Author: BlueSugar

The wildfires in Canada are devastating, with smoke billowing southward and covering much of the United States. Approximately 25% of the softwood lumber used in the United States comes from Canadian forests. As beetle kill has decimated the forests of the west, more softwood lumber is burning on the stump. Canadian production has been on the decline for the last decade and is projected to continue to do so for decades. With the vast demand in the US, where will this supply come from?
Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/will-wildfires-have-an-impact-on-canada-s-lumber-industry-1.1933131

Currently, it takes years for state-managed land to get approval for logging. Legislation winding through could shorten that time to days in the most extreme cases. Proponents say that the bill will alleviate fire danger and revitalize its ailing logging industry. Opponents are concerned that lacking specificity gives the Department of Natural Resources too much discretion to decide which forests can be speedily sold and cut.

Source: https://alaskabeacon.com/2023/04/26/house-passed-bill-would-trim-the-time-needed-for-alaska-loggers-to-cut-state-owned-forests/

Located about an hour north of Green Bay, WI, the Menominee tribe has sustainably logged its forest in Wisconsin since 1854. Most of that was white pine, red oak, aspen, hemlock, and hard maple. Despite the over 200 million board feet of lumber harvested since then, the forest has more trees on the same acreage than it did when harvesting started, with some trees over 200 years old.

That careful balance was done by putting the forest first and profits as a by-product of healthy forest management. A crisis is emerging, though. There are too many trees and not enough loggers. With aging equipment and a labor shortage – the mill is only producing around 9-12 million board feet a year with sustainable harvesting goals between 22 and 25 million. The unharvested trees create dangers to the forest as trees age and die. These dead and dying trees will be home to disease and pests. Furthermore, the density of the forest will increase – creating an environment that invites invasive diseases and pests and making the forest less resilient to wildfires.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/climate/menominee-forest-sustainable-earth-day.html

According to researcher Michael A. Gayed, lumber prices give insight into economic downturns. It directly affects the housing market and the housing market the broader economy. And right now, lumber is looking pretty dismal.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/housing-market-crash-alert-why-investors-should-pay-close-attention-to-lumber-prices/ar-AA1aNHcB

See-through plastic? Hard to believe but it’s right around the corner. Resolute Forest Products is nearing the completion of its new plant at Kénogami, Quebec, Canada. This plant will allow Resolute to manufacture cellulose filaments, a translucent film that can be disposed of in the same recycling stream. Just toss it in with your existing cardboard or paper.
Source: https://www.paperage.com/2023news/04-04-2023resolute-new-cellulose-filaments-plant.html

Paper Excellence is (on paper) a Canadian company. They’ve aggressively purchased other companies to become Canada’s biggest pulp producer and one of its biggest lumber suppliers. But who are they, really?

Investigative reporters from over 40 media outlets looked under the covers for months and found that Paper Excellence has tight ties to Indonesian-owned Asia Pulp & Paper, owned by the Chinese Wijaya family. Its CEO Jackson Wijaya founded the company and bought up Canadian pulp, lumber, and paper mills to become the dominant force – 50% larger than its closest rival Canfor. Part of the money from those acquisitions came from the Chinese Communist Party-owned China Development Bank.

By itself, this isn’t a concern but the ties to APP and the China Development Bank require additional scrutiny. APP is part of the Sinar Mas conglomerate and the Sinar Mars group has been long criticized for tropical rainforest clearing, peatland destruction, and “extensive ties” to companies linked to fires and deforestation in Indonesia. This led to APP losing its certification with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Paper Excellence claims there are no ties but it operated with APP on everything from regulatory submissions to supply and pricing. If they’re just a subsidiary of APP then they could lose their FSC certification.

The Chinese Development Bank is the only mortgage they’ve ever done in British Columbia and is one of the first organizations China uses when it wants to enter a market and acquire resources in another country. Companies owned by foreign interests with Chinese partners could decide to export their production to China and Indonesia. It would be ridiculous for natural-resource-rich Canada to import pulp to make paper – but that could be what happens if their pulp is sent overseas.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/paper-excellence-pulp-china-1.6772654

3D printing is an exciting development. Being able to print projects with less machining is inherently more efficient. However, different materials have varying mechanical properties making it difficult to make them perform well in varying conditions.
One potential solution is the use of a cellulose nanofiber plate (CNFP), which has high specific strength, impact toughness, and low thermal expansion. This is superior to typical polymers, metals, and ceramics. And it could be relatively low cost.
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1114

I admit I didn’t know much about biochar until recently. You create biochar when burning wood (and other plants) in low-oxygen environments. So what do you do with it? That’s where it gets exciting. The answer is a lot, and it still traps carbon while it’s doing it.

You can mix it in with concrete. You can use it in plastics. You can create a strong industrial composite material from it. You can make ink from it. You can make coffee cup lids. You can use it as a soil amendment. You can use the gas by-product from making biochar in the same way as natural gas.
Source: https://www.rit.edu/sustainabilityinstitute/blog/what-biochar-and-how-it-made

As the disastrous duo of low lumber prices and lack of affordable fiber hammer the wood industry in B.C., we’re seeing additional mill closures on the horizon. Canfor plans to permanently shut down their Prince George pulp line. Canfor will also close its mills in Chetwyndand and Houston. Speculated for permanent closure are Canfor’s Taylor mill, and one of West Frasier’s pulp mills in Quesnel.

B.C. invested heavily in pellet production in the wake of the pine beetle infestation in 2009. With that ready source of fiber gone, pellet mills are competing with pulp mills and sawmills. Pellet mills don’t require as many jobs but consume a large amount of wood.
Source: https://biv.com/article/2023/02/more-mill-closures-inevitable-bc-forest-industry-crisis-deepens

As the Dubai WoodShow is just around the corner March 7-9, 2023 – hardwood lumber companies are gearing up for what will hopefully be another banner year of exports to the Middle East. Total exports of US hardwood lumber and veneer to the Middle East and North Africa region increased by 11% last year.

Source: https://tradearabia.com/news/CONS_406347.html