Nearly 86 million cubic metres. That is the figure we have come up with for world particleboard manufacturing capacity at the end of part ll of our marathon survey. We are by no means saying that is the definitive figure, but it is a start in trying to establish the first realistic catalogue of the world's mills and their capacities.

It seems the MDF industry is always approaching another capacity milestone, and in part ll of our survey of world mills, we find global capacity will be nudging 30 million m³ by early next year. John Wadsworth again received an excellent response to his survey and one particularly interesting result this time was a significant increase in information about the number of MDF mills in China.

The North American economic dip probably contributed to a somewhat decreased attendance in Portland, Oregon at this year's annual Wood Technology Clinic & Show. The US stock market plunged that week, imitating the recent trend in forest product prices. Other markets fell into line. Yet many of the nearly 400 exhibitors were cautiously optimistic. Their investment in exhibiting heavy machines showed faith. And the centre's hallmark twin glass towers remained unscathed by a recent earthquake.

We are in an odd-numbered year so it must be time for the big biennial exhibitions, Ligna and Interzum. Chronologically, the first is Interzum, the exhibition for the value adding sector, in Cologne. For the past five years, this event has had growing competition from the annual ZOW exhibition, held in north Germany's furniture heartland every February. While ZOW is a far smaller event than Interzum, some consider it more user-friendly, focused and better timed for choosing furniture designs for the new season.