Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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February 2015

EACOM Timmins’ $30 million rebuild yields production increase Contractor Profile: Ontario’s Hec Clouthier & Sons

B.C.’s Hyde Sawmill: Timber/beam specialists High performing Hyundai wheel loaders at Fornebu Lumber

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FEATURES On the Cover: February 2015 Volume 46 • No. 1 Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton Tech Update Editor Tony Kryzanowski

Publisher Rob Stanhope E-mail: stanhope@forestnet.com Phone: (604) 990-9970 Fax: (604) 990-9971 Sales Associates James Booth (604) 990-9970 E-mail: jbooth@forestnet.com Perry Rosehill (604) 613-3001 E-mail: rosehill@forestnet.com

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Thanks to a low Canadian dollar, and a modest rebound in U.S. housing starts, Canadian lumber prices are at reasonably healthy levels, resulting in sawmills keeping busy. The Council of Forest Industries (COFI) will be looking at how to keep those mills busy at its upcoming convention in Prince George, B.C. in April. See the special pre-convention coverage beginning on page 44 of this issue of Logging and Sawmilling Journal (Photo of the new Lakeland sawmill in Prince George by Doug Hlina of Mill Tech Industries)

4 Spotlight – Renewable fuel oil can help fuel a sawmill’s bottom line

Ontario “liquid wood” producer Ensyn Corp. is ramping up production of its renewable fuel oil and has put the welcome mat out to the forest industry, noting that its biofuel facilities—when attached to an existing sawmill—can help to improve the economics of a mill.

10 High yield mill investment

A $30 million rebuild at EACOM’s sawmill in Timmins, Ontario, was a major undertaking for the company, but it’s expected to yield a production increase of as much as 20 per cent.

16 Have wood—will move it

Logging contractor Hec Clouthier & Sons harvests a wide assortment of logs in the areas they work in, in eastern Ontario.

Typically they sell wood to 13 mills—but after a significant blowdown, they were able to sell wood into a staggering total of 38 mills.

22 Early woodlands adapters

Both Quebec logging contractor Mario Gauthier and forestry co-op Forestra have adapted well to new regulations that amended the fibre allocation system in the province, thanks to Gauthier’s solid equipment and Forestra’s focus on developing fibre markets.

28 Timber/beam specialists

B.C.’s Hyde Sawmill has found a successful market niche producing high quality timber and beam products using three Wood-Mizer band saws, and a Mahoe circular saw from New Zealand.

32 Timber price tracking

B.C. company WoodX offers a market intelligence data service to prospective timber buyers to help them make prudent and competitive bids in the BC Timber Sale program.

36 High performing mill iron

Every efficient sawmill needs a fleet of high performing millyard wheel loaders and the Fornebu Lumber operation in New Brunswick is finding its Hyundai equipment— which includes the big daddy of the fleet, a Hyundai 770 with 300 horsepower—fits the bill very nicely.

41 The Edge

Included in The Edge, Canada’s leading publication on research in the forest industry, are stories from the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre and Alberta Innovates - Bio Solutions.

62 The Last Word

The outlook for Canadian lumber producers over the next several years is positive— meanwhile, the outlook for Canadian pellet producers is positively rosy, says Jim Stirling.

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar.........................................................................................................9 Tech Update: Log, Lumber, and Grade Optimization Systems........................51 Suppliernewsline..........................................................................................58 Classifieds / Employment Opportunities.................................................60-61 Ad Index / Subscriptions...............................................................................61 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

3

spotlight

Renewable fuel oil that can help fuel a sawmill's bottom line

Ontario “liquid wood” producer Ensyn Corp. is ramping up production of its renewable fuel oil and has put the welcome mat out to the forest industry, noting that its biofuel facilities—when attached to an existing sawmill—can help to improve the economics of a mill.

By Tony Kryzanowski

E

nsyn Corp. is a well-established Canadian producer of bio-oil from wood residues, and has been producing bio-oil since 1989, dedicated primarily to specialty chemicals and heating fuels.

But the company is now ramping up its production capacity, embarking on a wider commercialization of its renewable fuels in North America and putting out a bigger welcome mat to the Canadian forest industry.

The privately-held company’s main manufacturing facility is located in Renfrew, Ontario where it consumes about 70 bone dry tonnes (BDT) of wood fibre daily to produce three million gallons per year of a liquid fuel known as renewable fuel oil (RFO). It is used as a heating fuel and can serve as a renewable feedstock for refineries for the production of gasoline and diesel.

The company was founded by Bob Graham, Ensyn’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Barry Freel, Ensyn’s Chief Technology Officer, while the two were pursuing post-graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario in the early 1980s. They developed and patented Ensyn’s rapid thermal processing (RTP) technology, which converts solid biomass to high yields of a liquid product—or “liquid wood”—in less than two seconds.

The conversion process takes place in a 45’ high riser reactor where the wood fibre is injected and meets a tornado of hot circulating sand heated to about 500 degrees Celsius. The vaporized wood and sand exits the top of the riser into a cyclone where the sand and byproduct char are separated from the vapors and the vapors are drawn off and cooled into the liquid RFO biofuel. The sand and char byproduct is returned to the reheater where the char is burned off

and generates the heat for the system.

The process yields about 70 per cent by weight from the dry feedstock.

Ensyn’s RFO heating business is fully commercial. Contracts have been established with two hospitals in New Hampshire. Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire has switched its entire heating fuel needs to Ensyn’s

to page 6 Ensyn Corp.’s manufacturing facility in Renfrew, Ontario consumes about 70 bone dry tonnes (BDT) of wood fibre daily to produce three million gallons per year of a liquid fuel known as renewable fuel oil (RFO).

4

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

spotlight leading technology provider to petroleum refineries.” renewable fuel oil. In September, Ensyn Under this application, Ensyn’s RFO signed a seven year contract to supply Val- is fed directly into existing refinery fluid ley Regional Hospital in Claremont, New catalytic crackers (FCC). The RFO is Hampshire with 250,000 gallons a year of converted into gasoline and diesel. The its bio-oil, which also represents complete company believes that this application conversion of their fuel needs to Ensyn’s is a game changer due to the size of the renewable fuel oil. opportunity, Ensyn’s economics, and the These contracts are being serviced with ease of deployment based on leveragproduction from the company’s facility in ing existing refinery and downstream Renfrew. infrastructure.

Petroleum-based heating fuels are The company is currently completing commonly used throughout Eastern Cana $4 million enhancement at its Renfrew ada and the American Northeast, which facility that will allow it to operate 24 makes Renfrew, about 90 kilometres west hours a day, seven days a week to meet of Ottawa, an ideal location for Ensyn’s growing market demand. It received a production facility. $1.5 million grant from Ontario’s Centre The refinery application of its RFO, for Research and Innovation in the Biowhich Ensyn calls, “refinery co-processEconomy (CRIBE) for this work. ing”, is in the last stages of commercializaThe lead general contractor on the tion. Ensyn and its partners have carried construction project was Kilmarnock out over 200 demonstrations of this Enterprise from Smiths Falls, Ontario, the technology—many at commercial refinerlead electrical contractor was Valley Autoies. UOP, a subsidiary of manufacturing mation & Controls Inc. from Renfrew, and giant Honeywell, is Ensyn’s technology Leekor Engineering Inc. from Ottawa was partner in this commercialization. Ian responsible for reviewing and approving Barnett, Ensyn’s Executive Vice President, the structural and civil designs.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

source and store a wider variety of feedstock and will convert the plant from a mixed-use chemicals and fuels plant into a dedicated biofuels facility.

Ensyn can accept all types of wood waste for its process. Prior to use, the wood waste must be reduced to a size of less than a quarter inch in diameter with moisture content of six to seven per cent.

It has tested over 100 different feedstocks.

Originally, wood waste from a hardwood flooring plant in Renfrew supplied all of their raw material. That flooring plant has since shut down, but the company has been able to find sufficient wood waste suppliers within about a 150 kilometre radius of Renfrew to support their operations.

At a time when there is considerable interest within the forest industry and government in both value-added opportunities and bio-product development to find new markets for forest products, Ensyn believes it has a lot to offer.

“From a government, industry and local community perspective, we’re to page 8

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spotlight from page 6 providing the wood industry with a new value-added product use for its residues at a time when the market for residues has been somewhat stressed due to the shifting of the pulp business to the tropics and the fibreboard business moving to Asia,” says Barnett, Ensyn believes that its biofuel facilities, when attached to an existing sawmill or pulp mill, can help to improve the economics of those facilities and provide employment in areas experiencing financial distress. Also, the biofuel plant provides a home for forest residues like pre-commercial thinnings and slash piles.

“What we’re seeing in some areas we are working in is that pre-commercial thinning is not being carried out in an optimal way because the market for the residuals is poor,” says Barnett. “So, we believe that a value-added home for the residuals using our technology will allow the forests to be managed in a more efficient way, generating higher yields.”

Ensyn’s recent focus is on developing a string of new projects in North America and internationally, including Brazil. Its

business model is to build, own and operate bio-oil production facilities with partners, who could be either raw material suppliers or end users.

Several factors are helping to improve the current marketability of Ensyn’s product. Barnett says greater environmental concern about burning fossil fuels and their contribution to climate change as well as global turmoil raising concerns about energy security have worked in their favor.

“Today, there are both formal and informal supports for renewable energy that weren’t in place 15 years ago,” he says.

Ensyn’s potential has caught the eye of leading industrial players including technology provider UOP, fibre producers such as Brazil’s Fibria Celulose S.A., and potential end users such as energy giant Chevron. Barnett says they are working with numerous leading North American fibre producers as well.

The company has a long history of partnering with industrial entities. It initiated commercial operations in 1989 with Red Arrow, a food flavorings company from Wisconsin, and this relationship continues today. This was followed by

the development and then sale of its petroleum upgrading business to Ivanhoe Energy Inc in 2005 for $100 million.

