Friday Offcuts – 5 March 2010
With the mopping up of the forestry fire in the lower South Island this week by ground crews, there are two stories this week relating to fire; the first highlights issues facing forest owners under the Emissions Trading Scheme where if registered, losses like those that occurred last week will mean the forest owner would be liable for any loss of carbon. Forests lost through fire would be treated exactly the same as those lost through harvesting. The second story is more contentious, with an article from the most recent issue of the Australasian Science magazine claiming that logging operations are increasing the risk of fire in forests. There are also several stories in this week's issue looking at Bio-energy - again. In one we highlight a world first with the UK Government looking at the first Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) programme which is going to pay people for the heat they generate themselves. Scheduled to start in April 2011 it's going to have a huge impact on the use of Bio-fuels for energy. There's also been a bit of debate relating to Bio-energy in the Letters to the Editor recently. Finally, in the lead story this week we've covered the selection by a major forestry company of a forestry transportation management solution. It's been chosen to improve efficiencicies within the wood supply chain. This particular technology along with other transport management systems that are being employed in New Zealand, Australia and offshore by leading forest products companies will all be part of the upcoming Wood Supply Chain Optimisation 2010 series which runs in both Australia and New Zealand in late May. Interest is already very high so check out the Australasian programme. Subscribe a friend
This week we have for you:
Hancock Timber selects transportation system
"We are extremely pleased to have Hancock Timber Resource Group as a client and to provide them with the benefits of our Blue Ox System," said Matt Linderman, area manager for Trimble's Forestry Automation Business. "Many of the inefficiencies along the supply chain are caused by a lack of information. The Blue Ox system collects and processes that information in real time, recommending actions that can reduce or eliminate the bottlenecks that waste time and fuel. The result is more efficient use of capital assets, accomplished by reducing the amount of time trucks spend travelling empty and waiting to be loaded or unloaded." "For truck owners, this can mean savings in fuel, maintenance, and truck replacement costs, which could allow them to lower their price to landowners for their services. Loggers also benefit from a more efficient distribution of trucks to all cut sites, reducing the potential for disruption in the flow of wood to the mills." "Transporting logs from the harvest site to the mill can represent nearly half of the total cost of forest products processing," said Hugh McManus, general manager for Hancock Timber's South Central Division. "With the implementation of these innovative transportation technologies across our forestry operations in Western Louisiana, East Texas and Arkansas, Hancock Timber expects to increase supply chain efficiencies and reduce costs - to the benefit of our clients." Trimble's Blue Ox system applies rugged mobile computing, Global Positioning System (GPS) and wireless communications to the forest products and logging transportation industry. The Trimble system along with other transport management systems being employed in New Zealand, Australia and offshore by leading forest products companies will be presented as part of the upcoming Wood Supply Chain Optimisation 2010 series which runs in both countries in late May. Full details of the series, including programmes can be downloaded from www.woodsupplychain.com
Up to 8% of global pulp could be affected by earthquakeThe devastating earthquake that struck Chile on 27 February could have a "huge" impact on the market pulp industry, wrote Credit Suisse paper and forest products industry analyst Chip Dillon in a research note. Hard-hit Concepci
Gunns to build on timber operations
Gunns in their six monthly update to investors on 22 February said that they'll be building on the merged Gunns, Auspine and ITC sawmilling operations and participating in future consolidation opportunities. The hardwood timber business of ITC Timber Pty Ltd which was acquired in December 2009 for AU$88.5 million is the company said providing highly complementary milling and processing operations in Victoria, a strategically important location for Gunns.
Strong rebound in China from short downturn in 2009
The balance required, or the supply gap (i.e., the volume of imports required), could reach 150 million m3 RWE. This represents a substantial five-year increase in China's RWE consumption from the 245 million m3 projected for 2010; the supply gap is projected to grow from 95 million m3 (RWE) in 2010 to 150 million m3 (RWE) in 2015. The impact of the global economic recession negatively affected China's finished wood product exports (and imports) in 2008/09, but the government took swift action in late 2008 to stimulate domestic demand by implementing a US$730 billion stimulus package that includes policies to reduce taxes and loan interest rates for residential purchases by around 30%. As a result, 2009 statistics from the State Forest Administration (SFA) indicate that Chinese forest industry production value grew by 9.8% versus 2008; total forest products trade (imports plus exports) decreased by 4.9% as imports decreased by 15%. Russell Taylor, President of International Wood Markets Group outlined in the Future Forestry Finance events run in Sydney earlier in the week - and in Auckland today - a detailed analysis of both the Chinese and Russian economies, markets and timberland and forest lands investments and the impact that these changes are going to have on this part of the world. For those unable to get to either event, limited copies of the event proceedings can still be obtained by returning to us the attached order form. Source:International Wood Markets Group, www.woodmarkets.com
Forest logging creates fire traps
"Much discussion focuses on how to best protect human lives and built assets," Prof Lindenmayer writes. "But management also needs to counter the effects of past forestry activities on fire regimes." A prominent question is how much fuel or hazard reduction burning is needed to reduce risk. However, widespread fuel reduction burning is not an option in Australia's moist forests and rainforests as they are generally too wet to burn in a controlled manner. Conversely, past forest management, particularly logging operations, may have significantly increased the fire risk. "Research in tropical rainforests suggests that logging reduces the number of dry days needed to make a forest combustible from 30 to less than 8 days. Logging also alters the density and spatial pattern of trees, the spacing between crowns, and other forest attributes in ways that increase their susceptibility to fire. In moist forests in south-eastern Australia, logging has shifted the vegetation toward a composition that is more characteristic of drier forests that tend to be more fire-prone." "Clearfelling of moist forests in southern Australia has produced dense stands of regrowth saplings, thereby creating more available fuel than if the forest was not clearfelled. Furthermore, debris from logging can also sustain fires longer than fuels in uncut forest, while roads required for logging increase the number of ignition points for wildfires and lightning strikes are more likely in logged areas due to logging slash." Prof Lindenmayer concludes that fire management "will become increasingly important with rapid climate change," and advocates "creating extensive buffer areas that exclude logging near human settlements within landscapes dominated by moist forest [and] from areas where human disturbances (like timber harvesting) have been limited, such as the old growth wet forests in Tasmania and eastern Victoria." Source: Australasian Science Magazine
Search for forestry and wood products top performers
The time is now to nominate the best and the brightest of the New Zealand forest and wood industry in the annual FITEC National Training Awards. Nominations are now open and companies have until the end of May to put forward their outstanding candidates including Modern Apprentice of the Year, Trainee of the Year and Training Company of the Year.
