Tariffs Hammer Imported Nails

After six months of investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties on imports of certain steel nails from China and the United Arab Emirates. Duties on imported nails from certain Chinese companies will be applied 90 days retroactively.

"Hopefully, fair pricing will return to the marketplace," said David Libla, president of Mid Continent Nail. "We look forward to continuing to prove our case before the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission, and obtaining a successful outcome for our company and the rest of the U.S. nails industry."

The investigations began in May 2001 at the request of Mid Continent Nail. Davis Wire. Gerdau Ameristeel (Atlas Steel & Wire Division), Maze Nails (Division of W.H. Maze), Treasure Coast Fasteners, and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union.

The investigation covered multiple types of nails, up to 12 inches long, produced from all types of steel. They were sold in bulk or collated for use in nail guns, and could be treated for corrosion resistance. Certain types of nails, including roofing nails, were not covered.

According to the Commerce Department, certain Chinese producers/exporters sold steel nails in the U.S. at 20.71Vo to 118.04Eo less than fair value, while those from UAE sold at 4.47Vo less.

"Price discrimination hurts American manufacturers," said David Spooner, assistant secretary for import administration. "The Administration is committed to aggressively enforcing America's trade remedy laws in order to achieve strong and fair relationships with our trading partners."

The Commerce Department's final determinations are exoected in late May.

Depot Moves Night To Day

In another effort to improve customer service, Home Depot will shift overnight crews to day shifts at lowervolume stores.

Freight receiving and stocking were switched to overnight hours several years ago. The change will put more employees on the floor during operating hours, without raising costs.

Also to be changed is the way products are ordered, said executive v.p. Paul Raines.

DMSi Moves For The Future

DMSi Software has relocated its headquarters to a new, larger facility in Omaha, Ne.

The move expands DMSi's space from 14,000 to 25,000 sq. ft., providing ample room for future expansion.

"We are one of the few remaining independent, owner-operated software firms that exclusively serve the building products industry," said president Cal German. "The independent, customer-focused culture of our company fits the building and forest products industry to a 'T' and our steadfast commitment to remaining that way contributed to the growth prompting this move to improved facilities."

DMSi's new address is more convenient for SOVo of its professional team members and offers an attractive location and environment for recruiting and retaining top talent.

Fiber Cement Firms Combine

Mexico's Mexalit Industrial S.A., the parent of fiber cement siding producer Maxitile Inc., Carson, Ca., has acquired The Plycem Co. from GrupoNuevo.

Plycem produces fiber cement siding, roofing, trim, decking and flooring substrates at plants in Honduras, Costa Rica. and El Salvador.

GrupoNuevo retains its Masisa solid wood business. "This transaction benefits all stakeholders," said c.o.o./c.f.o. Carlos Marin. "While The Plycem Co. becomes part of a group specialized in the construction business with greater opportunities for growth, GrupoNuevo will concentrate on the expansion of its forest and board business."

LP Expands Down South

Louisiana Pacific, Nashville, Tn., has agreed to buy al5vo stake in a Brazilian OSB mill owned by Masisa SA, Santiago, Chile.

"The Brazilian assets will help us continue to satisfy the growing need for structural panels in South America to support much needed affordable housing in the region," Rick Olszewski, president, LP South America, said.

Located in Ponta Grossa, the fiveyear-old mill is reportedly worth $75 million and has annual capacity of a million sq. ft. LP said the deal contains a mechanism for taking complete ownership of the mill.

The company already operates an OSB and siding mill in Chile, and is scheduled to open a second mill in that country in the first quarter of 2008. It also plans to relocate its mill in Woodland, Me., to a new location in South America.

Ace Rethinks Finance

Ace Hardware, Oak Brook, Il., fired a mid-level employee in the corporate finance department whose mistakes led to a $152 million accounting enor. The company will also institute accounting changes.

"We did not provide the training, oversight, or checks and balances to help that person do his or her job," said c.e.o. Ray Griffith. "The employee's only intent was to try to do the best job for the boss and for our company." He added that the eight-year employee did nothing fraudulent and no inventory or money is missing.