Since the Ivanhoe sale, Ensyn has been squarely focused on further developing and expanding its biofuels business. It commissioned its commercial bio-oil manufacturing facility in Renfrew in 2007 and followed that by signing a strategic alliance agreement with UOP, to create Envergent Technologies LLC. Envergent provides engineering services and supplies Ensyn’s RTP equipment to projects developed by Ensyn and its partners, with performance guarantees.

The company’s partnership with Fibria Celulose S.A. involves developing projects in Brazil. The initial project has been announced at Fibria’s 2.6 million ton per year Aracruz mill, north of Rio de Janeiro.

This project will produce 20 million gallons per year of RFO for use in Brazil and for export. Barnett says that they have various similar size projects in the works in North America.

A 20 million-gallon per year facility consumes about 400 BDT of wood residuals per day. Ensyn also has a five million-gallon UOP plant design, which

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spotlight would consume 100 BDT per day. Barnett says the total project cost of one of its larger facilities is around $100 million.

Each takes one to two years to build. The footprint of a bio-oil production plant based on Ensyn’s technology is relatively small because the process works so quickly and there is very little product in the system at any one time in this continuous process.

Raw material consistency is fairly important in the performance of Ensyn’s

bio-oil production system, and this is something that it evaluates as part of a system design. The pre-processing equipment required on the front end of a project to bring the material down to that quarter inch or less material size and with the correct moisture content also factors into a system’s design and cost.

“The ability to burn wood material into liquids is not in question because we’ve done it for many, many years,” says Barnett. “The wood handling is something

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that is tailored to suit the circumstances of each individual project, but all of that equipment is off the shelf.”

Ensyn expects to make a number of announcements over the next year related to new projects, additional contracts for its bio-oil and new joint ventures with large wood fibre suppliers and customers.

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9

Ontariosawmilling

High yield

investment

A $30 million rebuild at EACOM’s sawmill in Timmins, Ontario, was a major undertaking for the company, but it’s expected to yield a production increase of as much as 20 per cent.

By Tony Kryzanowski

E

ACOM Timber Corporation has spent $30 million to rebuild its dimension lumber sawmill in Timmins, Ontario and expects a production increase of as much as 20 per cent once staff become familiar with the new equipment line, largely supplied by USNR. Most of the sawmill was destroyed by fire in January 2012, except for the trimming, edging and sorting section.

The sawmill project rebuild was handled on a turnkey basis by USNR, which acted as the general contractor on the entire project. Guy Fleury, EACOM Timmins sawmill manager and a longstanding employee at the sawmill, oversaw the entire project. He says operating the new sawmill has been quite a positive experience for staff.

“Capital investment had fallen to maintain business only when the downturn in the lumber market occurred in 2006,” he says. “We were barely keeping up on the maintenance side—but many sawmills were in the same boat fighting for survival. to page 12

10

Guy Fleury (above), EACOM Timmins sawmill manager, oversaw every step of the rebuild process. EACOM believes it can increase production at its Timmins sawmill by as much as 20 percent once staff become more familiar with the new production line.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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Ontariosawmilling from page 10 The fire was hard on the employees and company and we would never want to go through something like that again.”

The sawmill produces about 135 million board feet of dimension softwood lumber per year, from 2 X 4 to 2 X 10 in 8’ to 16’ lengths. Nearly 90 per cent of their production is 2 X 4 and 2 X 6. Production is comparable to EACOM’s other nearby sawmills in Elk Lake and Nairn Centre, but those are strictly stud mills.

Their goal in Timmins is to eventually achieve 155 million board feet of production annually.

“For now, the volume is the same as pre-fire, but we don’t expect to stay there,” says Fleury. “The recovery mostly due to curve sawing is 10 points better as promised, but there is less wane, which has given us an uplift in our premium grades and a better looking overall product.”

EACOM purchased the sawmill in 2010 from Domtar as part of an $80 million investment in a number of sawmills in Eastern Canada. EACOM’s head office is in Montreal.

“The rebuild of the Timmins mill is certainly a symbol for all of our stakeholders about where our company is going,” says Jeff Weber, EACOM Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “Timmins has already achieved top quartile

12

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

USNR provided the equipment and installed it as part of the $30 million sawmill rebuild project at EACOM’s Timmins sawmill. The project was handled on a turnkey basis by USNR, which acted as the general contractor on the entire project. profitability and it still hasn’t hit 100 per cent of its production targets. The growth and improvement at Timmins has become commonplace at other EACOM mills through the sharing of best practices and adoption of continuous improvement.”

Ontariosawmilling In a relatively short time, EACOM has become a major player in Canada’s forest industry. It owns seven sawmills, with mills in Timmins, Nairn Centre, Gogama, Elk Lake and Ear Falls in Ontario, and Vald’Or and Matagami in Quebec. EACOM also owns a lumber remanufacturing facility in Val-d’Or, Quebec, and a 50 per cent interest in an “I” joist plant in Sault Ste-Marie, Ontario.

Like the Timmins sawmill re-construction, EACOM itself has been a company built from the ground up. Recently, it successfully made the transition from a public entity to a private company when it was purchased in mid-2013 by a private equity firm headquartered in New York, Kelso & Company. There was also a management change at EACOM in late-2013, with Kevin Edgson taking the position of President and Chief Executive Officer.

Former CEO, Rick Doman, has remained as Chairman of the Board. Edgson was formerly Chief Financial Officer at Millar Western Forest Products in Edmonton.

Weber joined the company from Stimson Lumber headquartered in Portland, Oregon where he had been vice-president of manufacturing.

“Now that we are back at full strength and working for a new ownership group as well as a new management team that is working to reshape the company and take advantage of a strengthening global market demand for wood products, the worst is behind us,” says Fleury. “Our workforce has a newfound sense of security. It was a lot of work but we are stronger and better now than we were three years ago.”

The sawmill operates 80 hours a week on a two shift basis. EACOM employs 90 unionized workers and 12 salaried staff, which is about 10 per cent fewer people than prior to the fire, primarily because the new sawmill is now less labor intensive. However, Fleury says it does require individuals with more specialized skills to operate.

Logging operations through the hiring of contractors has remained the same, at about 250 workers.

The challenge for EACOM after the 2012 fire and during the construction of the new sawmill was to keep its skilled workforce intact, as Timmins has a vibrant mining industry where these individuals could easily have been absorbed.

“The strategy of keeping all our trades and helping our employees during the fire has paid off,” says Fleury. “We were able to retain 70 per cent of our workforce and hire the other 30 per cent we required, but this has not been easy. We have a lot

of competition from the mines.”

The sawmill consumes between 500,000 and 550,000 cubic metres of softwood per year, with two-thirds jackpine and the rest white spruce, black spruce, and balsam fir. The logs average about 7” in diameter. The sawmill can process logs from 5” to 25” diameter.

They arrive at the sawmill cut-to-length (CTL). EACOM Timmins has been a CTL mill since the 1970s.

The profile of the logs allows them to

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

produce about 90 per cent 16’ sawlogs and 10 per cent 12’ sawlogs in the bush.

The company’s nearby Gogama sawmill is equipped with two HewSaw lines, so smaller 8’ logs down to a 3.5” top are shipped to that location. Given the location of Timmins to the northern boreal forest, the average log haul to the sawmill is about 100 kilometres. to page 14

13

Ontariosawmilling from page 13 The sawmill has a single breakdown line. At the front end, logs are deposited on to a dry deck and fed into a Comact wave feeder that separates the logs into two diameter classes. Larger logs are processed through a 27” Nicholson debarker and smaller logs are processed through a 17” Nicholson debarker. The logs are sorted into two log decks after each debarker so that they are now sorted into four diameter classes prior to breakdown.

“When they are sorted into four diameter classes in the sawmill after debarking, this allows for tight gap control between logs through the line,” says Fleury.

Logs proceed through the breakdown line starting with a USNR log rotation scanner and then through a USNR quad roll log turner, featuring the company’s latest PGLR scan rotation controls for optimum log positioning for recovery.

From there, the logs are fed into a USNR extra length infeed, complete with two scanners and slew/skew function. Logs are processed at 200’ to 650’ per minute, depending on the diameter.

EACOM’s goal is to process 800 logs per hour, with current production at about 700 logs per hour.

“We then chip the two side faces with Andritz 29.5” variable speed conical heads with an Optimil 30 degree V-slide,” says Fleury. “These were the only survivors of the main line from the fire.”

The next step is the new USNR quad arbor sawbox with three circular saws per arbor, capable of removing three

sideboards on each side of the main cant in one pass. The sideboards proceed to a USNR edger optimizer. The main cant is scanned by a USNR vertical shape saw scanner before being processed through a USNR double arbor vertical shape saw that chips and profiles the top and bottom of the cant with Andritz drum chip heads.

The shape saw is able to curve saw the cants up to 11 pieces of 2 X 10 in a single pass.

The lumber all proceeds to a USNR optimized multi-saw trimmer and then is sorted in a 33 bay, J-bar sorter with USNR controls. From there, they are stacked using a USNR stacker.

“We also have a full chipping system

14

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

About 90 per cent of production at the EACOM Timmins sawmill is 2 X 4 and 2 X 6 from jackpine, white spruce, black spruce and balsam fir. The rebuilt mill is now producing more premium grade dimension lumber with less wane, resulting in a overall better looking product. for our edgings and trim blocks, which is also all USNR equipment,” says Fleury.

Timmins-based, Steelworks Inc. provided a lot of the mechanical installation, while SWM Contracting Inc., also from Timmins, provided the building material and constructed the building to house the equipment. Toronto-based 3-T Concrete Pumping provided the concrete work.

While USNR conducted most of the engineering work, primarily on the process controls and equipment, Rivard Engineering, provided some of the civil and structural engineering work. Timminsbased, Accurate Electric, did all of the electrical installation.

