I am still looking forward to the day when I can talk about recovery in the world economic  situation and can confidently predict growth in panel output and sales. In the meantime, I have to be content with looking for breaks in the oppressive clouds of recession.

I have recently returned from a visit to one of my favourite destinations, China, and was impressed yet again by the ‘can-do’, positive philosophy of the Chinese people.

I said in my column in issue 1, 2009, that I felt like apologising for the number of gloomy stories in the news pages. In this issue, we have a record total of seven news pages – and therefore even more gloomy stories, I’m afraid. Sorry again!

I hope you will forgive me if I return to the theme of my comment in the last issue concerning the fact that our industry seems to be continually under attack on the environmental/emissions/wood supply front, but something was said at a conference I attended shortly after writing that piece which concerned me deeply.
One of the speakers at the TAPPI DIL symposium (p50), speaking in the context of saving paper, said: “...and this saves trees and that has got to be a good thing”.
That statement went unchallenged – unquestioned – even by an audience full of forest products specialists.
Why has “saving trees” got to be a good thing? Trees are the crop which we harvest to produce panels and decorative papers. They are replanted to produce more wood in order to produce more panels and decorative papers. The industry’s products lock up carbon and the young growing trees absorb CO2 and store it as carbon (which we are told is vital for the climate). So where is the problem in cutting down trees – as long as they are grown and harvested sustainably, of course. What needs to be stopped is the burning of that resource for energy production, thus releasing the carbon. Plant MORE trees, I say!
The most worrying aspect of that speaker’s statement is that it went unchallenged. Are even people who should know better coming to accept mis-informed ‘environmental’ propaganda as ‘fact’?
On a similar note, I can understand why Tom Julia, president of the CPA, said at the same symposium: “The CPA supports the CARB rule [on formaldehyde emissions] and its conditional
federalisation. There is no opportunity to roll this rule back...”
This has to be seen as a pragmatic approach, and a way for the whole industry to avoid getting a bad reputation, but I still believe the formaldehyde/cancer ‘hysteria’ is unfounded in scientific fact – ask the Formaldehyde Council (or see WBPI issue 6, 2007, p49).
What will be the next pressure the industry gives in to? What other accusations based on flawed science will it be persuaded to accept as ‘fact’, for which there will be further draconian legislation?
The CARB rule has serious ramifications. As Mr Julia pointed out, inspectors can ‘deconstruct’ your panel product, removing surface coverings for example, and thus test it in a form in which you did not sell it. You would still be liable for its failure – potentially with very serious consequences for your business. And that is
neither fair nor reasonable.
Beware the march of further ill-informed regulation – and thoughtless statements such as that one about “saving trees”.

My trip to South East Asia in late November/early December 2008 (see our Focus on SE Asia in this issue) turned out to be rather more ‘interesting’ than I had anticipated.

I wish I could write this column without referring to the global
economic crisis, but I suppose it would be a bit like printing this magazine without reference to wood based panels. The financial crisis is there in all its unfolding horror and will have to be faced.
Although the early signs of serious problems in the US economy were already very apparent, I think it is fair to say that the panel industry in the rest of the world started 2008 in fine form.
The market, which had been good for the past two or three years, seemed set fair and the optimism of 2007 carried over into the new year. However, as we all now know only too well, we were at the top of the hill then and the only way was down.
The machinery manufacturers built up record order books in the last couple of years and most still have their production
facilities committed until mid- or even end-2009. We must hope that this will carry them through until the panel manufacturers themselves can return to healthy markets.
When the upturn will come is hard to estimate as governments struggle to find ways to restore confidence in financial markets.
However, if we tear ourselves away from the grim economic headlines and focus on the opportunities for the wood products – and particularly the panel products – industries, things have the potential, at least, to look a lot more positive.
Building codes demanding ever more energy-efficient housing and commercial buildings present great opportunities for wood.
The recyclability of wood is another strength. Steel and plastic industries may make similar claims, but when energy input is taken into account, they don’t have a chance – or they shouldn’t.
The sustainability and ‘climate benefits’ of wood products from properly managed resources should be beyond question.
All we as an industry have to do is to make sure everyone, from designers to builders to the consumer, understands these strengths. In that way, we will have a bigger slice of whatever cake is available when the financial bad news is over.
At the European Wood Based Panels Symposium in Hannover (p54), president of the EPF, Ladislaus Döry, made an impassioned plea for support from his members in getting this positive
message across and for help in building a “global coalition” and I know he could have been speaking for all his fellow federations/
associations around the world. As he so aptly said: “We are all in the same, wooden, boat”.
I wish you a very Happy Christmas and let’s enter 2009 fighting wood’s detractors – and especially those who would just burn it!