Friday Offcuts – 20 January 2012
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It's been a wonderful Christmas and New-Year holiday for all of us here at Friday Offcuts. We hope it was for you too. Tasmanian forestry again has dominated the news for our first week back.
Unfortunately, Gunns share price dropped to an all-time low in the last couple of weeks. Much more positive though was the signing of an interim Conservation Agreement last Friday by the Tasmanian and Australian Governments and Forestry Tasmania. It’s been being touted as another major milestone for Tasmania’s forestry industry and follows more than 18 months of fairly heated and protracted talks between green and industry groups.
The Agreement is finally going to provide some certainty to Forestry Tasmania, its contractors and the forestry industry. In the mean time, the independent verification of ENGO proposed high conservation value forests continues under the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement continues. It should in large part also provide conservationists what they were after. High conservation value forests are being preserved with more than 99.5 per cent of the 430,000 hectares identified for interim protection. Only a very small area of native forest in the 430,000 ha is going to be harvested, about 1950 hectares or less than 0.5 per cent of the nominated area, to meet existing contracts.
At the start of 2012 we’ve highlighted a new programme of technology events (see story below) that are being worked on with forestry and wood products companies for the upcoming year. A number of you have been involved in their design and will be participating - so mark the dates into your diaries. Four have been identified, with a couple of others in the pipeline just at the moment.
Of immediate interest, as evidenced by the amount of interest being generated by the programmes just sent out, is the Future Forestry Finance 2012 series running in Auckland and again in Sydney in March – less than two months away. The programme, as it did in 2010, is providing a unique platform for forestry and financial business leaders to get together to discuss investment and growth opportunities for the sector. A range of special rates for registrations this year have been set up. Further details on both programmes are available on www.forestryfinanceevents.com
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Technology events scheduled for 2012
Building on the successes and feedback from the FIEA run tech events last year, a wide cross section of forestry, wood products and finance businesses have been putting their heads together for 2012.
They’ve been identifying programmes under the current environment that are of immediate interest to the forest products sector - technologies suited to the local wood resource that will lift performance and operating efficiencies.
Start the year by marking some of these dates into your planners or diaries. At this stage, we have four events planned. We’re also currently working on two more with local industry which will be profiled shortly and some exciting new initiatives for Australasian forestry and wood products companies in 2012. Likewise, these will be launched in the next few months.
To start with, programmes being planned for 2012 include;
• Future Forestry Finance 2012; 7-8 March 2012, Auckland, 13-14 March 2012, Sydney (www.forestryfinanceevents.com)
• Wood Preservation 2012; 16-17 May 2012, Rotorua, 23-24 May 2012, Melbourne (www.woodpreservationevents.com)
• Carbon Forestry 2012: 22-23 August, Auckland (www.carbonforestryevents.com)
• Wood Innovations 2012; 10-11 October 2012, Melbourne, 16-17 October, Rotorua (www.woodinnovationsevents.com)
If you would like additional information on any of the planned events, you’d like to look at the option of presenting or being involved in displaying your company’s products or services, please make contact with either of our two FIEA offices.
Global wood pellet production exceeds consumption
During the last two years, global wood pellet production increased from about nine million tonnes to some 15–16 million tonnes, while apparent consumption expanded from about nine million to 13 million tonnes.
In 2010, estimated global wood pellet production exceeded estimated consumption by about two to three million tonnes, while global pellet production capacity exceeded consumption by around seven to eight million tonnes (including new production facilities under construction but not operating).
Excess production capacity has meant that, on a global average, pellet mills have operated at only about 62%–65% of capacity. Of course, mill closures and production curtailments have not been experienced equally by all producing countries. Central Europe (Germany and Austria) has been especially hard hit during the last few years.
In 2009, it was estimated that actual European pellet production equaled about 60% of production capacity — of which Germany was the hardest hit, operating at only 54% of capacity. Incredibly, even with all this excess pellet production capacity and recent pellet mill closures and curtailments, new production plants in Europe still emerged at about one-half of the global expansion rate, moving from about 8.3 million tonnes to 10.1 million tonnes of capacity between 2008 and 2010 (+10.8% per year).
North American production capacity grew from about 4.2 million tonnes in 2008 to about 6.7 million tonnes in 2010 (+30%/year) — almost triple the growth rate of European production capacity. Canadian capacity grew from 2.1 million tonnes in 2008 to about three million tonnes in 2010 (+21%/year), while U.S. capacity increased from about 1.75 million tonnes to ~3.7 million tonnes (+55%/year) in 2010.
Source: International Wood Markets Group, www.woodmarkets.com
Forestry and finance sectors meet in March 2012
In early March this year the Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) is running the industry’s biennial conference series Future Forestry Finance 2102. The event provides the platform for the forestry and finance industries to get together, on both sides of the Tasman. The 2010 event was instrumental in building networks between these two groups and it’s expected that the March 2012 series is going to be just as valuable.
This year's programme has been designed with input from a wide cross section of leading forestry, banking, accounting, investment and other business services companies and most major industry associations. Both the Sydney and Auckland programmes are now available and can be viewed on-line at www.forestryfinanceevents.com.
Several special discounted offers on registrations this year have also been made available. In addition to early bird rates which close in just two weeks’ time, group discount rates and a special two-for-one discount off advertised conference rates have been set up. Registrations received before the Early Bird deadline also go into a special prize draw – the prize being an annual subscription to: INTERNATIONAL WOOD MARKETS “Monthly International Report” or “Monthly China Report” (both valued at approximately $500)
Future Forestry Finance 2012 runs in Rotorua on 7-8 March and again in Sydney on 13-14 March 2012.
Sony demos paper-fuelled battery
Sony recently showed off a new bio-cell battery that breaks down paper in order to create power. This novel use of paper has the potential to change how we power devices in the future.
The process starts with an enzyme suspended in water. When paper is dropped in, the enzyme starts to break it down and produce glucose that can then be harvested and used to power a battery. Sony described the break down process as similar to how a termite might eat and break down wood.
Sony showed the battery off at Tokyo's Eco-Products 2011 exhibition and managed to get the tech to power a small fan. Still in the early stages of development, the idea is that the technology could ultimately be used as a greener source of power for larger devices.
For full details on the story and link to the study, check out the latest R&D Works Newsletter
Tasmanian Conservation Agreement signed
The Gillard government has announced interim legal protection for 428,000 ha of Tasmania's forests, but has been accused of reneging on a deal to deliver a larger logging ban.
Federal and state governments said the conservation agreement which was signed on Friday last week, for 428,000 hectares of public forests, was a landmark on the way to final settlement. However, the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania strongly criticised the deal, which leaves about 2000 hectares of forests, still hotly disputed for their high conservation values, open to logging in coming weeks.
Under the intergovernmental agreement (IGA), existing contracts must be honoured and while an independent investigation was held to see whether they could be rescheduled, it ultimately found they could not. The Conservation Agreement confirms that harvesting in a number of coupes within the 430,000 hectares will be required during the independent verification process, if Forestry Tasmania is to continue to honour its legally enforceable wood supply agreements.
Acting Premier Bryan Green said the Government does not want to shut the industry down. The conservation agreement will provide interim protection for the forests until the areas designated for permanent protection are determined. Professor Jonathan West and the independent verification group are expected to complete their work next month and legislation is due before Parliament by the end of June.
The interim Conservation Agreement and the reports of the independent expert forestry schedulers are available: here
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