The mill has now hit the ground running. “USNR helped EACOM build a very good mill, it has a good fibre supply and the workforce is seasoned and knows how to make lumber,” says Jeff Weber.

He adds that EACOM clearly wants to grow its lumber business and is always looking for opportunities to acquire other lumber businesses in the area that will add value.

“Expansion into Eastern Canada is certainly our primary objective because it is what we know, and where we see the most opportunity,” says Weber. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t consider opportunities elsewhere. In fact, the management team has taken a look at opportunities in Western Canada and in the U.S., but so far have not found the right opportunity that fits the organization.”

The company is also focused on its existing mills for opportunities to add capacity where additional fibre at a reasonable cost is available.

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Ontariologging

Have wood —will move it

Logging contractor Hec Clouthier & Sons harvests a wide assortment of logs in the Sustainable Forest License (SFL) areas they work in, in eastern Ontario. Typically they sell wood to 13 mills—but after a significant blowdown, they were able to sell wood into a staggering total of 38 mills.

Willy (left) and Thomas Clouthier have shepherded Hec Clouthier & Sons from horses and chainsaws to cable skidders and chainsaws, and now to a full-blown mechanical logging operation.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

By Tony Kryzanowski

I

t’s possible that when Wade Hemsworth penned that jewel of Canadiana music, ‘The Log Driver’s Waltz’, he was watching employees working for Hec Clouthier & Sons Inc., given the company’s long history in forestry and its connection to Ontario’s river systems.

The business was founded by Hec Clouthier in 1938, and his sons, Thomas, Willy, Hector Jr., and Jimmy, joined the company in 1977. Thomas and Willy stuck with the business and have nurtured the Pembroke-based company from hand fallers and horses, to mechanical cable

Ontariologging skidders, and now into a full mechanical harvesting operation.

Willy and Thomas are preparing to one day pass the family business on to the next generation, as Thomas’ son, Shannon, and Willy’s son, Clyde are also part owners in the business. Another of Willy’s sons, Brett, is working with the company and testing the waters to see if forestry is for him.

The company purchased its first feller buncher in 2000. That was later than in areas further north, because full mechanization was being discouraged by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), which felt that forest machines did too much damage.

“It took a lot of convincing that it was the way to go in this area,” says Thomas.

“We had to move in that direction because we were losing our manpower and our Workman’s Compensation rates kept climbing because of the hazards.”

They bought their second feller buncher in 2004 and are now on their seventh unit. The transition from cable skidders to grapple skidders met the same MNR resistance. The company didn’t purchase its first grapple skidder till 2006.

“Since purchasing the grapple skidder,

our production has close to doubled and our landings last a lot longer because we are not doing as much twisting and turning as with the cable skidders, but more lifting with the clam on the back,” says Thomas.

“There is way less environmental damage because they also have wider tires, so they are floating a lot more in the soft spots.”

It also provides them with the opportunity to lay brush on soft spots to again reduce the amount of environmental damage, which they couldn’t do easily with cable skidders. They purchased their third grapple skidder this fall.

Hec Clouthier & Sons is a member of both the Nipissing Forest and Ottawa Valley Sustainable Forest License (SFL) areas, with their logging taking place where it has traditionally occurred since the early 1970s, south of the community of Deux Rivières. The company still operates from the same camp it established when the Clouthiers moved into the area.

On average, they harvest between 50,000 and 60,000 cubic metres annually during a season that spans from June until mid-March, and they market their own wood fibre, with the understanding that Ontario mills have a chance to purchase

the wood first. From a marketing standpoint, the logging company is in a good location because if there are no buyers in Ontario for certain wood species and sizes at a fair price, Quebec and several mills are located just across the Ottawa River.

“It was when we got into this part of the woods when we really had to start making a lot of roads and were cutting a little more volume,” says Thomas. “So we got into the slashers instead of the guys bucking it up by hand on the landing, as well as hydraulic loaders. Right now we have four slashers and 12 skidders.”

He adds that despite investing in newer equipment to improve production over time, the company tends to hold on to some of its older pieces because they come in handy, such as using old skidders as snow plows. Snow plowing is an important task in that the area on the south side of the Ottawa River between Pembroke and North Bay is a snow belt, and it typically accumulates well over a metre of snow annually. This is where mechanical harvesting really pays off because the

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Hec Clouthier & Sons has gotten good uptime with their fleet of John Deere skidders. Using grapple skidders instead of cable skidders has also resulted in less environmental damage.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

17

Ontariologging from page 17 wood is still accessible vs. the days when it was harvested using chainsaw crews and cable skidders.

The company also places older skidders at strategic locations so that if a newer skidder breaks down, they can still maintain production.

“That way, our production is maintained at a decent level, the operator isn’t sent home and he still gets paid,” says Thomas. Maintaining good relations with their 14 employees has been a tremendous help for the company over the years, and several have been with them for around 30 years.

By their own admission, the Clouthiers say that managing the business these days both on the harvesting side and on the marketing side is a job-and-a-half, given that they deal with many shade tolerant species such as maple, oak, poplar, birch and beech and coniferous species such as white and red pine, spruce, jack pine and balsam fir in this Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest, which results in numerous sorts at roadside.

The challenge is to find a market for all this wood, which means a lot of time

Serco loaders and slashers are an important part of the equipment fleet at Hec Clouthier & Sons in their logging operations west of Pembroke, Ontario. On average, they harvest between 50,000 and 60,000 cubic metres annually during a season that spans from June until mid-March, and they market their own wood fibre.

spent negotiating on the telephone. For example, in 2007-2008, when the area suffered a significant blowdown, Hec Clouthier & Sons delivered wood to 38 different mills. Typically, they deliver to about 13 different mills. In some cases, a log delivery requires a 14 hour round trip, with the average being about 11 hours.

It’s like a financial high wire act, with Thomas commenting that, “I have to make sure that I’m not the one sending a

cheque with every load.”

Given the company’s history logging in the Deux Rivières area and the business relationships they have developed with companies on both sides of the provincial boundary, that has helped Hec Clouthier & Sons build a strong client list.

“When you build a relationship with people and you are honest with them, they appreciate that,” says Thomas. “We deliver on time unless something drastic

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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Ontariologging comes up. If that happens, I’m on the phone immediately.”

Because they are dealing with so many species of wood to so many different clients, it’s a major challenge to deliver each required species in the proper dimensions at the best of times. The call that Thomas dreads the most is from a regular client saying that they won’t be taking wood for a couple of weeks. It’s very costly to move from one harvesting location to another.

“We are very fortunate in this neck of the woods that we do have some flexibility,” he says, in terms of where they market their wood. “You have to have that flexibility if you are going to survive because once you send your men home once they’ve started work, they aren’t going to be happy and they are going to start looking somewhere else.”

Another challenge they face is that certain species have to be harvested at specific times of the year. Hec Clouthier & Sons likes to save its white and red pine harvest for winter because in the summer, they only have about a week to deliver it to the sawmill before a stain starts to develop in this appearance grade fibre.

Then there is the newly-minted provincial Endangered Species Act, which has dropped a whole new set of guidelines on Ontario loggers in the province’s quest to protect such species as the Red-tailed Hawk and various species of turtles.

“The Endangered Species Act is not creating a climate for investment in new equipment,” says Thomas.

Faced with these extra logging costs, he adds that some loggers are opting to pack it in, rather than risk having to make equipment payments in an environment where it is getting tougher and tougher to make money.

The fleet at Hec Clouthier & Sons consists of two fairly new John Deere 753J feller bunchers, two John Deere 648H grapple skidders, a John Deere 648 GIII grapple skidder, two John Deere 540G cable skidders, five Timberjack 240 cable skidders, two Timberjack 230 cable skidders, a Serco 290 loader with a slasher, three Serco 270 slashers, three Serco 8000 loaders attached to skidders, five International log trucks with 48’ trailers, a John Deere 200 excavator, a Cat 320 excavator, two Cat 966 front end loaders, and a Terex front end loader. The fleet also consists of an assortment of Cat dozers and three Champion graders used primarily for road building.

The terrain south of Deux Rivières is within the Canadian Shield and is variable from gentle, rolling terrain to steep

slopes. Potential large rock outcroppings can appear anywhere. Thomas describes the ground cover as 70 per cent reasonable and 30 percent awful. For example, they were logging in a highly challenging area this past summer where their road building costs tripled. On steep terrain, the company will employ hand falling and cable skidders to access the wood. Making business decisions on what harvesting methods to use in which areas is where their experience really pays off.

Some days, Thomas would just rather go work his registered trap line but both he and Willy are keen and motivated to pass on their knowledge and experience so that the next generation keeps the family logging tradition intact. The forest is in their blood and they are trying their best to make it work.

“I hope the next generation can make a go of it,” Thomas concludes.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

19

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“High performance Mulchers are used to clear as much acreage as possible in the shortest amount of time,” said SMS West’s Gary Brown, General Manager, Construction Equipment Sales. “With Fecon units, customers can increase their production compared to traditional mulching heads. Bull Hog excavator attachments work well with Komatsu excavators for clearing trees, as do other Fecon attachments, such as its log-jaw wood splitter and tree shears.”

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Quebecforestry

Early adapters Both Quebec logging contractor Mario Gauthier and forestry co-op Forestra have adapted well to new regulations that amended the fibre allocation system in the province, thanks to Gauthier’s solid equipment and Forestra’s focus on developing fibre markets.

By George Fullerton uebec logging contractor Mario Gauthier says that working within an hour-and-a-half commute of his home in Chicoutimi (Saguenay) is a welcome change from the long distance commutes he’s used to, to remote logging camps on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.

Gauthier’s harvest team has secured employment with Forestra Inc. and a good portion of the season will be divided between operations on reserve faunique des Laurentides and ParcMontsVallin, both multiple use forest landbases south of Saguenay, Quebec.

