Friday Offcuts – 8 February 2008
Changing foreign ownership certainly was a big part of this week's news. Any doubt that the first shots in a new economic war have been fired were removed as Chinese companies announced earlier in the week four new deals in the resources sector. The deals came only two days after Chinalco, the state-owned aluminium company, took a 12 per cent stake in Rio Tinto - the largest share acquisition to date by the Chinese in a foreign company. China's rush for resources comes as the Government seeks access to metals, minerals and energy needed to feed its rapidly growing economy. Among the resource deals announced this week was a far-reaching strategic partnership between Anglo and the China Development Bank to develop projects in China, Africa and elsewhere. The almost simultaneous announcement of the partnerships was a coincidence, but they've certainly highlighted China's rapidly growing presence globally in the resources sector. As those looking to secure shipping outside of New Zealand for logs over the last year will tell you, the demand for resources in China has sent shipping costs soaring. China is forecast to consume more than half of all the world's key resources within the next decade. It's already the world's largest consumer of every main resource except oil accounting already for 47 per cent of all iron ore, 32 per cent of aluminium and 25 per cent of copper. Much closer to our own industry is the announcement just last week that a Chinese company, the Sinar Mas Group, the largest producer of pulp and paper in Asia and among the top five in the world has just been approved by U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy courts (see story below) to buy three large Pope & Talbot mills, one pulp mill in Oregon and the other two in BC. The commodity boom and changing ownership pattern of resources is a trend set to continue this year and into the future. It's the pace of change though that I think is taking many by surprise. Subscribe a friend
This week we have for you:
Sonic tester developed for harvesting head
The first prototype sonic testing device, a Director PH330, for a harvesting head application has been installed into a Waratah 626 processor head. As reported in Leading Edge, it comprises two probes mounted within the harvest head incorporating an electronic system to generate and detect an acoustic signal. This provides a direct measure of wood quality to the operator prior to the log making decision.
Competitiveness of the Australian Forest Products Sector
As part of last year's very popular Value Chain Optimisation series run for New Zealand and Australian forest products companies, an excellent presentation detailing just how critical the current structure, business models and supply chain are to the competitiveness of the Australian forest products industry was given by Nick Roberts, CEO Forests NSW.
NZWood advertising kicks into gear
Hopefully most of you kiwis will have picked up the NZWood TV advertising over this last week - the first ever multi-million dollar ongoing advertising campaign that places forests and wood at the front line of the fight against climate change. The TV schedule will be published on the supporting website later this week. For those who have missed the first-upadverts, you can check out what is being developed for our industry on www.nzwood.co.nz
Sawmiller's portal and cost analysis tools now available
The Sawmiller's Portal of the Bioenergy Knowledge Centre was implemented in December 2006 and the Call Centre - which provides access to experts in bioenergy - has been established. These components of the portal are now well-established and receiving consistent traffic and enquiries. A new portal addressing forest residue extraction is under development. As part of the Sawmillers Portal, a number of cost analysis tools for sawmill wood-waste streams have been developed.
Bio-crude turns cheap waste into valuable fuel
"By making changes to the chemical process, we've been able to create a concentrated bio-crude which is much more stable than that achieved elsewhere in the world," says Dr Steven Loffler of CSIRO Forest Biosciences. "This makes it practical and economical to produce bio-crude in local areas for transport to a central refinery, overcoming the high costs and greenhouse gas emissions otherwise involved in transporting bulky green wastes over long distances." The process uses low value waste such as forest thinnings, crop residues, waste paper and garden waste, significant amounts of which are currently dumped in landfill or burned. "By using waste, our Furafuel technology overcomes the food versus fuel debate which surrounds biofuels generated from grains, corn and sugar," says Dr Loffler. The plant wastes being targeted for conversion into biofuels contain chemicals known as lignocellulose, which is predominantly found in trees and is made up of cellulose; lignin, a natural plastic; and hemicelluloses. Increasingly lignocellulose is being favoured around the world as a raw material for the next generation of bio-ethanol. CSIRO and Monash University will apply to patent the chemical processes underpinning the conversion of green wastes to bio-crude oil once final laboratory trials are completed.
