North America - Page 2
Stay up to date with the latest North America updates from the global wood industrySigns of a turn – slight stirrings in the market
We began our survey last year by saying that 2009 was the year when “dire economic conditions finally caught up with capacity development in the MDF industry”.
Short-time working and...
North American market recovery: is it faltering?
Developing economies in Asia and Latin America have out-performed the developed world, particularly Europe and the US. However, there have been exceptions; resource-rich economies such as Canada...
Boise Cascade clears the air in southern Oregon
When news came some months later that the owners would rebuild after the fire damage, the response was amazing. While the decision was taken not to reinstall the peeling lines, the owners...
The relative calm in the North American OSB market during the past year has brought welcome respite after the roller-coaster ride of the preceding five or so years, which saw...
Richply is firmly facing forward
It was 1956 – Elvis hit the charts and the Dow Index closed above 500 for the first time. And in Vancouver, Canada, 300 men pooled their resources to realise their dream of self-sufficiency; a...
The HPVA was formed when the Hardwood Plywood Manufacturers Association merged with the Fine Hardwood Veneer Association in 1992. Its roots, however, lie with the Plywood Manufacturers...
Renewed resolve at States Industries
To hear Bill Powell tell it, States Industries was built on innovation and entrepreneurship. Seated alongside president and coo Mike Taylor, the marketing veteran and Berkley University graduate...
Roseburg Forest Products’ journey to success
The aim of Jon McAmis, Roseburg Forest Product’s (RFP) director of human resources and corporate LEAN champion, is that eventually it will be simply thought of as “the way we do business – as...
Mill Machinery’s site in rural Oregon could be mistaken for the bone yard of a defunct panel mill, such is the assortment of used equipment accumulated in tidy rows within its...
Raute Canada – right time to right-size
In his 25 years with Raute’s Canadian division, Martin Murphy has participated in two major relocations. In both cases, the decision to relocate has been based on the...
APA – more viable, more vital than ever
President of APA-The engineered wood association, Dennis Hardman, is a marketing man. When he joined APA in 1981 it was as advertising and PR manager. When he became president...
Tough times make for a better company
Sitting in Timber Products’ head office in Springfield, Oregon, vice president of sales and marketing Roger Rutan appears the epitome of American marketing savvy. Energetic and...
BC Interior lumber to peak in three to five years
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...
A local supply service is offered on a plate
Hueck Engraving LLC was established in York, South Carolina, in September 1999. With this facility, Hueck Engraving, headquartered in Viersen, Germany, is able to offer press plates for the...
Flakeboard’s Eugene MDF mill is cresting the wave of production improvement with a new resin process created in the firm’s St Stephens mill in Brunswick, Ontario, Canada.
Dieffenbacher’s...
Oregon plywood mill takes on new life
One of Oregon’s older plywood mills is emerging into another life under new owners, the Swanson Group of Glendale, Oregon. After buying the mill two year ago, they started converting it into a...
Marrying Hardwood and Softwood Veneers The Eugene, Oregon mill of States Industries has mastered hardwood plywood production. Bill Keil visited and recounts how it is done
A shift of focus Mr Shotbolt is president and ceo of Flakeboard Company Ltd, Markham, Ontario, Canada, a very large panel producer, and he presented the keynote speech at the International Wood Composite Symposium in Seattle in April (see p36 for full report). "We ride the cycle. We need to be prepared for it," Mr Shotbolt advised his audience. "It's the equivalent of musical chairs. When housing started to come down, the music crashed." He said methanol and urea price spikes last September added another US$5m in annual costs to a typical mill. Urea alone showed a 60 to 80% increase.
Has pessimism gone too far in region's panel markets? Picking up reports on forest products markets in North America has become dangerous to your health! However, claims about how bad the markets are, and seemingly will be for months/years to come, are often overblown rhetoric. Recent examples include comments that the current housing slump is the worst in over a century. Evidently the claimant has not heard of the Great Depression; it would be hard to find a housing market weaker than that of the 1930s. Too many analysts are simply too young to remember past cycles or too near-sighted in their outlook; they often have little or no perspective. Others are simply perpetual 'bears', wallowing exultantly in doom and gloom.