Like every enterprise connected to the forest industry, Gauthier’s contracting business, Faconnage MG, faced major challenges in recent years brought on by the collapse of the U.S. housing industry—combined with the global economic downturn—that drastically reduced the demand for Canadian lumber.

Gauthier estimates that economic issues reduced Quebec’s mill capacity by 25 per cent, and similarly, caused a 25 per cent reduction in the harvesting contractor base.

Faconnage MG’s survival was achieved in large part by a strategy to cut costs at every opportunity, and at the same time maintaining high productivity.

Gauthier relied on management skills

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Q

accumulated over more than three decades in the business to keep his team of dedicated operators focused on safety and production, and maintained a fleet of high performance harvesting equipment.

He allowed that one of their key strategies was to cut operating costs wherever possible, specifically working to achieve the highest possible fuel efficiency. Fuel efficiency objectives extended to the harvester fleet as well as the commuter fleet used to transport personnel and service his equipment.

While Mario Gauthier is the founder of Faconnage MG, he credits his wife of 36 years, Helene, for her support and contribution as both a life partner and business

Quebecforestry While Faconnage MG has seen a wide variety of manufacturer’s colours in their equipment stable over the years, the current line-up is decidedly Ponsse, with a new Fox harvester (pictured) an Ergo harvester, an Elephant King forwarder (the first in North America) and most recently a Buffalo Dual.

While Faconnage MG has seen a wide variety of manufacturer’s colours in their equipment stable over the years, the current line-up is decidedly Ponsse, with a new Fox harvester, an Ergo harvester, an Elephant King forwarder (the first in North America) and most recently a Buffalo Dual which replaces a Dual lost to fire. The recent addition of a Freightliner tractor and float is just about the only piece of large rolling stock that does not sport the yellow and black colour scheme.

Charles explained the preference for Ponsse equipment is essentially due to the machines’ great fuel efficiency and high productivity. He pointed to their new Fox harvester as an example. “This machine has double bogies which allows it to work securely on very steep slopes. It has a reach of more than 30 feet with the H5 head, which processes wood very fast and is well suited to the small stem diameters we often work in. And it gets the job done with only a four cylinder engine which is very economical on fuel.”

The Gauthiers credit their Ponsse dealer, Hydromec, for sales, service and especially parts support, helping make their operations a success.

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partner. In addition to managing family affairs while Mario was away at distant operations, Helene handled administrative work as well as critical parts chasing tasks that kept the operations going well.

Mario and Helene have also welcomed their son, Charles, into the family business and while he enjoys operating equipment, Charles has also assumed supervisory and business administration duties.

Gauthier began his contracting career some 38 years ago, initially working with family members in a chainsaw and cable skidder crew, before he started his own skidder operation. He adapted to mechanized harvesting, initially with grapple skidders and roadside slashing, and eventually moved to cut-to-length harvesters and forwarders. While readily adapting to new types of equipment, Gauthier also focused on hiring and developing talent for the operator seats, and selecting equipment to provide the best performance and productivity.

Faconnage MG is truly a family business with Mario Gauthier (above, right) his wife Helene, and their son, Mario Gauthier. Helene handles tasks that support the operation, and Mario, in addition to operating equipment, has also assumed supervisory and business administration duties.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

23

Quebecforestry from page 23 Faconnage MG’s Ergo is assigned stands on less steep ground and/or stands with larger diameter trees. Faconnage was one of the early adopters of the Dual machine, which converts between harvesting and forwarding, as day-to-day operations require, ultimately making

the overall operation (wood to roadside) highly efficient.

Changes in Quebec’s forestry regime indirectly presented the opportunity for Faconnage MG to contract for Forestra Inc. Prior to 2013, major mills secured their total fibre volume from Crown forest through a CAAF (Contrats d’Approvisionnement et d’Aménagement

Mario Gauthier (above, left) and the operator on the Ponsse Fox harvester. Gauthier relies on management skills accumulated over more than three decades in the business to keep his team of dedicated operators focused on safety and production, and maintains a fleet of high performance harvesting equipment.

Forestier). However, changes in legislation in 2013 amended the fibre allocation system. Under the new rules, mills receive 75 per cent of their fibre requirement as they did through the CAAF system, and the remaining 25 per cent of the Crown fibre is allocated to industry, and is offered through a public bidding process.

This competitive bidding process allows the Quebec government to see what the market value for wood actually is, and refer to it for setting Crown land stumpage rates. The new fibre allocation system is also expected to appease the U.S. trade lobby that question Quebec’s Crown stumpage system.

The bidding process is open to various entities (mills, contractors and forestry co-ops). With their successful bid, Forestra won the right to harvest and sell a portion of the new 25 per cent allocation of Crown fibre, then found a market for the wood and went looking for contractors to harvest and deliver the wood to markets.

Forestra Inc. was established in 2010 with the amalgamation of two forestry worker co-ops in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region, Co-op Forestière de SteRose and Co-op Laterriere. According to general manager Louis Pelletier, creating Forestra allowed the two co-ops to harmonize their management structure and focus their talents, to serve clients with a broader suite of services. The strategic alliance, Pelletier explained, enabled the two co-ops to gain efficiencies in their operations and provided them with the resources to bid on large forest management contracts.

Forest co-ops have a long history in Quebec, dating back to the late 1930s.

Through their history, these member organizations have provided contract services to the forest industry for harvesting and silviculture. Some co-ops have expanded services to include seedling production, sawmilling, biomass production, geomatics, logging camp operation, roadbuilding and forest management planning services.

Contracting fibre harvesting and developing markets for that fibre is not a totally new enterprise for Forestra, pointed out Pelletier. In 2010, Forestra won a fiveyear contract to produce 135,000 green tonnes of biomass in the Lac St. Jean region, and established contracts to supply the Jonquiere Hospital, and the Fromagerie Boivin cheese plant in the town of La Baie, on the Saguenay Fiord.

Forestra continues to work to help

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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Quebecforestry from page 24 develop additional biomass markets. Pelletier explained that because of the low value assigned to biomass, they must develop markets within 100 kilometres from the forest biomass resource.

Forestra made a successful bid on the 25 per cent allocation to harvest in the reserve faunique des Laurentides and ParcMontsVallin, south and east of Saguenay. Both landbases support major recreational uses and wildlife habitat goals in addition to fibre production.

Pelletier explained that while the provincial government has the final approval on the management plans that administer activities on the two landbases, the process to develop the plans involves a number of interest groups who are consulted and who meet together to bring their various interests to the management planning process. Since wildlife protection is a major goal, road access is always a concern.

“We always have good relations in that

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process,” says Pelletier. “We all respect one another and consultations are definitely two-way. Each party has their rights, and at the end of the process there is a reasonable plan to present to the government. For operational planning, Forestra presents detailed mapping of harvest blocks to government officials for final approval before operations begin.”

When it came time to market the wood, Forestra found a willing buyer in the Boisaco sawimill, in Sacre Coeur on the east side of the Saguenay fiord.

“In our case, Boisaco offered us a deal to purchase all of the wood production,

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

both large and small logs and pulpwood,” said Pelletier. He pointed out the deal was convenient for Forestra, in that they did not to have to invest the time and energy dealing with a number of different mills to sell the different quality logs.

Both Co-op Forestière de Ste-Rose and Co-op Laterriere—and Forestra—have long established working relationships with Boisaco, undertaking both harvesting and silviculture contracts.

Quebec’s DNR has created an overall management plan for the individual land bases which sustains multiple forest values, including fibre. Forestra staff developed an operating plan based on the objectives of the management plan and after approval from DNR, proceeded with harvesting.

“I have known Mario for many years, and he has worked for our co-op in the past—we are very happy to have him involved in our operations,” said Pelletier.

“Mario’s operations are very professional and he is a real gentleman in his business affairs.”

And the Gauthier operations continue on with the next generation now involved. In his early 30’s, Charles Gauthier is finding a fulfilling career in the harvest contracting sector.

“I love the work,” he says. “I love the woods and the machines and getting wood to roadside. I enjoy working in the camps and managing a crew of operators.

I find it very rewarding work.”

Charles related that in terms of adapting to forest certification programs over the last decade, it has been a good fit for Faconnage MG. “We heard a lot of concern about forest certification and the challenges contractors would face to meet those demands. But once we actually saw what certification actually required of us, we realized that our operation was already in compliance.

“Rather than facing radical changes in our operations, we found we only had to tweak a few parameters to meet the certification demands.”

With Charles taking on more supervisory responsibilities on operations closer to their home base, Mario says he expects he will be enjoying more time close to family and home—of course mixed with a little trucking with his new Freightliner and float.

sawmilling

Timber/be B.C.’s Hyde Sawmill has found a successful market niche producing high quality timber and beam products using three Wood-Mizer band saws, and a Mahoe circular saw from New Zealand.

By Paul MacDonald ike a lot of sawmills, B.C.-based Hyde Sawmill produces wood products that end up in new homes.

But the homes that the company is supplying product for tend to be on the pricier side vs. the standard subdivision homes which use dimensional lumber

from the big sawmills. Hyde Sawmill recently provided timbers for a new home for an Alberta family on Mara Lake in B.C.’s Shuswap region that clicked in at a breathtaking $5 million.

Other recent projects included major marine docks in Kelowna, B.C. and supplying timbers to the prestigious Predator Ridge golf course, also in Kelowna.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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spe

Not all of their customers—through the home builders they sell to—are like that, but the company, with its high quality timber and beam products, purposely steers away from commodity markets, such as dimensional lumber.

After a quieter couple of years during the economic downturn, wood shipments have picked up again at Hyde Sawmill,

eam

ecialists

Al (above, left) and Tyler Hyde, of Hyde Sawmill, with a log ready to be cut into high value products at their operation in the small community of Malakwa, about 50 kilometres northeast of Salmon Arm, in B.C.’s Southern Interior.