Australian sawmilling identity remembered
Kevin Schultz, a well-known sawmilling identity in Australia regretfully passed away last Saturday. The funeral was held on Thursday. He was a life member of the Australian Saw Doctors Educational Association starting in the sawmilling industry as a young apprentice at only 17 years of age. He was one of the pioneers in getting stellite tipped band-saws up and running in Australia and spent quite some time with Armstrong in the USA learning the technology before bringing it back to the Mt Gambier Mill.
Chinese firm to buy North American mills
A company based in China has put in a bid to buy three Pope & Talbot mills in North America, the one at Halsey in Oregon and two mills in British Columbia. The sale is expected to be completed by Feb. 5. U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy courts have approved a bid of $225 million plus other incentives from the Sinar Mas Group, a global company with large pulp and paper interests throughout Asia. Other companies have until Feb. 1 to submit competing bids.
Plantations to play positive role in emissions trading
Representatives from the Australian and New Zealand plantation forest industry met last week to discuss the positive contribution a growing and sustainable plantation forest industry can make to Australias emissions trading scheme. CEO of industry body A3P, Mr Neil Fisher said, The plantation forest industry can make a positive contribution to meeting Australia's climate change objectives provided our emissions trading scheme is developed appropriately.
Country rankings for environmental performance released
Switzerland tops the global list of countries ranked by environmental performance according to the 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by a team of environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University. The 2008 EPI, released at the World Economic Forum in Davos ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories:
Public in danger in working Queensland forests
Despite Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Mulherin agreeing to a visitor risk assessment, the Government has continued to promote visitor access. As feared, an incident in early January could easily have ended tragically when a member of the public entered a harvesting site in the Beerburrum plantation forest and walked up to a harvesting machine. If the machine operator had not been observant the person could have easily been killed or seriously injured. Timber Queensland CEO Rod McInnes said "enough is enough - our forest harvesting operators abide by a code of harvesting practice to ensure safety - appropriate safety and high-visibility clothing with constant radio communication between harvesters and haulers. It's not good enough for the Government to turn a blind eye to members of the public stumbling about our workplace". "A return to the access permit system and ceasing promotion of visitor access to working forests is required before someone is killed. There are plenty of pristine native forests now not logged by industry for visitor access and recreation", Rod McInnes concluded. Despite being advised of this incident, shareholding Ministers in the Government owned plantation forestry company - Forestry Plantations Queensland have not responded to industry's concern.
US$2.25 billion loss in forestry sector caused by weather
Disastrous winter weather has caused 16.2 billion yuan (2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in losses for China's forestry sector, Cao Qingyao, State Forestry Administration (SFA) spokesman, said. By 31 January, 2.49 million forest workers and residents of 14 provinces and regions had been affected. Some 120,000 houses were wrecked or had collapsed, he said. The weather also damaged 5.46 million hectares of bamboo, 5.18 million ha of forest and 36,700 ha of seedlings. Last week, the Ministry of Finance earmarked over US$4 billion for these disaster-stricken areas.
New radiation technology removes water from biomass
The energy potential of biomass can be dramatically increased with a new technology that removes all of the water from woody biomass, according to developer Swiss Group of Companies in Brazil. Employing electromagnetic radiation, the technology reportedly removes the water without having to carbonize the wood, as would occur when drying biomass in a high temperature furnace. At the same time, the process energizes the biomass with higher calorific power.
Jobs
Used Equipment
Buy and Sell
...and one to end the week on...Dad at the mall
Now this is one I can relate to. And on that note, have a great weekend. Cheers. We welcome comments and contributions on Friday Offcuts. For details on advertising for positions within the forest products industry or for products and services, either within the weekly newsletter or on this web page, please contact us.
Copyright 2004-2010 © Innovatek Ltd. All rights reserved
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
