Challenges For Engineered Building Components

(Continued from page l0) building materials.

Over the last five years, U.S. production of trusses increased, on average, SVo a year; trusses and prefabricated panels rose 9Vo, and EWP, 3.87o.

Ln2002,1,690 U.S. firms produced trusses and/or prefab panels at over 1,800 locations, primarily small businesses serving local markets. Comparatively, EWP are made by just 38 U.S. companies, and more than a third are large corporations that produce multiple products. The majority produce only glulams.

Due to consolidation and an increasing number of producers, the market share of the three largest EWP producers (Weyerhaeuser' s TrusJoist division, Louisiana-Pacific and Boise) reportedly fell from 837o rn 1991 to 74Vo in2OO2.

From 1997 to 2002, employment rose 7Vo in the EWP industry and 237o in the truss industry.

In 2001, about three-fourths of EWP and trusses were sold for residential, rather than commerical, appli- cations.

Truss manufacturers did benefit from declining prices of lumber, their largest expense.

Most of the trusses were used for roofs:97o were for floors. Wall and floor panels increased from 5Vo to ll%o. I-joists accounted for roughly half of U.S. EWP production, laminated veneer lumber for 20-297o. and glulams for 26-34Vo.

Canada's shipments of wood structural building components increased during the study period. More than 90Vo of Canadian exports of structural components go to the U.S., with most of the remainder going to Japan. Employment at Canadian component manufacturing plants rose 9 .5Vo.

Of the roughly 300 wood truss plants in Canada, two-thirds are in British Columbia and the majority are small, family-owned, single-site facilities. Nearly all roof trusses made in Canada are made-to-order for accounts in the U.S.

Fewer but primarily larger companies produce EWP in Canada, although several are Canadian divisions of U.S. corporations. The study identified nine producers of glulam, three of LVL, and 14 of I-joists. The largest is Weyerhaeuser.

Canadian glulam production increased 67Vo, l-joist output more than doubled, and LVL production more than quadrupled during the five year period.

Still, Canadian EWP production is a fraction of the U.S.'s. The U.S. produces l0 times more glulams, l0 times more LVL. and four times more I-joists than Canada.

Nevertheless. the EWP sector experienced more than its share of consolidation, investment, capacity growth and new entrants during the study period. Capacity was increased through improving equipment, expanding existing facilities, building new plants, and converting traditional lumber capacity to EWP-outstripping the increases in production as well as demand.

The study found technology, modernization of equipment, skill levels and labor costs to be similar in the U.S. and Canada. Canadian shippers did enjoy a competitive advantage from the 7.8Vo averuge depreciation of the Canadian dollar.