The Mahoe Super 24 circular saw at Hyde Sawmill features hydraulic rise and fall, which offers the opportunity to increase the value of the cut wood and production. The hydraulic lift and fall feature allows the sawyer to quickly and easily change sizes as he cuts the log, to maximize conversion.

and in addition to dealing with local B.C. builders, they are shipping large timber and beams to high end home builders in Alberta, Quebec and even the U.S., using the services of a local broker.

“People are building again now and they are building some pretty fancy homes,” says Al Hyde, who manages the business with his son, Tyler. “Markets have picked up.”

They have builders who will build 10 homes a year as customers—and builders who will build one home a year. “They stick with us—we provide them with high quality wood. People are loyal if you supply a good product. We try to focus on the free of heart timber, and there is pretty good demand for that.”

The massive and beautifully-grained timbers and beams are on the premium side, and that’s based as much on the cost of obtaining the select timber, as well as how much it costs to manufacture the wood.

Hyde Sawmill takes pride in being a producer of value, rather than volume wood.

“We’ve never been the cheapest,” says Al. They really can’t be, he says. “We can’t get caught producing low margin products—we have to achieve a good amount of revenue from each log because from the start, the logs are expensive.”

And for that, the builder gets a high level of service; they can get everything they need, from the large timbers to window and door stock, molding, and even veneers. “Whatever the customer wants, we’ll produce it,” says Tyler. “We never say, ‘No, we can’t do that’.”

And that broad range of products works well for the company, too, since they have to use every part of the logs they buy because of the high costs of these logs. “Sometimes you get a log that works out for long beams, but sometimes you get a crooked log or a log with rot, and you can use some of it for clears. But you’ve got to do something with every part of the log or you could never afford to buy these logs in the first place,” explains Tyler.

Any leftover pieces are processed with their own home-made, and very efficient, firewood manufacturing set-up.

And they have plenty of sawmill tools to get the best of the log. In addition to three Wood-Mizer band mills—two LT 40s and a LT 70 super hydraulic—they also have a Mahoe Super 24 circular saw, from New Zealand. They have a Coutts headrig that does a primary cut on the larger wood before it goes to the smaller saws. All of milling equipment runs on diesel engines.

“We don’t have a debarker because we go anywhere from a six inch top to a six foot log, in terms of sizes,” says Al. The Wood-Mizers and the Mahoe are ideal for the work that Hyde Sawmill does and the up to 55-foot long timbers they produce.

“The mill equipment we have is the best for cutting timbers—the operators are looking right at the piece all the time.

They’re not up in a booth cutting wood that might not make it,” says Al. “The sawyers are right there so they can see cracks or pitch, and adjust the cutting accordingly. We are not blasting out 2 X 4 or 2 x 6’s. They are slower, but they turn out a nice product.”

And keeping on top of all the saws on all of this of this equipment is veteran sawfiler, Dennis Sirvio. On a busy day, he’ll handle up to 20 saw blades.

The Wood-Mizers are proven products in the Canadian forest industry. Much

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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sawmilling from page 29

logs, and helps to get the best timber out of the log.

And all of this equipment, and the Hyde Sawmill operation as a whole, is flexible, which they need to be on an ongoing basis. While they pretty much know what they’re going to be producing on a week to week basis, Al says they often don’t know what they are going to be producing next month. And even on a week to week basis, they will work hard to fill orders that come in on short notice, provided they don’t disrupt the orders for existing customers. “Our order file extends about a month out—and that’s about the maximum,” he says. “But we’ll have a lot of quotes out there, at any one time.”

At one time, Hyde Sawmill produced more commodity-type products, such as railway ties, most of which could be produced with the Coutts headrig.

“But times changed, and we changed what we are producing,” Al says.

He says they are doing well with the mill equipment they have now; while some of it is getting longer in the tooth, all of it is producing well.

“I have a dozen guys now, and I don’t want to get any bigger,” he says. “I have a good crew, and most of them have been with me for a very long time.

Like a lot of sawmills without tenure, getting wood to feed the sawmills in the Hyde yard is a constant effort. Al notes that they get a lot of their wood from the major forest companies working in the region, such as Louisiana-Pacific, Downie Timber, Tolko and Canfor. “We’ve dealt with them all through the years, and they’ve treated us well,” he says.

All of the forest companies have wood coming into their mill yards from their logging operations, and they sort the wood.

But as Al notes, Hyde Sawmill needs particular pieces of timber. “We’re looking for specific logs, long lengths up to 55 feet, and straight.”

They don’t want to inventory too much wood simply because of the fact that they really don’t know what orders might be coming in next week, or next month. At times, when the log supply is tight, Al and Tyler will hit the road to try to source wood directly from the mills or local woodlots.

The supply can be uncertain. “You can be expecting a load of logs from a farmer who is running a woodlot, and all of sudden, he’s cutting his hay instead. And then you’ve got to find the wood somewhere.

“That’s probably the biggest part of my job. We’re not a huge operation, but we can go through 150 to 200 cubic metres a day, more if the headrig is running.”

Sometimes, when logs come in, they can be on one of the mills within hours of landing in the yard.

Tyler started working in the business as a teenager, and these days helps to look after operations in the yard, and the office work. He is happy to move around from the Cat loader to working on the headrig, to doing some planer work.

These days, Al focuses on the quotes, which, he says, “have to be right on the money”.

“An advantage we have, though, is we can do the long timbers—a lot of mills can’t do them.”

The 15 acre graveled site they have in the small community of Malakwa, about

30

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

less seen, though they are very dependable, are the Mahoe mills. Al says they demo-ed a smaller Mahoe mill, and then bought the largest Mahoe mill, which was shipped from New Zealand. “It’s quick and it’s very accurate.”

The Mahoe mill features hydraulic rise and fall, which offers the opportunity to increase the value of the cut wood and production. The hydraulic lift and fall feature allows the sawyer to quickly and easily change sizes as he cuts the log, to maximize conversion. It also features taper cut, which allows for quick set-up of

50 kilometres northeast of Salmon Arm, works extremely well for them. They are almost right on the Trans-Canada Highway, making shipping relatively easy. Virtually all of their orders are shipped by truck.

Their yard manager, Jim Spelay, is adept at putting all of the order packages together. He knows where pieces can be pulled to fill the orders, and at any time may have 10 or more orders on the go, some of them consisting of many different-sized pieces. He goes over every piece, and every order package to make sure customers will be happy with the quality.

That quality is what keeps customers coming back. They are very qualitydriven—and they don’t send an order out, whether it’s to Quebec or Quesnel, unless it’s right, and the wood is exactly what the customer wants, says Al. And they are bang on when it comes to delivering on time. “That’s one of our biggest advantages. So many people have switched to us because other guys don’t deliver on time. If we have two weeks for an order, it’s delivered in two weeks—we make sure of that.”

And that takes solid efforts to coordinating things, since the drying is done offsite, at Gudeit Forest Products, in nearby Vernon. They also use the services of a resaw operation, as well, Legacy Log and Timber, of Lumby. Some drying and planning is also done at Okanagan Timber Frame Inc., in Salmon Arm. “We’ve thought about putting in a kiln, but it is expensive, and it would take away from what we are doing—the milling. We focus on what we do the best.

And the people running the kilns focus on what they do best.”

They are fortunate, says Al, in having a solid group of employees that turn out great product, day in, day out, on the sawmills.

“It’s not the right work for some people,” Tyler added. “We’ve hired some people to saw, and they just can’t do it. A sawyer is someone who has to figure out what’s in a log—and some people just don’t get it. You’ve got to visualize that round log in square pieces, what square you can get out of it here, and what you can get out over there.”

As for finding the wood to go into the saws, Al says they work hard at sourcing wood throughout the region. “We do our best to get out there and find it. We have people who are depending on us, with the company, and our customers, and you’ve got to find that wood.” And they do.

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timbersupply

Timber price tracking B.C. company WoodX offers a market intelligence data service to prospective timber buyers to help them make prudent and competitive bids in the BC Timber Sale program, which provides a good barometer for trends within the provincial forest industry as a whole.

By Jim Stirling bout 20 per cent of British Columbia’s allowable annual cut is dispersed under the provincially operated BC Timber Sale program.

Consequently, tracking what’s happening and where with those sales provides a good barometer for trends within the provincial forest industry as a whole.

After about three years of generally lateral movement, bids for timber under the program are now on a steady climb, reports Dean de La Mothe, the creator of WoodX, a widely read BC Timber Sale tracking system. “We’re on a general up slope,” he says.

That means bidders are becoming hungrier more consistently for wood fibre.

But that said, there are blips along the

way. For example, the bid prices for cedar were crazy, while those for cypress were flat at the time de La Mothe spoke with the Logging & Sawmilling Journal.

The bidders trend in the B.C. Interior is toward sales of homogenous stands of small pine. If the stand has a spruce mix, so much the better. “Bidders have gone to a smaller sawlog—about .3 cubic metres a stem—because it’s easier to mill. It represents the sweet spot of the lumber recovery factor as opposed to the larger piece sizes which are more inconsistent,” explained de La Mothe. “So we see quite a lot of strength there.”

BC Timber Sale strives to create a transparent and fair open market system for standing timber. WoodX offers a market intelligence data service to prospective timber buyers to help them make prudent

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

A

and competitive bids. de La Mothe expanded on the BC Timber Sale role with a supermarket analogy: the prices are for wood on the shelf, ready to go.

“What we bid today, is the market today. It’s the truest market price we can get.” Logging and trucking costs and local knowledge are different for every sale and must be factored in, but the bid is reflective of the true stump price. “One of the cool things about WoodX is that it has levelled the playing field for everyone,” he continued.

It saves time and money by providing equal opportunities for the large forest companies and the single truck operator.

“Knowledge is key to the best efficiency.” deLa Mothe began WoodX about 14 years ago and his prior background reflects both the turbulent nature of natural

resource industries in B.C. and the opportunities that arise with their fluctuations.