Other employees have been reassigned, but "no one else has been let go," said Griffith. However, Ron Knutson, vice president of finance, resigned in early December.

The accounting error was revealed last summer just as Ace's board announced it wanted to transform the co-op into a for-profit corporation. to better compete with its big-box retail competitors. "We have some more work and challenges to do before we revisit that," said Griffith.

He said that part of the problem is the increasingly complex and competitive situation that hardware stores face. "We started importing a lot more product from the Orient and from Asia. That importing caused some complications that didn't exist l0 years before. We relied on systems that, in hindsight, should have been upgraded and advanced to address those issues."

The company has already implemented checks and balances to prevent a similar mistake and will hire a new chief financial officer and "other talent," bring in more resources, and provide training and oversight to ensure the situation isn't repeated. The co-op will also upgrade its computer systems and expand its internal audit department, said Griffith.

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Do It Best IntroducesCredit Card

Do it Best Corp. is rolling out a new private label credit card program for its dealer members.

The new Do it Best credit card will provide such features as 90-days and six-months, "same-as-cash" extended payment terms.

The 4,1O0-member, Fort Wayne, In.-based co-op enlisted Shoppers Charge Accounts Co. to develop and administer the program.

The Bank Of Home Depot?

Home Depot has hired a Washington, D.C., lobbying group to persuade the federal government to allow the chain to open in-store banks.

Home Depot has long sought permission to operate industrial-loan companies (ILCs), which are federally insured institutions operated by non-financial companies that can issue credit cards, make loans, and take deposits.

Depot has said that the in-store banks would only offer home-improvement loans directly to consumers. Critics believe that ILCs would stifle competition and hurt consumers, while supporters say they could help reduce fees and costs for consumers.

Last May, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill prohibiting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from granting new ILC charters to commercial companies such as Depot.

The Senate has introduced similar legislation.

Forestland Keeps Growing

Forestland in the U.S. is just as abundant today as it was 100 years ago, according to a new study by the USDA Forest Service.

Among the findings: northern U.S. has increased Pennsylvania and North Forestland in Massachusetts and New York has increased over70Vo. lnstallation is ligf itning-f:rst \\.hen using our patent-pending Uni-ballr! c()nncctor ilrrcl sptcc ii,rlly-dcsignecl btircket har.lu'are. Siniply filstcn ir rclics,rf Ur-ri-bail c()nnect()rs to the frc-clrilled r-rpper and lou,er ri,rils, thcn place balLrsters ()\'er rhem. This cor-u-icctor is tn-riversally uscd on botl-r lcvel and stair instrrllations.

. There are 750 million acres of forestland in the U.S. today, about the same as in 1907.

Eleven states had increases of over 257o over the last centurv: nine had increases ofover 307o.

. Overall. forestland in the by almost 30%.

. Forestland in Vermont, Dakota has almost doubled.

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Ace Opening Simulated Store

Ace Hardware Corp., Oak Brook, Il., will open a new training center in Woodridge, Il.

Ace will lease 57,600 sq. ft. of a 254,000-sq. ft. building, transforming up to 48,000 sq. ft. into a simulated store with a rental department. The training space will help in the co-op's "ability to train their employees... and the ability in the future to do rentals," said Wanen Seil, v.p., Morgan/Harbor Construction.

The remaining 9,000 sq. ft. will be used for offices and corporate storage.

Ganfor Keeps Cutting Back

Canfor, Vancouver, B.C., will indefinitely close its OSB mill and plywood mill in Fort Nelson, B.C., when log inventories are depleted and all products have been shipped.

"My company is bleeding cash with every board we produce," said president Jim Shepard. "You can appreciate that this can't go on. We face today a severe cyclical downtum brought about by the very questionable mortgage financing activity in the U.S. that is exaggerated by a muchlonger structural shift with the Canadian dollar at or near par."

