Shengda Forestry is a privately owned company founded in 1997 to produce laminate flooring. In fact, the company claims to have been the firstmanufacturer of this product in China; itsmajor competitor,Power Dekor, only imported laminated board and machined it in China at that time.

Acommon step in the manufacture of all wood based panels (WBP), except cement bonded particleboards, is hot pressing. Panels bonded with amide adhesives, eg UF or MUF, must be cooled after they have been taken out of the press.

Baoshan Corporation, headquartered in Long menshan Town, near Chengdu in Sichuan province, has a 30-year history in metal working, mainly in copper and zinc, and in hydro-electric energy generation schemes.

This company began its life in panel production with a wetprocess hardboard production line in Chunan, Zhejiang Province, in 1980. The company was then known as Zhejiang Chunan Wood Based Panel Plant.

On January 1 this year, Siempelkamp increased its shareholding in CMC Texpan from the existing 40% to 70%, gradually buying out the company’s president Dario Zoppetti, whose father founded the business known as CMC in 1962.

Luca Zappetti, process engineer and project manager with Instalmec srl of San Giorgio di Nogaro, Udine, said that 2009 was a very good year for the company, even if Europe in general, and the company’s traditionally strong Italian market in particular, were not so good.

Established in 1974 close to its present home in Vigevano in Lombardy, Tocchio srl has a well-established global position in the manufacture of paper impregnation lines, but founder Umberto Tocchio admits that the last two years have been every challenging for his company as orders “fell off a cliff” in the global economic downturn, in common with many machinery makers.

The two constituent companies of the Imal Pal group had rather different experiences during the economic downturn.

In May of this year, Globus srl, established by Fabio Paron in 1981, bought shares in EMG do Brasil in Curitiba.

Bernardo Vitali Nari and Claudio Lommi entered thewater treatment field more than 15 years ago, setting up Claber Ecologia, head quartered in Parma, in 2002 as a specialist in water treatment plants.

Riccardo Ferrari has spent more than 30 years working in the Italian  wood working machinery  field and in the course of that career has visited panel mills all over the world, becoming very well-known in the industry.

We reported in WBPI last year, following the Ligna exhibition, that EMG had supplied in 2008 a high-speed feeding line for Nelson Pine of New Zealand’s Steinemann sanding line,  which broke through the 150m/min ‘barrier’.

Readers may be astounded to see that world MDF capacity grew by 15.3 million m3 in 2009 compared with the 7.4 million m3 somewhat optimistically reported in last year’s survey.

WBPI takes great pleasure in congratulating Heiner Wemhoener, managing partner of Wemhoener Surface Technologies GmbH & Co KG, who will reach the age of 60 on August 13.

The market share for wood based thermal insulation in Finland has increased to 34% having increased annually by 3% since the start of 2008.

Uniboard says it plans to close its facility in Fostoria, Ohio on October1. The facility laminates particleboard used in kitchen cabinets, store shelving and cabinetry.

Italy's Safwood plans to start OSB production in Russia in February 2012 and is constructing a mill in the Komi Republic, reports Lesprom.

Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry has established a particleboard manufacturing subsidiary, Vina Eco Board, in Vietnam, which is said will have an annual production capacity of 250,000m3 and employ around 200. Commercial production is scheduled April 2012.

Formica Corporation previewed its VIVIX exterior architectural panels at the recent AIA 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami. The company said it would be the only major branded North American supplier of a solid phenolic exterior grade product.

Weyerhaeuser Co is considering a September reopening for its OSB plant in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, reports CBC News.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) has approved a new voluntary veneer grade.

The Timber Exporters’ Association of Malaysia (TEAM) is forecasting an increase of 5-10% in the country’s timber and wood products exports this year, although it acknowledges that the business faces challenges.

Ghana’s wood products exports rose 4.3% in volume in the first quarter, according to the latest International Tropical Timber Association market report. The exports amounted to 97,400m3 and were worth €31m.

Speakers from Pfleiderer, BASF, Grecon and Siempelkamp will talk about the latest developments in wood based panel production technology at the European Wood Based Panel Symposium.

iLevel by Weyerhaeuser has partnered with CMPC to distribute Selex Radiata Pine plywood and beaded paneling across the US, reports Home Channel News.

Tolko Industries has announced market-related downtime at its Armstrong division’s plywood operation in British Columbia, according to the Vernon Morning Star.

The court-appointed receiver of Atcon Plywood in Miramichi, New Brunswick, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), has said several potential buyers for the plywood manufacturer have come forward as markets for construction materials begin to rebound reports the New Brunswick Business Journal.

Georgia-Pacific LLC has completed the purchase of Grant Forest Products Inc’s OSB facility at Englehart, Ontario, as well as the associated facility at Earlton, Ontario, and OSB facilities at Allendale and Clarendon counties in South Carolina, for about US$400m.

The Forest Trust (TFT) has announced that a Chinese factory has, for the first time, produced plywood whose origins have been verified as 100% legal – the result of TFT's partnership with the UK’s Premier Forest Products Ltd, along with the willing cooperation of a Chinese plywood maker, a group of Chinese poplar farmers, and a Malaysian timber producer.

This resolution was presented to Ilse Aigner, the German Minister of of food, agriculture and consumer protection, on June 24, 2010, at the EPF/FEIC annual general meeting in Dresden.

APA – The Engineered Wood Association of Tacoma, Washington, has announced two new publications on structural plywood and glulam standards.