He has a background in geophysics and was involved in the mining industry until it was hit by one of its periodic commodity price slumps. He became a contractor for BC Timber Sale until a slump in lumber prices hit that sector. “Then I moved into high tech, computer networking for large corporations. I did some rewarding jobs but the tech industry is very stressful.” He switched locations, from Vancouver to Penticton, B.C., and reverted to forestry writing code and becoming an active bidder in the BC Timber Sale program. That required gathering accurate information to formulate a competitive bid.

WoodX emerged from that process. It comprises a wealth of data ranging from a region’s bidding history to the people making the bids. WoodX is used by mills, loggers and traders to learn the prevailing timber prices and who owns which sale.

It provides the activity levels of bidders on each sale and by geographical area. to page 34

Dean de La Mothe (above), the creator of WoodX, says it provides what he called a relational data base, which essentially links other relevant lists together. The upshot of that is the ability to view many data sources in a single frame without spending time and effort hunting for individual pieces of information needed to formulate the most cogent bid.

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timbersupply from page 33 WoodX users can also acquire timber sale management experience in terms of open to bid sales and the subsequent tracking of where wood is delivered.

“The key is the data base in the background,” emphasized de La Mothe.

WoodX provides what he called a relational data base, which essentially links other relevant lists together. The upshot of that is the ability to view many data sources in a single frame without spending time and effort hunting for individual pieces of information needed to formulate the most cogent bid. “WoodX has evolved as a default tool for industry. Loggers to buyers can use it without having to learn a program.”

The WoodX data bank requires constant upgrading to maintain its timeliness and accuracy, and through that the value of the information it offers prospective timber sale bidders. de La Mothe said he and his staff work diligently to accomplish that. He is a strong advocate of the BC Timber Sale process in general and the function it fills in B.C., Canada’s largest timber producer by volume. “I believe BC

Dean de La Mothe uses a supermarket analogy for the market intelligence WoodX offers to prospective timber buyers: the prices are for wood on the shelf, ready to go.

Timber Sale is the most efficient, effective marketer of wood in North America. It really is a success story as far as getting the wood out and creating a market for it,” he summarized. And through that exercise in

market dynamics for today’s wood, it provides valuable insight into future timber type demands and trends.

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1/21/2015 8:32:09 AM

Load 'er up! eastcoastsawmilling

Every efficient sawmill needs a fleet of high performing millyard wheel loaders and the Fornebu Lumber operation in New Brunswick is finding its Hyundai equipment—which includes the big daddy of the fleet, a Hyundai 770 with 300 horsepower—fits the bill very nicely.

By George Fullerton

N

apoleon Bonaparte once observed that an army marches on its stomach. If the army is not fed and supplied, the military campaign suffers and eventually fails. You could also apply this to wood processing in a somewhat different way: sawmills operate on their loader fleet.

Having a fleet of top performing loaders in the millyard is critical to an efficient and profitable operation. From unloading logs and infeeding to the mill, through to handling lumber in the drying and planing phases, and finally loading finished products on truck or rail on the way to customers, the service and reliability of mobile loaders are critical to mill productivity.

Add in other tasks including snow removal and yard and facility clean up, and it just confirms that wheel loaders,

36

especially, provide versatile and efficient services. Selecting the properly spec’ed loader, along with a comprehensive service package, is critical to operate a mill efficiently Michel Doiron manages the kiln operations for the Fornebu Lumber mill located south of Bathurst in northeast New Brunswick, and he knows the importance of having the right equipment to get the job done.

Doiron joined Fornebu Lumber in 2010, after a 16-year career as an operator on mechanical harvesting equipment.

Doiron says his harvesting background provided him with an in-depth understanding of the importance of good design and engineering in equipment, the critical importance of dedicated dealer support

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

in addition to operator training and a solid equipment maintenance and service program to get the best out of mechanical equipment.

Doiron is convinced that Fornebu’s investment over the past four years in a fleet of Hyundai wheel loaders has been a wise and strategic move that has helped increase productivity of the mill.

ALPA Equipment Ltd. delivered a HL757-9 and a HL760-9 to Fornebu Lumber in January 2012. In March 2013, a HL740-9 joined the fleet, and in December of the same year, a HL770-9A arrived to fill out Fornebu’s wheel loader contingent.

Kevin Jewitt, President and CEO of Fornebu, explained that the decision to go with Hyundai loaders was based in large

eastcoastsawmilling

Fornebu Lumber believes its investment over the past four years in a fleet of Hyundai wheel loaders has been a good strategic move that has helped increase productivity of the mill. part on their reputation for performance, adding to that a solid dealer relationship.

“We recognized good value in Hyundai, as well as a strong local supplier who provides us with very good support,” said Jewitt. “The previous fleet was aged and from mixed sources, which made maintenance difficult. We came to the decision on the specific Hyundai models through consultation with ALPA Equipment.”

Fornebu Lumber Company is a subsidiary of the Umoe family of companies based in Norway. In addition to forestry and milling operations in New Brunswick, Umoe has global interests in bioenergy, property management, restaurant chains, shipping and energy, as well as ship design and construction.

Umoe purchased the assets of the UPM mills based in Miramichi, New Brunswick in 2009, initially with plans to establish a solar panel manufacturing industry. The UPM assets included the Bathurst studwood sawmill and a shuttered long lumber sawmill at Blackville. UPM had previously terminated operations and proceeded with decommissioning and dismantling ground wood, sulphite pulp and paper mills at Miramichi. With the Bathurst operation, Umoe became a New Brunswick Crown

licensee and owners of a mill that is a critical economic engine for the northeast of the province.

ALPA Equipment Ltd. was established as a forestry equipment dealer in 1976 at Balmoral, New Brunswick, about 100 kilometres west of Bathurst. Armand Landry was one of the original founding partners of the business and remains actively involved and shares management responsibilities with his son, Serge, and daughter Linda.

ALPA serves the Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, with sales and service in forestry and heavy construction equipment. It boasts one of the most extensive and comprehensive parts supplies in the region, along with a

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

37

to page 38

eastcoastsawmilling from page 37 highly talented service department that grew with a focus on providing 24/7 service for their forestry contractor clients.

ALPA has sold and serviced several forestry equipment lines and their shop developed an enviable reputation for producing excavator conversions for forestry applications. In 1999, the Landry family added manufacturing equipment to their enterprise, establishing A. Landry Fabrication Ltd., and manufacturing the Landrich tracked forestry harvester.

Fornebu’s Hyundai wheel loaders came with the Hyundai Construction equipment standard warranty: three years and 3000 hours. In addition, an ALPA technician goes on site for a day with each delivery, to go over the machine with Fornebu staff.

According to Yann Savoie, general sales manager with ALPA Equipment, the Hyundai warranty leads the industry.

“Hyundai’s parent, Hyundai Heavy Industries, invests billions of dollars in research and development, and the technological development and advancement is passed on to their different sectors,”

explained Savoie. He believes Hyundai has the most advanced wheel loaders in the industry based on a number of different measures.

Savoie says advanced technology has resulted in highly fuel efficient engines, in addition to a well-earned reputation for engine reliability.

His confidence in Hyundai engine reliability comes, in part, through ALPA’s experience in converting Hyundai excavators for forestry harvesting and processing applications.

“An average construction excavator will typically see utilization in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 hours per year,” explained Savoie. “With the forest harvester conversions, they can easily see utilization in the range of 4,000 to 5,000 hours per year.

We have seen those Hyundai engines still giving excellent service even after 20,000 to 25,000 hours of operation.” Hyundai engines have proven very reliable and highly fuel efficient in very heavy duty applications, he added.

Savoie also points to Hyundai’s Hi-Mate remote management system as another example of Hyundai technology. The HiMate system allows equipment managers

to remotely access service and diagnostic information for their Hyundai machines.

The system is a GPS-based technology which tracks, traces and monitors Hyundai machines, any time and in any location.

Through GPS and GIS technologies, users can pinpoint the exact location of equipment and retrieve data from the machine, including fuel consumption, coolant temperature, pump pressure and more.

Technicians can also make online diagnosis on machines. The system can even shut down a machine in case of theft.

“Service personnel can use the HiMate online portal to get the data they need to keep the machines performing,” explained Savoie. “The system saves time and money by promoting greater preventative maintenance and reducing machine downtime. Managers can also check operator driving habits though the Hi-Mate system.”

Sawmill owner Umoe has steadily and strategically made investments in their Fornebu mill including the installation of a HewSaw system in 2010, as well as updating and increasing kiln capacity.

At the front end of the mill, two Nicholson debarkers take eight and nine foot

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Fornebu Lumber’s quality control manager Maurice Theriault (above, left) with Michel Doiron, planer mill supervisor, in the planer building. Fornebu has recently invested in a VAB scanning and grading system in their planer operation, which has delivered improvements in grading, and decreased low grade and trim.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

eastcoastsawmilling logs into the mill where a Prologic+ scanner assesses each log and assigns logs to one of seven sort bins. Fornebu processes timber through the HewSaw with seven saw patterns.

Annual wood consumption is 400,000 cubic metres and the wood supply comes from Fornebu freehold land, Crown allocations, private woodlot suppliers and other industrial suppliers. The mill operates with 86 hourly staff, 13 supervisory staff and 23 people in woodlands.

“We have many contractors, ranging in size from single machine operations to full stump to roadside operations,” says Jewettt. He pointed out that Fornebu also gets a sizable amount of log supply from private woodlots, and they have seen that supply increase over the past few years.

About 80 per cent of Fornebu’s lumber production is marketed through a broker to the U.S., and about 80 per cent of their total production ships out of the mill by rail.

In terms of production, the mill went through a normal start-up and they have worked their way to the point where they plan to operate around 200,000 board feet/shift or 400,000 board feet/ day, based on a two-shift operation, says

Michael Godin, general manager of the Fornebu mill.

