Considerable growth in exports to the UK and Japan helped to boost Canada’s pellet exports by 46 percent to around 2.373mt in 2016 reported by EUWID.
According to a recent analysis by the Canadian National Energy Board, the exports to buyers in the UK were raised by 38 percent to 1.664m t, which equates to a share of 70 percent of the total exports. A total of 272,376 t had been exported to Japan the year before. Owing to the more than threefold increase in exports against 2015, Japan took over from the USA as the second-biggest recipient of Canadian pellets. 169,930 t were exported to buyers in the neighbouring country, roughly 17 percent less than the year before.
Read more...According to ITTO, the EU has maintained a trade surplus in wood furniture since 2011 when exports to non-EU countries overtook imports from outside the EU. This surplus remained broadly flat between the start of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 (averaging close to euro3 billion per annum), as both imports and exports were stable.
However, the trade surplus narrowed sharply in the second and third quarters of 2017 (to around euro2.6 billion per annum) as imports began to pick up.
The narrowing of the EU trade surplus is an encouraging sign for external suppliers of wood furniture into the EU that have struggled to compete in a market where domestic suppliers account for around 85 percent of total share.
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The Indiana Hardwood Cross Laminated Timber project will explore the creation of a new value-added timber product by upcycling low-value hardwood sawn logs that are extracted from Hoosier National and INDR forests lands during salvage harvests. This low-value hardwood would be used to create hardwood Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), which can then be used as a primary structural material for mid- to high-rise buildings. Through material research and a built demonstration, this project will prove that a new timber market can be created in Indiana as well as the American Mid-west region, resulting in positive growth in rural manufacturing and forestry jobs, more responsible forest management practices, and a reduction in wildfire hazards.
Hardwood timber is the largest cash crop in Indiana with an average of 80 million cubic feet extracted annually over the last 25 years. However, over 50 percent of this material goes to producing low-value industrial products. This low-value resource represents an immense material supply that can be reassessed and optimized for higher-value use in the building material market in the form of CLT. The production and material properties of CLT effectively counter every reason that relegates this resource to be low-value in the current marketplace. By redirecting harvesting, processing, and production streams of this existing resource, a new timber product market can emerge. Hardwood CLT can offer superior structural capacity compared to traditional softwood CLT. Also, with rising global temperatures, softwoods are increasingly prone to threats by insect infestation and disease. By focusing on creating mixed hardwood species assembly CLT rather than the traditional single species CLT, a larger pool of material stock can be accessed, resulting in larger product yields as well as more diverse sylvicultural practices within Indiana forestlands.
Custom CLT layups, per APA PRG320 Section 7.2.1, would have similar strength properties (gravity in range .5-.6 and E-modulus around 1.7) and glue characteristics meeting species grouping and grading rules for hardwoods per AITC 119 listing Ash, Beech, Oak and Hickory in Group A and Maple in Groups B and D, which together account for nearly 60 percent of hardwood extracted from Indiana forest lands. The proposed assembles would explore the use of higher-grade lumber in the major strength direction (parallel lamellas) and lower quality lumber in the cores or minor strength direction (perpendicular lamellas). By changing the grade and species of wood, the layup of the individual component boards, and the type and approach of adhesive technologies, the project aims to optimize CLT products so that it can be used for a wider range of applications compared to traditional CLT.
In partnership with the Indiana Hardwood Lumberman’s Association as well as with officials from the Indiana National forests, the project will utilize specific native species that are within strength properties suitable for CLT as primary structure for large-scale buildings. The material will be processed in Indiana mills and transported to our fabrication partner Smartlam, where a series of mix-species assemblies will be laminated. The assemblies will then be brought to Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute where, with the assistance of structural engineering partner Bensonwood, the structural qualities of the various assemblies will be evaluated. This will help determine layup configurations that have potential for commercial market applications and can be utilized for the Demonstration Project.
The Demonstration Project will be constructed in the city of Columbus, Indiana, where it will be displayed in the city’s main plaza during the 2017 Columbus Design Biennial, Exhibit Columbus. During the 3 to 6 month period of the Biennial, the hardwood CLT structure will be monitored and evaluated. The design of the Demonstration Project has already been approved for construction by Exhibit Columbus officials and the city. It will be prominently featured in numerous media outlets and publications, bringing significant attention to mass timber construction to a large public audience and educating elected officials, developers, engineering firms, and business in the benefits of using wood as a structural material in large buildings. At the completion of the Demonstration Project’s testing period, additional product testing will occur with the objective of PRG320 compliance and APA product approval in 2018.
The Indiana Hardwood Cross Laminated Timber Project aims to promote the use of Indiana hardwood as a viable and robust structural building material and to increase the demand and value of wood products already harvested from national forests within the state. This could also result in the expansion of specialty wood product markets such as wood composites, grade lumber, and framing/furniture manufacturing. In addition to benefiting local, state, and regional economies in the form of jobs and saleable products, this untapped opportunity to boost demand and value for national forestland products would provide significant revenue for the US Forest Service, allowing for continued forest restoration and management, which would in turn improve forest health, reduce fuels in wildland-urban interface zones, and improve wildlife habitats.
Read more...According to ITTO, in contrast demand for American hardwoods remains are steady driven by interest in white oak, ash and walnut. High end furniture manufacturers seem to have enough work for the time being.