Major UK retailers are trialling a plywood replacement board made entirely from recycled waste plastic, according to a report by Materials Handling World Magazine.

To highlight what it sees as the risks being posed to the wood panel industry by biomass energy, the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) has released findings from two independent reports it commissioned which suggests that the development of large-scale wood fired energy plants in the UK not only risks 8,700 UK jobs but could increase UK CO2 emissions by six million tonnes – or one per cent of the UK’s total net CO2 emissions each year.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) says new legislation to set a national standard for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products will create opportunities for imports.

The association of the German wood based panel industries, VHI, celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

Brazil’s’ newest MDF producer Floraplac Industrial MDF Ltda is to launch by early July its first Chinese-built fibreboard line, using eucalyptus wood in the northern city of Paragominas.

The IPPS (International Panels Products Symposium) Master Class takes place September 28-29, 2010, Bangor, North Wales, UK. The seminar series will cover key topics aimed at reducing production costs and improving quality within mills. www.bc.bangor.ac.uk

After nearly 20 years as chairman of the supervisory board, Ernst-Herbert Pfleiderer, 67, has stepped down from his position at the end of Pfleiderer’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

UPM is planning to build a biofuels plant in Lappeenranta, Finland. In the first phase the plant will serve mainly as a test and training facility.

Three decors from Interprint received a Top Design Award 2010 badge at the Arena Design event in Poznan, Poland. The digitally printed decors, Tattoo and Zebrafloor, and the finish foil, Lamezia, convinced the jury in the Furniture and Interior Design category.

UPM’s tree nursery in Joroinen, Finland celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The nursery annually produces 14 to 15 million spruce seedlings and forest planting material for the company’s own forests and its customers.

Spartanics has announced on-site wood materials testing for laser die cutting during 2010/2011 worldwide trade events. www.spartanics.com

Schattdecor AG has again taken part in Moscow’s Interkomplekt/Interzum exhibition of furniture production components and materials.

On July 1, 2010, Roger Kautz will assume the position of director of marketing and communication of the Dieffenbacher Group. He succeeds Gustav Aumüller who is retiring.

Contracts have been signed making Turkish trade fair organiser Survey Fuarcilik Danismanlik Ltd STI a subsidiary of German firm Clarion Survey GmbH.

International Wood Markets Group is staging a one-day Global Wood Products Industry & Market Conference, May 10, 2011 at the Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver BC.

Royal DSM NV, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, has declared that Orascom Construction Industries’ (OCI) subsidiary OCI Nitrogen has acquired DSM Melamine and DSM Agro. OCI Nitrogen is now an integral part of the OCI Fertilizer Group.

The ZOW 2010 in Italy show for the furniture supplies and interior design sector has been cancelled.

New Zealand’s forestry and wood products sector is set to come to the fore during Rugby World Cup 2011, with a Forestry and Wood Industries Festival planned in Rotorua (September 5-9) to showcase the sector to government officials, companies and visitors from around the world.

Global provider of clean air technologies, TurboSonic Technologies Inc, has been awarded an order in the region of US$900,000 for its Turbotak scrubber technology by a US facility producing OSB. Installation is scheduled this year.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Boiler MACT) rule could create serious disincentives for the use of renewable energy and be unsustainable for the forest product industry and the nearly 900,000 men and women it supports.

A new BASF product finder containing more than 800 product lines and an overview of 25 industries and 109 applications is now available on the BASF company website at www.basf.com/productfinder

LP’s OSB mill in Tomahawk, Wisconsin has earned the coveted Innovation in Safety Award in the latest Safety and Health Awards Program sponsored annually by APA – The Engineered Wood Association for the structural wood panel and engineered wood products industry.

G Siempelkamp GmbH & Co KG has recorded its second-best business result in the 127-year history of the company in 2009. The group’s turnover amounted to €555m.

Uniboardä, a North American leader of manufactured engineered wood products, reports that its Sayabec, Quebec manufacturing facility has been certified by the Composite Panel Association (CPA) as meeting California Air Resource Board (CARB) Phase 2 emissions standards.

Wood products wholesaler DLH has launched tongue and groove (T&G) ready Lumin plywood for flooring and roofing applications. Made from plantation grown eucalyptus in South America the plywood is part of an environmentally responsible wood products range from Weyerhaeuser.

Forest products giant Arauco got quickly back on course in the wake of Chile’s devastating earthquake and plans to invest US$215m to build a new medium density particleboard (MDP) plant and another plywood mill in Chile.

Malaysian wood based products producer Evergreen Fibreboard Bhd is to expand its operations within the next two years, in an attempt to reinforce its position as a fully integrated fibreboard manufacturer.

Biomass has now surpassed oil to become the main source for energy generation in Sweden, causing increased competition for pulpwood, reports Wood Resource Quarterly. Consequently wood fibre prices have been pushed to new heights.

Total sales for Louisiana-Pacific Corporation’s Q1 2010 were US$297m, up 44% on a year ago. This reflects, says the company, strengthening OSB prices and US housing starts.

Good news, at last, reports Acimall – the Italian woodworking machinery and tools manufacturers’ association.
Figures released by Acimall indicate for Q1 2010 a 41% increase in orders compared to the same period last year.
Excellent results in foreign markets are also reported with 43.8% expansion, while the Italian markets grew by 26%.

I-joist production in North America during the first quarter was up 100% compared to a year ago, according to industry newsletter Random Lengths.