Forest Enterprises still talking to its bankers
Last weekend Forest Enterprises Australia was locked in negotiations with its bankers in a bid to resolve issues relating to its loan facilities. The future of the company has been reported as a consequence to be in doubt.
Transforming Canada's Forestry industry with Bioenergy
Given the abundance of Canada's forest resource, the number of new technologies on the cusp of commercialization and Canada's global leadership in sustainable forestry, Canada has the potential to become a bio-energy, and bio-product powerhouse. Gathering the facts to confirm this potential was one of the main reasons FPAC undertook the Future Bio-pathways Project. The association purposely set out to examine the various new bio-technologies being developed to determine which ones are feasible and hold the greatest promise for the forest products industry.
UK world first puts renewable heat target in reach
One of our UK readers who is working in Bioenergy in the UK recently sent in this story. The UK Government has just published detailed consultation proposals for the world's first Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which will pay people for the heat they generate themselves. The scheme, which is due to start in April 2011, will lead to a rapid increase in the number of homes and offices heated by wood fuel, biogas, solar thermal, heat pumps and waste-to-energy technologies.
Australian National Carpenters Day planned for 2010
Building up to the day are nominations for the Carpenter of the Year Award and Apprentice Carpenter of the Year Competition. Workmates, friends, family members and even carpenters themselves can enter right now on the website www.carpentersday.com.au with entries closing on 24 March. Wood. Naturally Better." is the major sponsor of National Carpenters Day and an impressive list of participants are lined up to support the day, including timber merchants, builders, TAFEs, industry bodies, trade publications and more.
Bloom box: An energy breakthrough?
Sick of your energy retailer cranking up prices and holding you to ransom? In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power-plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard or in your business.
Forest fires put Carbon Credits at risk
If it had, it would be liable for the carbon lost in the fire, according to Carbon News, the country's specialist news service on the carbon markets. Under the ETS, the destruction of trees through natural disaster is treated in the same way as harvesting - making the forest owner liable for the loss of carbon. That means that in the case of fire or wind damage, the forest owner would have to surrender as many credits as it had received for the forest lost. If, for example, a company had been receiving credits on 700ha of forest for 20 years it could be liable for some 500,000 tonnes of carbon - worth $10 million at a carbon price of $20 a tonne. Carbon News says the issue of how to protect forest owners from the cost of carbon loss through natural disaster is now being investigated. More >>
CSIRO announces yet another reorganisation
A3P in their recent issue of A3P Canopy have voiced their concern on the announcement of another reorganisation of the Forest Fibre Science group in CSIRO, with 28 possible redundancies. After regular "re-organisations" in recent years, concerns over capacity and staff morale have led industry to voice their view that CSIRO management lack commitment to the sector.
Foresters critical of recommendations to the NSW Government
Irreversible steps will then be taken to declare National Park over State forest and to enter into binding business exit arrangements with the timber industry. The NRC has recommended the transfer of the most productive regrowth red gum forests under management by Forests NSW into National Park and to cut supply of timber by almost 90%. The recommendation will see the end of a local but nationally significant timber industry that has a history dating back more than 150 years. Forest workers, harvesting and haulage contractors, sawmillers and retailers of specialised red gum timber as well as local Riverina communities will all be affected. The Institute of Foresters Australia (IFA) believes that the recommendations to create a large new National Park over the best areas of regrowth red gum forest near Deniliquin on the Murray River, managed for many decades by professional foresters for multiple-use, including conservation and timber production, is flawed and not justified or supported by the evidence collected during the assessment process. The IFA strongly recommends that the NSW Government considers alternative options to the one recommended by the NRC and to have a well rounded review group appointed to advise Government about the options available and what will be a lasting and acceptable outcome.
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...and one to end the week on...we do love blondes
A blonde finds herself in serious trouble. 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.
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