The HewSaw set-up has also allowed Fornebu to set noteworthy records. Godin pointed out they achieved 301,000 board feet in an eight-hour work shift and also achieved a log count record of 19,000 logs processed in an eight-hour shift.

More recently, Fornebu has invested in a VAB scanning and grading system in their planer operation, as well as building their wheel loader fleet.

The VAB system scans and identifies each stick with an inked code. The mill produces #2 and better, so there are few sorts, with two to three persons on the floor to pull off-grade while the bulk of production moves directly to the auto stacker.

Speaking about the VAB system, Jewett explained: “It was installed in October 2012, the total cost was just over $1 million including other modifications in the trim system. The main gains have been in consistent grading, decreased low grade and decreased trim. Our satisfaction is very high, and we have not been off-grade, due to deficiencies in the VAB, since day one.”

Since taking over management of the

mill, Fornebu has invested in MEC kiln technology, building their annual kiln capacity to 120 million board feet which comfortably handles the mill’s current annual 92 million board feet lumber production.

While the smaller Hyundai units are kept busy for the most part handling lumber bundles from the sawmill through to drying, planing and loading trailers and rail cars, the Hyundai 770—the big daddy of the fleet—gets the heavy duty assignments. The 770 has an operating weight of 23,500 kgs and boasts a 300 horsepower engine. With ample power and capacity, the machine ably handles the chip bucket, which has a 2,000 kg capacity. With the big bucket and a nicely paved yard, the 770 can load a rail car in just twenty minutes.

Hyundai 770 operator Raiche Hermel has been very impressed with the big loader, pointing out it was spec’ed correctly for the big chip bucket. “The machine is very comfortable to operate.

It has a very comfortable cab, with great visibility. All the control functions are very nice to work with, and the machine really works well—and it gets a lot of work done.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

39

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The Edge

February 2015

Modular off-site construction challenges forest industry to rethink materials supply

By Tony Kryzanowski

M

odular off-site building construction is on the rise globally and particularly in Alberta, say industry experts.

The method is well established in Alberta in both commercial and residential construction, with companies such as Landmark Building Solutions, Star Prebuilt Homes and others leading the way in the residential sector. The contracting company Cormode and Dickson, and developer Integrated Management & Realty, have also committed to off-site building construction. Construction giant PCL Construction recently created a new division and appointed a new vice-president for modular and off-site construction.

Greater use of modular off-site construction (MOC) has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a project, while improving the overall quality of structures and generating much less waste.

Building components, such as roof trusses, floor joists, staircasing, windows, doors or even walls are manufactured in an industrial plant and then transported to a construction site where crews assemble the components. It takes a fraction of the time to erect a building this way compared to what it typically takes to frame and erect a similar building using the traditional on-site, stick-built method.

“In my opinion, modularization could be used in every type of building, but to different degrees,” says Dr. Mohamed Al-Hussein, professor of construction engineering and management in the Hole School of Construction Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Al-Hussein says modular construction has many other advantages. First, the

crew is working indoors to manufacture building components in a temperaturecontrolled and safer work environment.

Second, the builder can more easily predict the time it will take to construct a building and the cost, and have greater control over the overall quality and consistency. Third, construction materials are protected from the elements prior to delivery to the job site. And finally, there is also a reduced environmental footprint with this approach, since less carbon dioxide is generated by the manufacturing and building process and there is less on-site waste.

Steve Price, executive director for bioindustrial innovation at Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions (AI Bio), says he expects modular off-site construction will have an impact on both residential and commercial construction, as building codes are adjusted to allow for more wood use.

However, Price says Alberta’s woodproduct manufacturers should take note of the type of wood products that these builders are using, as it may require companies to adjust their product offerings to the building industry to maintain market share.

Because precision is so critical when manufacturing modular components, some industry-leading modular home builders like Edmonton-based Landmark have chosen to use more predictable engineered wood products rather than standard dimension lumber as their primary building material. At present, about 80 per cent of their building material is laminated veneer lumber (LVL).

“These days, we are particularly concerned with reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency,” says Price. “With modular construction, we are witnessing a push towards the use of alternative building materials that allow for precision in that construction method. So, we are seeing a push on forest products

companies to move more toward engineered wood products rather than the solid materials.”

Advances in technology over the past two decades have greatly improved offsite construction. For example, Landmark has invested about $15 million in a large factory in Edmonton featuring a significant amount of computerized planning tools and robotic building technology.

“Once the (modular) components get to the site, it takes about four hours to completely erect an entire house that has a sealed roof, windows and doors,” says Curt Beyer, corporate senior vice-president at Landmark Building Solutions. “We take the waiting time for things to happen on each building construction project out of the equation.”

The company takes away its waste in buckets—not truckloads—from its construction sites, Beyer adds.

Dr. Al-Hussein says AI Bio’s support is essential in helping to advance knowledge and acceptance of modular off-site building construction practices. Because AI Bio also has strong connections to the primary wood-product manufacturing industry, it is playing an important role in helping to align research in building construction with research related to the forest sector.

As modular construction advances, building designers have started to think of new and better materials that could be used, perhaps involving nanotechnologies and bioproducts. However, research is needed to ensure that these materials are safe and deliver good performance, and this is one area being investigated under Dr. Al-Hussein’s direction as the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in the Industrialization of Building Construction. AI Bio is also providing financial support for this chair.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

41

The Edge

Innovative harvest and regeneration design for beetle site rehabilitation

By Tony Kryzanowski

R

esults from test sites in Alberta show that implementing a rehabilitation design developed by the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) for mountain pine beetle infected stands with over 50 per cent mortality could deliver multiple benefits.

“We have been able to capture some value from these sites, tentatively reduce the pest and fire risk, and enhance stands to put them back on a productive trajectory to meet future objectives of the forest industry,” says Derek Sidders, CWFC Prairie Regional Co-ordinator and Program Manager.

With support from the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA) Mountain Pine Beetle Rehabilitation Program, CWFC has partnered with Canfor, Spectrum Resources and University of Alberta researchers on an operational trial aimed at investigating the most effective way to recover value and rehabilitate beetleaffected small stem lodgepole pine mixed stands with over 50 per cent mortality.

Forest companies avoid harvesting these sites because they have minimal conventional commercial value. However, left unchecked, they could have a significant impact on the future health and production of the commercial forest. Therefore, there is a need to develop an effective way to rehabilitate these sites.

This development project is taking place on forest blocks totaling approximately 450 hectares north of Grande Prairie. A CWFC-designed rehabilitation system, involving innovative harvesting and regeneration methods, is being deployed.

Sidders describes the harvest prescription as a full tree systematic harvesting pattern, using five metre wide parallel machine corridors centered at 20 metre intervals with landings servicing two to

three machine corridors. Between each machine corridor is a 15 metre selection strip, which in total occupy about 75 per cent of the treatment area. Selection from within this area removes active attack trees, trees with commercial product potential and other stems impacting stand health and vigor.

He adds that green active-attacked, red-impacted, and green lodgepole pine trees greater than 20 centimetres in diameter or in dense patches are being recovered from the retention strips. White spruce and aspen are only being harvested from within the machine corridors and will be sorted for sawlog, OSB or biomass production.

If there are stands of dense, green, non-attacked lodgepole pine within the retention strips, the trees are spaced to about three metres between boles.

The completed area, consisting of multiple development and research test sites, will be harvested by the end of

42

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

March, with site prep and planting taking place this spring and summer.

“We’ve found so far that the harvesting prescription is effective in meeting the objectives of the project and program and is reasonably easy to deploy operationally,” says Sidders.

Once operator training on the unique pattern was completed, the feller bunchers harvested down the machine corridor and back out to the landing, creating bunches from the machine corridor and selected wood from the retention strips. All bunches face the landing and are accessible from the machine corridor. Skidders backed down the machine corridors and grabbed bunches of green, red, and grey lodgepole pine, white spruce and aspen, sorting them into various decks at the landing. The material is then processed, based on the demand for the various products.

The biomass gathered from these sites is being mulched, chipped and compress-baled using a Gyro-Trac Biomass Baling System (BBS) unit, creating 700 to 1,000 kilogram bales for sale to the bioenergy or oil and gas sectors.

“Throughout all these operations, time and motion studies are being completed by the CWFC, as well as very detailed time and motions studies on the biomass baler by FPInnovations,” says Sidders.

The treated sites and landing areas are being site prepped for replanting using an excavator mounted mixing or mounding attachment to create suitable micro-sites.

Sites will be replanted with white spruce and lodgepole pine. CWFC and University of Alberta researchers will monitor the research sites on an ongoing basis.

For more information about this program, contact Derek Sidders at (780) 435-7355 or derek.sidders@ nrcan.gc.ca.

industryevents

Plenty of issues front and centre at COFI convention in April The B.C. forest industry continues to bounce back, getting fuel for its recovery from a lower Canadian dollar and increasing housing starts in the U.S., but there are still pressing issues to be discussed at the upcoming Council of Forest Industries (COFI) annual convention in Prince George in April.

COFI Conference 2015 Exhibitor List BC Bioenergy Network.............................. Booth 1 BC Forest Safety Council..........................Booth 13 BC Timber Sales........................................Booth 2 Brunette Machinery Co................... Booth 23 & 24 Canadian Forest Industry Magazine.........Booth 15 Cloverdale Paint.............................. Booth 41 & 42 Comact....................................................Booth 11 Dagr Industrial Lighting............................Booth 20 Davis LLP................................................Booth 10 Forest Practices Board.............................Booth 28 FPInnovations............................................Booth 3 HewSaw Machines Inc...............................Booth 9 Industrial Autolube International Inc...........Booth 7 Jet Label.................................................Booth 21 LINCK GmbH............................................Booth 26 Logging and Sawmilling Journal..............Booth 31 Murray Latta Progressive Machine...........Booth 25 Nicholson Manufacturing Limited...............Booth 4 Optimil Machinery Inc................................Booth 6 Porter Engineering Ltd...............................Booth 5 SCS Forest Products Inc...........................Booth 16 SiCam Systems.......................................Booth 22 Signode Canada.......................................Booth 17 Springer Microtec Inc...............................Booth 27 USNR.......................................................Booth 19 Wellons Canada Corp...............................Booth 18 Wolftek Industries Inc...............................Booth 12 44

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

By Paul MacDonald

A

ttendees at the upcoming Council of Forest Industries (COFI) convention being held April 8-9 in Prince George, B.C. can get a first-hand look at one of the topics on the program—the use of wood in higher buildings—by taking a short walk to downtown Prince George.

