Structural Panels Achieve Record Production

North American structural wood panel production increased SVo last year to a record 38.7 billion sq. ft.

I-joist output rose l2%o to 701.5 million linear ft.. while laminated veneer lumber production jumped l3Vo to 42.7 million cu. ft.

Due to decreased exports to Japan, glulam production slipped 3Vo to 306 million bd. ft.

During 1998, seven U.S. and Canadian structural wood panel mills began production, changed hands, or relocated, including: LouisianaPacific's new OSB mill in Carthage, Tx.; Grant Forest hoducts' Timmins,

Ontario, OSB plant acquired from Malette; Hardel Mutual Plywood Co.'s new Chehalis plywood facility; Freres Lumber's plywood mill #3 in Mill City, Or., bought from North Santiam Plywood Co.; McKenzie Forest Products' Eugene, Or., plywood facility purchased from Springfield Forest Products; Washington Veneer's Omak, Wa., plywood plant formerly operated by Omak Wood Products, and Rainier Veneer's former Hardel plywood plant in Graham, Wa.

Four facilities closed in 1998: LP's Corrigan, Tx., OSB plant; Plum Creek's Joyce, La., plywood mill;

Boise Cascade's Medford, Or. plywood facility, and Cantree Plywood Corp., New Westminster, B.C. industry production totaled 93Vo of capacity, with the ratio expected to fall this year to9lVo.

Virtual Store Gets Inventory

Housemart.com, Tulsa, Ok., now has what many other on-lines stores do not: inventory.

The business has struck a deal with Sutherlands, gaining instant access to about $50 million in building materials by using the chain's inventory and certain stores as shipping points.

"Housemart.com will be able to focus on exceptional customer service and refining the on-line store without spending a great deal of time worrying about vendors and products," said Chris Sutherland, Jr., ceo of Housemart.com. "We are essentially leveraging 80 years of building material know-how to use on the Internet."

The agreement turns a group of Sutherlands' retail stores over to Housemart.com from l0 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week. The company address is www.housemart.com.

Reload Changes Hands

Construction Materials Inc. Northwest, Portland, Or., has assumed operations at Taylor Lumber Services' Grand Terrace, Ca., custom reload facility, according to TLS principal Terry Wesseln.

Existing TLS customers will not be affected by the change.

CMI will continue the facility's function as an independent custom handling service with John Reger in Portland as general manager and Wesseln the on-site interim operations manager,

Wholesale Confidence Rises

Wholesale-distributors' confidence in current business conditions decreased on a short-term basis but increased for the long term, according to a recent Arthur Andersen survey.

Confidence in company prospects for the current quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 1998 slipped from 120.0 to 115.6. The index operates on a base of 100. recorded in the second quarter of 1991.

Confidence for the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months rose from 107.4 to 107.9.

Anderson Buys Montana Yard

Anderson Lumber Co., Ogden, Ut., has agreed to buy the assets of Try-City Lumber Inc., Kalispell, Mt., from Brent Hall and John Hammett.

The purchase of the 23-year-old yard provides Anderson with its 34th yard, but first in western Montana, where it hopes to add several others.

Northwest Straw Board Plant

Rayonier's shuttered remanufacturing plant in Plummer, Id., is expected to reopen this summer under new ownership and producing a new product: straw board.

Joint venture partners have formed Pacific Northwest Fiber to buy the 46,000-sq. ft. mill as well as $5 million in equipment from an Australian company, and should begin turning straw residue into PacificBoard by July l, says interim general manager Dave Bauermeister.

Partners include Prairie Forest Products Inc., which makes particleboard from wheat stubble at its plant in Hutchinson, Ks., and Seeds Inc., a privately held Tekoa, Wa.-based corporation formed by farmers 27 years ago to clean and market Kentuckv bluegrass seed.

The new facility will use straw residues from 25,000 acres of bluegrass and wheat fields in five ldaho and Washington counties. The residues, which are illegal to bum in Washington but not in ldaho, are combined with resins and pressed into particleboard for use in furniture and interior construction.

for disposing of tons of straw residues.