by Web Editor | Jan 9, 2017 | News
To be competitive in the wood products industry, companies must stay on the cutting edge. But to get to the forefront, wood products companies must invest in their production facilities to increase automation and efficiency, and to lower manufacturing costs, experts say.
“It’s a competitive market,” said Jon Anderson, president and publisher of Random Lengths, a wood products industry trade publication based in Eugene. “Unless people are investing in their plants, they’re going to fall behind and, ultimately, fall by the wayside probably in the tougher markets.”
In the past couple of years, Swanson Group in Springfield, Seneca Sawmill in Eugene, Weyerhaeuser in Eugene, and International Paper in Springfield have made major investments in their facilities totaling about $273 million. Such upgrades are part of a trend throughout the North American woods products industry, Anderson said. Wood products companies in the Pacific Northwest, Canada and the southern United States have improved their operations, he said.
The improvements can help firms capture market share during strong markets and allow them to stay afloat when the economy weakens. “It’s the more efficient, more productive producer that is going to survive the downturns,” Anderson said. “We’re not in a downturn now, but most of these operators have gone through ups and downs in their time, and they are going to get ready for the next one.”
Seneca Sawmill on Highway 99 in Eugene is nearing the end of a major facilities renovation, including the installation of new kilns, revamping its shipping and loading facility and expanding its log yard. Early this year, the company plans to upgrade its planer, the equipment that smooths lumber. By the time it’s finished, the firm will have spent $63 million on improving its operations.
From The Register-Guard: https://registerguard.com/rg/business/bluechip/35084194-62/competition-drives-mill-investments.html.csp
by Web Editor | Dec 9, 2016 | News
Oregon’s Rosboro Announces Sale Of Wood Products Plants
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Wood products manufacturer Rosboro of Springfield on Tuesday announced that it has sold its manufacturing business to Wynnchurch Capital, an Illinois-based investment firm. The sale for an undisclosed amount involves seven manufacturing plants in Oregon, including Rosboro’s main facility at South 28th and Main streets in Springfield.
Wynnchurch Capital, based in Rosemont, Ill., describes itself as a “value-oriented, operationally focused private equity firm that specializes in complex transactions in the U.S. and Canada.”
Last month, Rosboro announced that it had sold its 95,000 acres of timberlands to an investment group managed by Campbell Global, a Portland-based investment firm. Rosboro also declined to disclose the sale price of that deal. Wynnchurch Capital owns 19 companies, according to its website, including manufacturing, building materials and transportation firms.
In a joint press release with Rosboro, Wynnchurch Partner Ian Kirson said, “We are excited to partner with the management team of Rosboro to continue the company’s track record of customer service, quality and innovation. Rosboro has a bright future, and we look forward to supporting the company’s growth.”
Rosboro Chief Executive Scott Nelson said, “Wynnchurch has an outstanding reputation for supporting growth and providing management teams with strategic guidance that fits perfectly into the company’s focus for the future.”
From The Register-Guard
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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 21, 2016 | News
WoodWorks, a proponent of large-scale wood construction in the U.S., launched an updated version of its free carbon calculator, adding more options for buildings made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other mass timber products. The addition reflects rising interest in large scale wood building construction.
WoodWorks, which receives finding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as timber companies and forest products manufacturers, promotes use of wood products as a means to store carbon, instead of building materials such as cement and steel that require fossil fuel energy to manufacture, a move that can help reduce greenhouse gases.
“The carbon calculator is a useful tool for building owners and designers who’d like to gain insight on the environmental value of alternate designs,” said Bill Parsons, Senior National Director of the Architectural & Engineering Solutions Team at WoodWorks. “It also provides information that allows them to express the carbon benefits of their wood building projects.”
To calculate the carbon benefits of a wood building, users access the carbon calculator at www.woodworks.org/carbon-calculator and enter nominal wood volume information. The calculator then estimates:
• How much time it takes U.S. and Canadian forests to grow that volume of wood
• The amount of carbon sequestered in the wood products, and
• Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by not using more fossil fuel-intensive materials.
• It also uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator to equate the total carbon benefit to number of cars off the road and home operational energy.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/free-carbon-calculator-shows-how-much-co2-wood-construction-saves?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
by Web Editor | Nov 4, 2016 | News
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized the new rules on formaldehyde emissions for manmade wood products. Under the new regulations, Third Party Certification (TPC) bodies currently approved to provide certification for the California Air Resources Board (CARB) formaldehyde standards will be entitled to provide certification for the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) formaldehyde emissions standard. Permission will be granted for a period of two years without the requirement for further approval. After this period, TPC will require accreditation by the EPA for TSCA Title VI certification.
The grace period will make it easier for manufacturers seeking a certified TPC and benefits continuity as the new set of rules, entitled 40 CFR 770, are based on CARB standards. The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, signed by President Obama in July 2010 amended the TSCA with the addition of Title VI and required the EPA to create regulations on formaldehyde in manmade wood products. After a lengthy period of consultation, new rules have been announced, which will come into effect one year after publication in the Federal Register.
Regulations 40 CFR 770 stipulate requirements for product labeling, compliance documentation, and for the conditions for approval of TPC and Accreditation Bodies (AB). The regulations also set out the requirements for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products, component parts and finished goods.
Composite wood producers need to be certified through a program that includes product testing for emission standards and production facility inspections, including requirements for processes and record keeping. The emission standards are based on test method ASTM E1333-10.
From OpenPR: https://www.openpr.com/news/377699/CARB-Approved-TPC-Bodies-Can-Provide-Certification-on-New-US-Formaldehyde-Emissions-Standards.html