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The company's 42-year-old Polarboard OSB mill is expected to close this summer. An April closure is expected for the Tackama plywood plant.

Although the B.C. premier sympathized, he said that the government would not get involved. "Frankly, the challenge is too big for the government to step in and fix," said Gordon Campbell. "This is a seismic shift in what's taking place in the world. It is having an impact on the U.S. and it is having an impact on us."

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The Merchant welcomes letters to the editor. Please direct comments to dkoenig@building-products.com, Fax 949-852-023 1, or Editor, Merchant Magazine,4500 Campus Dr., Ste.480, Newport Beach, Ca.92660.

Frnn Sronvr oF CoNTRovERsY

On October 2l, 2007 , 60 Minutes aired a segment titled "The Age of the MegaFire." In it, they pointed out a fact that may be astonishing to anyone under 35 years of age. Large-scale, uncontrollable wildfires are enviromental hazards that did not exist until the 1980s.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

"Why are there more of these fires? Turns out the forest service is partly to blame with a policy it started 100 years ago. The policy was to put out all fires immediately. 'Because we so successfully fought fire and eliminated fire from this ecosystem for 100 years, because we thought that was the right thing to do, we've allowed a huge buildup of fuel in these woods. So now, when the fires get going, there's a lot more to bum than historically you would've seen in a forest like this,' Tom Boatner (chief of fire operations for the federal government) explains. 'Is it possible that we're gonna get to the point where we have these mega-fires and we just can't fight them because they're too large? Well, we're there already. We have identified numerous fires this summer that we know we can't put out with the resources we have available, because of the severity of the burning conditions and the size of the fires,' Boatner explains."

To those of us in the lumber industry, it's obvious that the refusal to allow responsible timber harvesting has also contributed to this situation. If society doesn't want industry to utilize our forest resources, Mother Nature will, on her own tenns.

Steve Ondich

Atlas Lumber Co. Chino, Ca. (909\ 59r-9442 steve@ atlaslumber.com

Tnn Wnoxc LOSP

I would like to respond to the trim board article in your January edition written by Dennis Connelly ("Selecring the Right Trim Board," p. I7).The article implies that the LOSP (light organic solvent preservative) treated products coming into the U.S. from New Zealand are potentially dangerous, and he further invites readers to research some newsDa- per articles that appeared in the New Zealand press in 2007.

The reality is that the LOSP treated trim and siding products coming into the U.S. market are indeed safe, and the treatment itself and the end-use applications are quite different from those that have caused issues in New Zealand:

(l) The N.Z. framing market has been using a tin-based LOSP, which incorporates tri-butyl tin oxide, which is a skin irritant. The LOSP products coming in to the U.S. market are treated with azolebased LOSP, which is organic and approved for use by the EPA.

(2) Because the framing market does not require primed product, some treatment facilities in N.Z. have been shipping framing into the market as soon as one day after treatment, and therefore the white spirits that act as a carrier for the active ingredients has not had time to evaporate before the wood is delivered to the frame and truss plant.

Conversely, the LOSP treated trim and siding coming into the U.S. market is all factory pre-primed. Before priming, the manufacturer must wait approximately 12 to 14 days to allow the vast majority of the white spirit to evaporate; otherwise, the primer will not adhere to the wood.

So the recent issues in New Zealand are not relevant to the LOSP products coming into the U.S. market. We are unaware of any health and safety issues relating to the use of pre-primed, azole-based LOSP products. In New Zealand they also recognize the improved outcomes from using azole-based treatment, and accordingly from January 2008 the two largest framers have converted all their treatment from tin-based to azole-based.

Stuart Toakley Chief Executive Officer Bodyguard Wood Products Ltd New Zealand stuart@ bodv suardwood.com

Muur;us-FUNGUS CoNNECTToN?

I just recieved a check today from a commercial account of mine and noticed that the signature on the check lvas from William Payor. I immediately thought that the check must have come from Mungus-Fungus Forest Products. since I'm sure that their head of accounts payable is Bill Payor.

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