The British Columbia  (BC) Interior’s timber harvest and sawmill production is expected to undergo a long-awaited  downsizing as the effects of the mountain pine beetle (MPB) infestation  take their toll on the timber supply.

Around 125 registrants from seven countries greeted 23 speakers under sodden skies, interspersed with blue patches revealing Seattle’s bayfringed skyscrapers.
The pundits appeared to agree that the worst of the economic conditions had, or soon would, pass.

There are four factories producing MDF  in the Dong Zheng Group, with each having a different name according to where it is located.

Hubei Baoyuan Group  Co Ltd was established in 1970 as a state-owned coal mining company. Partially  privatised in 2000, the company diversified into panel production with its first MDF  line in 2002.

When its cooperation arrangement with a Chinese machinery manufacturing company came to an end, Siempelkamp  set up its own workshop  in Wuxi, two hours’ drive from Shanghai  in Jiangsu Province, opening its doors in July 2004.

2009 will be known as the year when the dire economic conditions finally caught up with capacity development in the MDF industry.

Ernst-Herbert Pfleiderer (67), chairman of the supervisory board since Pfleiderer’s initial public offering in 1997 will step down at the end of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 23, 2010.

Estonia’s only plywood mill in Otepää has become a significant player in the plywood sector as it celebrates its 10th birthday, according to owner UPM.

Construction has started on a €100m particleboard and MDF factory in Romania, according to the Balkans Business News.

Uniboard has launched its NU Green(TM) 2 NAUF particleboard product line, manufactured with a cost-effective resin which is said to make the panels more economical, while still meeting the industry's most stringent environmental standards.

A US bankruptcy Court has recently approved the sale by Grant Forest Products Inc of its Allendale and Clarendon, South Carolina, OSB mills to Georgia-Pacific LLC.

Sunds MDF Technologies has been selected as a supplier of equipment for a new production plant to Berneck SA in Curitibanos, Santa Catarina. The plant is to produce MDF and is scheduled for start-up in second half of 2011.

Dieffenbacher signed a contract for the supply of a particleboard production line in March 2010, with Vina Eco Board Co Ltd (VECO), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Forestry Company Ltd from Japan.

Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) plans to spend A$50m on converting its timber plant in Myrtleford, Northeast Victoria, into what is said will be Australia’s biggest plywood mill, reports ABC News.

IKEA has dropped particleboard in some of its furniture in favour of recycled honeycombed paper, according to a report by Interior Design in New York.

Dieffenbacher has been commissioned to supply a continuous press line by the Colombian company Tablemac MDF SAS.

Chilean panel products manufacturer Masisa has started up its new medium density particleboard (MDP) plant in Brazil.

The Sarawak Timber Association expects tropical plywood prices to increase as inventories in Japan drop, according to a report by The Star in Malaysia.

Murphy Company says regular operations at the panel products plywood plant in Rogue River, Oregon, it recently acquired are likely to begin this month (June).

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded US$69,975 to a company based in Albany, Oregon, which has developed a plywood adhesive made from soybean flour, according to Oregon media reports.

A bill being considered by US Congress that would set a national standard for formaldehyde emissions in wood products is being touted as a rare example of environmentalists and industry teaming up.

Global production of particleboard is forecast to increase to 84.1million m3 in 2013, from 69.9 million m3 in 2009, based on current expansion plans and estimated capacity utilisation rates, according to Australian economic forecaster and industry analyst, BIS Shrapnel.

Brian Adams has accepted the position of business development manager in Professional Service Industries’ engineered wood products division which is based in Eugene, OR. He will continue to reside in Georgia while travelling for PSI overseas.

Italian plywood and veneer machinery manufacturer Angelo Cremona has signed what is probably the biggest contract in the history of Europe and Africa with a company in Gabon, Africa.

Greenply Industries Ltd, one of India’s leading manufacturers of plywood, high pressure laminates and decorative veneers, has just set up India’s largest MDF plant.

Three Brazilian plywood producers have joined forces in a commercial alliance to strengthen their position in a dramatically changing global marketplace.

Stora Enso’s Q1 results show a “remarkable” improvement, with profits before tax of €117.9m (2009: €48.1m loss). The results included a recovery for the company’s wood products business.

German-based panels giant Pfleiderer has posted a Q1 pre-tax loss of €6.1m (2009: €23m profit). The group recently recorded a 2009 pre-tax loss of €64.9m.

Stora Enso has invested €5m to further develop its ThermoWood, cross-laminated timber and finger-jointing operations.

Brazilian panel producer Fibraplac SA plans to launch a second manufacturing complex, far from its existing southern operation, to make both MDF and medium density particleboard (MDP) by 2014.

Weinig AG has purchased the Austrian wood working machinery manufacturer Holz-Her (which was in administration) on April 1.

British Columbia’s newly-formed Wood Enterprise Coalition, which is backed by C$1.75m in seed funding, will help the province achieve the objectives of its timber promotion initiative, Wood First.

Ohio-based Hexion Specialty Chemicals, claimed to be the world's largest thermosetting resins maker, has opened a major resins manufacturing complex in Montenegro, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to serve the growing engineered wood products market in southern Brazil.

Lao K LLC, an Albany company, has won a grant of $69,975 from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for developing a plywood adhesive made from soybean flour.

At the organisation meeting of UPM-Kymmene Corporation’s board of directors, Björn Wahlroos was re-elected as chairman and Berndt Brunow re-elected as deputy chairman.

Indiawood 2010, the trade fair for the woodworking industry outside US and Europe, took place March 4-8. The biennial event, jointly organised by PDA Trade Fairs and Eumabois, had 468 exhibitors from 29 countries and attracted 23,364 visitors.

Egger has cleared a key hurdle in its bid to construct a €40m glue plant at its particleboard factory in Radauti, Romania.

India-based Star Panel Boards, a joint venture between the Associate Group and Kings Wood, has placed India's first ever order for a continuous press line to manufacture particleboard in India with Dieffenbacher.

The Finnish stevedoring strike has ended bringing relief to the country’s forest products industry.

Workers at two Plysorol subsidiaries in Gabon held managers hostage recently to secure their pay demands.

TTJ Awards takes place September 16, Park Lane Hotel, London and guest speaker is Karren Brady. Call for entries closes July 1. www.ttjonline.com

The Swedspan Group has acquired the French particleboard company Société Industrielle et Financière Isoroy (SIFI).

Globus of Italy have recently sold important plants in Central America and Russia (MDF and particleboard) and have gained other important orders in the bio-energy field.

Egger’s particleboard plant in Brilon, Germany has been modernised and extended in an €18m investment involving Siempelkamp technology.

Exhibition organiser Survey GmbH has sold a controlling stake in the successful German ZOW show to UK company Clarion Events.