory and activity is humming at Columbia Forest Products’ veneer plant, east of North Bay. After being mothballed for five years, operations at the hardwood veneer mill in Rutherglen resumed April 18 running one shift of 52 employees.
Without delving into production numbers, mill manager Peter Loy said since the reopening, things have gone well as the operation continues to its ramp-up toward full production.
Heading into 2016, Northern American veneer demand wasn’t exactly bursting at the seams, but it had improved sufficiently enough for Columbia to make the decision to restart the 100,000-square-foot mill it had shuttered in 2010.
Loy said it’s difficult to forecast if the veneer markets will show signs of improvement over a sustained stretch. “Nobody can look forward any more than a few months and say, ‘it’s going to be a banner time’ or ‘no, we’d better think about slowing down.’ Historically, there’s a cycle to appetites through the year and typically it slacks off toward the end of the year and picks up early in the new year. It has to do with inventories and costing over the year-end.”
The U.S. remains the No. 1 global importer of hardwood veneer. “One of our largest competitors for our end product, being plywood, is China,” said Loy. “And they’ve eaten up a whole lot of market share in North America with their imports. As far as veneer goes, they’ll always be imports for sliced and specialty woods – things like that – but it’s not a big bite of our lunch.”
From Northern Ontario Business: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/forestry/2016/09/Veneer-mill-thrives-amid-market-uncertainty.aspx
