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 | Feb 3, 2016 | News
Norbord To Invest $135 Million In Scotland OSB Mill
Canadian firm Norbord has announced plans to invest £95m at its wood panels plant in the Highlands. It aims to double production at its base in Dalcross, near Inverness, to meet rising demand. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has also offered an £11m grant towards the proposed expansion. The factory produces oriented strand boards (OSB) which are used in the construction industry.
Alex Paterson, chief executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise said: “We have been working very closely with Norbord on their development plans and are delighted to be supporting the company to invest so substantially in its Highland base.
“This development will put Norbord’s Inverness plant on a sustainable footing for decades to come, and is a huge vote of confidence in the company’s Scottish workforce.
“It’s worth noting that the positive impact of today’s announcement will be felt well beyond Inverness and the Inner Moray Firth. “Norbord is not only a significant local employer in its own right, it also plays an important strategic role in the region’s forestry sector and is a major user of haulage companies and port infrastructure.”
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by Web Editor | Jan 18, 2016 | News
Wood is a go-to material for floors, doors, furniture, and now, a skyscraper—the very first of its kind in the U.S. Construction on Portland, Oregon’s wood high-rise, Framework, is slated to begin this October. The 12-story mixed-use building—a collaboration between local firm Lever Architecture and real-estate developer Project—will be made primarily from timber. Thomas Robinson, Lever Architecture’s founder, says his company is interested in “exploring the relationship between materials, experience, and the environment—how the way we build impacts the way we live and the environment as a whole.”
To highlight the innovative design, the structure will be centered around a visible vertical core and capped with a roof deck framed by wood columns. Flexible, sturdy, and lighter than materials like concrete or steel, timber has a high strength-to-weight ratio. Framework’s design includes cross-laminated wood panels, engineered of stacked lumber, for floors and ceilings, and glue-laminated timber for beams and columns.
Inside, a double-height community space will feature a public exhibition documenting the building’s creation and impact, plus a second-floor garden terrace. Visitors will be able to roam retail spaces on the ground floor, while above there will be five floors of offices and five floors of affordable housing.
The “forest to frame” philosophy behind the building reflects its relationship between urban construction and rural lumber manufacturing. This project creates more opportunities in both industries, which were gravely affected in the recession. “Framework stands as a model for sustainable urban ecology,” says Robinson. And there are copious environmental benefits: Buildings made primarily of wood have significantly lower carbon emissions and use less energy than those made from traditional materials. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took notice. It solicited designs for a tall wood building competition, and the Framework team won an impressive $1.5 million grant to fund further research and development—the structure is expected to be finished by December 2017.
From Architectural Digest: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/first-wood-highrise-building-portland
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 | Apr 1, 2015 | News
When completed, a new wood products plant at the Columbia Falls Industrial Park north of town will be the largest cross-laminated timber (CLT) plant in the world, Sen. Jon Tester learned during a meeting with city officials and business leaders at Freedom Bank on March 20.
SmartLam general manager Casey Malmquist said he’s in talks with the industrial park’s new Canadian owners about plans for construction of a new manufacturing plant to produce the giant wood panels. “We plan to quadruple our capacity, which will make us the largest CLT plant in the world,” Malmquist told Tester.
SmartLam’s panels are made with low-grade dimensional lumber from F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. that are sawn into smaller pieces and finger-jointed and planed into a 2-inch product that is then cross-laminated into large, heavy and very strong panels.
Currently the panels are being used in the oil industry for drilling rig platforms, bridges and roadways, but SmartLam wants to start producing panels for building construction, which is common in Europe.
Malmquist enumerated the environmental benefits of replacing concrete and steel with renewable and sustainable wood products.
From Hungry Horse News: https://www.flatheadnewsgroup.com/hungryhorsenews/expansion-will-make-smartlam-no-in-the-world/article_03c59e1c-d48a-11e4-90b8-fb43c4b37825.html
