Trends in OSB

By Robert Fouquet Ainsworth Engineered

f HAVE been involved in the wood lproducts industry-and new product development in particular-since 1981. If you had asked me 25 years ago how oriented strand board would be used in the future, I never could have imagined the incredible possibilities that we're looking at today.

In looking at the trends now, it's helpful to first understand the historical significance of the product line to the North American building industry. The use of OSB is relatively new. Up until the early 1980s, OSB was essentially unknown to the trade. Builders were framing homes with dimension lumber, and were sheathing walls, roofs and floors with plywood. Some of you with long histories in the industry might remember when many tradesmen were still using lumber for roof, floor and wall sheathing.

By 2004, OSB had displaced much of the plywood market, representing nearly 60Vo of structural panels consumed in North America. In 2004. OSB represented 85Vo of walls sheathed with structural panels, and l5Va of roofs. Likewise, 65Vo of residential floors utilizing structural panels were constructed with OSB.

One of the key drivers for this product line expansion is the inherent lower manufacturing cost of OSB. This has afforded OSB manufacturers the ability to respond to market conditions with lower selling prices than plywood manufacturers ever could. While market share gains have consistently taken place since the arrival of OSB into the market place, I find it interesting that the significant jumps in market share were during the cyclical lows of structural panel prices.

Besides price, there are other rea- turn to next page)