One year after the US imposed duties on softwood lumber—per the Canadian Press—”American consumers and not Canadian producers are feeling the pinch”. In related news: FEA/Wood Markets released its global “billion board foot club”; West Fraser announced its Q1 results; and new Alabama Senator Doug Jones calls for an end to “harmful newspaper tariffs.”
In Wood news: Ontario’s mass timber program seeks to allow wood frame up to 14 storeys, supported by new monies for timber research and education. Philadelphia may get its first timber skyscraper, and the Softwood Lumber Board reports that “the future of the industry is in offsite construction”.
Finally, EPA’s declaration that wood is carbon neutral is “a lot more complicated than that“; the US Forest Service has a new website for “wildfire updates“; and workplace safety is top of mind in more than 100 countries as this Saturday is officially a “National Day of Mourning“.
–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
The annual Wood Markets’ “Billion Board Foot Club” list of top global lumber companies showed further gains in production by 10 of the 13 companies making the list in 2017 (as compared to 2016 output). Three companies recorded output declines despite robust U.S. – as well as export – market demand (this was due mainly to timber supply issues in the B.C. Interior, the U.S. West and Chile). The largest North American firms increased their output, mainly because of mill capex programs or shifting at existing operations. There was only one major sawmill company acquisition in 2017: West Fraser’s purchase of Gilman. The average rise in production was only 2.3% for the 13 companies on the list — a slower pace than in the last three years. …Eleven of the companies that made the list since 2005 did so again in 2017. 
Charlotte-based Crescent Communities, one of the city’s oldest and most prominent developers, said Friday that it’s reached an agreement to be acquired by Sumitomo Forestry America, a subsidiary of a Japanese firm. …“We are excited to partner with Sumitomo as their investment will continue Crescent Communities’ growth strategy and enhance our capital structure,” said Todd Mansfield, CEO of Crescent Communities. “This acquisition is evidence of Sumitomo’s favorable view of our multi-product platform and geographic footprint in high growth markets.” …Sumitomo Forestry is a wood products company and homebuilder, a major producer and importer of timber. The company owns building companies in the U.S., such as Dan Ryan Homes, and is also a promoter of wood-framed construction, which is how most of Crescent’s apartments are built.
Construction’s productivity gap and labor shortage may have a solution—but it won’t be found on the jobsite. The future of the industry is in offsite construction, a technology-driven solution in which wood has a big role to play. The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is actively researching and testing mass timber to create performance-based paths to meeting current building codes. A 2017 report from the consulting firm McKinsey puts the market opportunity in the U.S. at $500 billion if the construction industry can shift to more efficient production methods, such as offsite construction. In offsite construction, building components are designed, fabricated and assembled in a controlled setting before being shipped to the jobsite for rapid installation. Projects best suited for offsite construction demand a high degree of repetition, such as multifamily, student housing and hospitality.
BOISE, IDAHO—
Forest industry associations are supporting penalties imposed in the District Court against Bay of Plenty forest owner Whitikau Holdings and two harvesting contractors. The companies pleaded guilty to charges laid under the Resource Management Act for damaging two stream beds near Opotiki in a logging operation which began in 2015. Whitikau Holdings was fined NZ$57,000 and the logging companies NZ$4000 and NZ$3000 respectively. Forest Owners Association President Peter Weir is pointing to the judge’s comments that the action of the forest owner was ‘extremely reckless and bordered on deliberate’. “From the facts as I understand them, this is not a case where a storm overwhelmed a logging site, but where the offenders just didn’t care about the clear rules on how to avoid damaging river courses, ignored abatement notices and produced a consequence which could take a decade to come right. They got what they deserved. They were probably lucky to avoid jail,” he said.
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