Over the past few weeks traders report some improved activity in the meranti market but this comes at a time when consumption had fallen very low so all that can be said is that there has been a modest recovery. A similar change has been seen in the iroko market.
As buyers look to cut costs demand for Saligna (eucalyptus) has also perked up especially as an alternative to native hardwoods.
Read more...The prosperity of the wood processing industry in the last year has been robust. Vietnam hopes it can obtain turnover of $8 billion from wooden furniture exports in 2018, reports from Vietnam.net.
Vietnam, the second largest wooden furniture exporter in Asia and the biggest manufacturer in South East Asia, is most likely to receive the orders.
Vietnam exported $5.5 billion worth of wooden furniture in the first nine months of 2017, an increase of 10.6 percent compared with the same period last year, so the target of $7 billion export turnover this year is within reach.
Besides orders from the major markets of the US and Europe, Vietnamese enterprises have also received orders from the Middle East and Australia, which were loyal clients of Chinese manufacturers.
South Korean, Danish and Swedish enterprises have chosen Vietnam to set up their factories, which will have positive impact on Vietnam’s brand.
Read more...According to preliminary information, the Belgian furniture industry experienced a minimal decline of 0.4% in turnover to €1.262bn in the first half vis à vis the comparative period of the preceding year. Growth of +1.6% in the first quarter thus contrasted with a minus figure of 2.3% in the second quarter. In the first half of 2017 it was not possible for the Belgian furniture industry, according to Fedustria to pursue the positive development over the entire period of 2016 when an increase of +3.6% had been achieved.
With the exception of office and shop furniture, the association records declines in turnover for all subdivisions. The most serious decline in the first half year was -4.4% experienced by manufacturers of kitchen furniture. In the area of living room furniture, which includes chairs, seating furniture, living room, dining room and bedroom furniture as well as garden and patio furniture, turnover declined by 1.8%. Turnover with mattresses and beds was 1.5% down on last year’s figure. In the category of office and shop furniture, by contrast, an increase of 6.4% was achieved. This category had already achieved the highest growth rates over the entire period of 2016 (+7.1%) and in the first quarter of 2017 (+8.6%).
Read more...In 2016 British sawmills produced a total of 3.624m m³ softwood lumber. By comparison with the preceding year, in which production of home-grown timber amounted to 3.449m m³, this corresponds to an increase of five percent, reports from EUWID.
According to the latest Forestry Statistics published by Forestry Commission production in Scotland also increased by 5 percent to 1.871m m³. In England and Northern Ireland production volumes increased at a similar rate to 1.093m m³ and 294,000m³ respectively. Production increased most significantly in Wales by 13 percent to 366,000m³.
This increase in 2016 only partially compensated the decline of 7 percent recorded in 2015 by comparison with 2014. In 2014 British sawmills produced 3.716m m³ softwood lumber and thus reached the highest production volume ever recorded by the Forestry Commission.
Read more...Egypt’s furniture exports declined 10 percent between January and September 2017 to $244.2 million, compared with $272 million in the same period last year, according to the Egyptian Furniture Export Council’s (EFEC) monthly report.
The report shows that January 2017’s furniture exports have increased by 35 percent to $34.5 million, compared with $25.5 million in January 2016.
However, exports declined in February by 10 percent to $26.9 million, compared to $30 million in the same month last year. March’s and April’s exports have also declined by seven percent and three percent respectively.
The decline trend continued through May before exports picked up again in July, increasing by 13 percent to $23.5 million, compared to $20.7 million in the year-ago period.
Exports then slumped again in August and September, according to the report.
Egypt’s trade balance deficit dropped $12.23 billion (37 percent) in the first eight months of 2017 to $20.1 billion, compared with $32.4 billion in the same period in 2016.
Read more...According to ITTO, the European ‘real-wood’ flooring industry continues to experience moderate growth, benefiting from encouraging economic developments, especially in construction activity.
Compared to the same period last year, provisional results for the first half of 2017 point to a continuation of the positive parquet consumption trends observed in 2016 and during the first quarter of 2017.
These are the main conclusions of the market discussion of the Board of Directors of the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) when they met in September 2017.
The promising developments reported by FEP members were registered in all countries where FEP members are present, with no single country reporting a decline in consumption.
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Former Darbo plant will be moved to GornoSahrane as a replacement investment
In March 2017, the Turkish wood-based materials manufacturer KastamonuEntegre purchased a particleboard plant from the insolvent estate of the French company Darbo. The plant will be relocated to the Kastamonu site in GornoSahrane, where it will replace a multi-daylight plant that is more than 30 years old.
Dieffenbacher will undertake the relocation of the plant, consisting of forming station, forming line, pre-press and a 42.4m long CPS. The contract also includes a modernization and optimization package as well as a completely new plant control system.
The plant was commissioned in 1996 and received a press extension in 2000. Its production of about 580,000 m³ of particleboard per year will significantly expand Kastamonu’s production capacity in Bulgaria and strengthen its presence in the Eastern European market.
The plant in France has already been dismantled. Re-commissioning at the new site is scheduled for the beginning of 2019.
With the plant in GornoSahrane, KastamonuEntegre now operates a total of four plants with continuous presses from Dieffenbacher.
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