There, they can see the Wood Innovation and Design Centre (WIDC) in downtown Prince George. The building utilizes a number of wood species and products from across the province such as Douglas fir, western red cedar, hemlock, pine and spruce.

The WIDC incorporates a structural system that includes a variety of locally manufactured solid engineered wood products. And at 29.5 metres high with six floors, it is the tallest contemporary wood building in North America.

One of the topics at the COFI two-day

convention in Prince George is Showcasing Wood Promotion & Use, during which the WIDC is sure to be discussed.

“Over the decades, the industry has built up a very good reputation and captured well the single family and lowrise multi-family market,” says Doug Routledge, vice-president forestry and northern operations for COFI. While this market segment will continue to be large, the use of wood materials in taller structures, such as the WIDC, is gaining momentum, he says.

Another trend to be discussed at the conference is the development of passive houses, which have high levels of energy efficiency. With their higher levels of wood use, this represents another potential market for wood producers.

While the conference will certainly be looking at current industry trends, it will also be looking out into the future, where the industry will be in five years’—or even 20 years’—time, says Routledge.

“We’ll be looking at what is coming at us, how that can shape us as an industry and what we need to prepare ourselves to be successful competitors in that environment.”

There will be a focus on three main areas: fibre supply, markets and product lines. Product lines include newly emerging bio economy products, such as wood pellets and engineered wood products, in addition to traditional products, lumber and plywood.

The convention will include a panel on transportation, so essential to the industry.

“We need to get our wood products to the marketplace, whether that means using ships, the ports, rail or trucks, and that is a bit of a hot button for the industry right now,” says Routledge. Improvements could be made on the rail transportation side, he added.

“We want to try and look at what is going on there, and how we can better deliver products in North America. Most of our customers are into the just-in-time delivery system and that brings an additional imperative for rail systems to muster the cars and get the cars moving.”

One of the sessions deals with relationships with First Nations, and the changing situation in dealing with First Nations groups. A focus of this session will be on what works, says Routledge.

“As an industry, we have had a lot of successes, and we will be celebrating those successes. We also need to make

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45

industryevents

sure we understand what all the parties— the industry, government, First Nations— have learned from those, and translate them into greater success.”

Fibre supply will also be discussed at the convention.

“Fibre supply is a big issue for B.C., and it’s not just in the wake of the mountain pine beetle, though that is the single most significant factor,” says Routledge. “There are a lot of pressures on the land base, and fibre supply is coming under increasing pressure as we expand the markets we can produce from wood fibre, whether it is bioenergy with wood pellets or getting into the biochemical side. There is growing demand for fibre, and we are faced with a decreasing supply, at least in the short and medium term.”

The industry has been working, jointly with government, on a report on the fibre demand supply situation. “We’ve been

building a bit of a picture of that and exploring what the synergies are to get the right fibre flowing to the right mill, but using economic drivers, as opposed to public policy drivers, to cause that to happen.”

The issue of safety and dust control is sure to be discussed at the convention.

“We’ve made huge strides in that regard,” says Routledge. “I think we’ve built a good solid foundation. We had those catastrophic events a couple of years ago, and certainly the dust side has been very prominent and very active.” Routledge added that safety efforts in the industry have a broad scope.

COFI will be re-introducing its community engagement program at the 2015 convention. The forest industry has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the leaders of the communities in which its members operate. Past conventions have featured the opportunity for elected representatives to meet and engage with

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

from page 45

business leaders, and the program will be re-introduced this year.

While there is a very solid line-up of speakers and topics, the value of the COFI conference is also in informal networking that’s done at lunches, dinners and during coffee breaks, between industry people.

“That has huge value,” says Routledge.

With the development of electronic communications such as e-mails, texts and tweets, getting together with people, face-to-face, is more important than ever, he added.

The high level of interest in the COFI convention reflects the continuing recovery of the industry from the downturn, though it has been a slower recovery than many industry people expected.

“That is not necessarily a bad thing,” says Routledge. “The slowly evolving recovery is actually leading to a greater degree of industry stability in the long run.

“Rather than a quick flash in the pan recovery, where industry people might think that they don’t have to finish off that project or cost saving measure because the cash is flowing again, the slower recovery is resulting in people seeing things through, whether it is on the technology and innovation side of the mill, helping government modernize public policy, the fibre supply side or new product innovation.

“But the recovery has been more muted than expected, and consequently the industry has been a little more guarded about spending capital,” said Routledge.

He noted that some lumber markets have been soft recently. “China and Japan have both cooled off considerably, but that has been buffered by the slowly improving North American market.”

The industry remains very aware of the importance of its export markets, whether it is the Pacific Rim or the U.S., and the value of diversifying markets, both geographically and in products. Export markets are the lifeblood of the industry, says Routledge, noting that the domestic market in Canada does not even consume 15 per cent of the lumber produced in B.C. alone.

Overall, the industry is, as the saying goes, cautiously optimistic, added Routledge.

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COFI conference to feature top notch speakers

T

he Council of Forest Industries will host its annual convention April 8-9 at the Prince George Civic Centre in Prince George, B.C. As has come to be expected of the pre-eminent forest industry conference in Western Canada, this year’s program will feature opinion leaders speaking on the issues that matter to the forest industry in B.C., including markets, fibre, products, and competitiveness.

The COFI Annual Convention is the largest annual gathering of the forest industry in western Canada and attracts industry CEOs, vice-presidents and operations staff from continental North America and offshore, senior representatives from customers, suppliers, financial institutions, law firms, consultants, local government, chambers of commerce, federal and provincial ministers, MPs, MLAs, senior

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

civil servants and students and instructors from trade, technical and university postsecondary institutions.

Historic attendance at the convention ranges between 500 to 900 registered delegates.

An updated schedule for the convention is available online, at www.cofi.org/ convention/annual-convention.

T

Program at a Glance

he 2015 COFI Convention continues the tradition of presenting top-notch industry analysts, business veterans and political leaders to delegates. Combined with extensive networking opportunities and a growing trade show, the COFI Convention is the leading forest industry conference in Western Canada.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015 7:00 am

Exhibitors Early Risers Continental Breakfast Hour

8:00 am

Opening / Welcome Address

8:15 am

Session #1 – Minister’s Address

8:45 am

Session #2 – Global Economics & Market Outlook

10:10 am Morning Coffee Break 10:30 am Session #3 – Products to Markets – Transportation Essentials 11:40 am Pre-Luncheon Reception 12:15 pm Luncheon with Keynote Speaker 2:00 pm Session #4 – First Nations – The Changing Landscape 3:30 pm Session #5 – Showcasing Wood Promotion & Use 4:45 pm Exhibitors Hospitality Hour 6:00 pm Networking Reception A fine evening of abundant food and excellent networking – Don’t plan dinner out !

Thursday, April 9, 2015 7:00 am

Exhibitors Early Risers Continental Breakfast Hour

8:00 am

Session #6 – Fibre Supply Constraints & Opportunities

9:15 am

Session #7 – Bio-Economy – Existing & Emerging Products & Markets

10:15 am Morning Coffee Break 10:40 am Session #8 – CEO’s Panel – Part 1 11:20 am Session #8 – CEO’s Panel – Part 2 12:00 pm Pre-Luncheon Reception 12:30 pm Luncheon – Community Recognitions Luncheon 2:15 pm Convention Ends 50

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

TECHUPDATE

By Tony Kryzanowski

Log, Lumber, and Grade Optimization Systems sawing pattern optimization is performed, evaluating all sawing combinations that fit the quality of the final sawn products. The optimization software determines the sawing pattern with the highest added value, and the requirements of the final product are controlled in real time according to current production requirements. This product was designed to increase the productivity of the saw line, which promotes sustainable processing of the raw material and improves the yield and the quality of the final products, says the company. www.springer-microtec.com

USNR Autolog

Autolog has been known as a leader in transverse scanning technology since the early 1990s. Over that time, many improvements have been made to their designs to increase lumber recovery while reducing maintenance. Autolog’s transverse optimization family, which includes trimmer, cant and edger systems, is supplied with Hermary sensors.

In 2009, Autolog introduced an innovative idea: slanting the sensors to increase board edge detection. Slanted heads offer many advantages including: detection of steep edge wane; better width accuracy; slanted heads stay clear from debris and dust; and there is no need for an air cleaning system.

The first system with slanted heads was installed on a trimmer optimizer in Maine and since then, every new system sold has been supplied with slanted heads.

The same technology applies to edger and cant optimizers, the only difference being that the angle of the scanning heads is different for each system. www.autolog.com

USNR’s BioVision technology is advancing on the land “Down Under” with new grade scanning technology implemented at Pukepine Sawmills at Te Puke, New Zealand and AKD Softwoods at Colac, Australia.

The system recently installed at Pukepine Sawmills comprises a 6 m (20’) USNR grade scanning trimmer line featuring BioLuma 2900LVG+ four-sided scanning for full automated grading of its green lumber products.

Springer Microtec

The Microtec CT.LOG scanner is a revolutionary solution for saw infeeds, saw lines and merchandising systems, according to the company.

CT.LOG creates a complete digital reconstruction of the internal characteristics of a log, capturing all defects, quality features and species of the log prior to breakdown. A true quality

The system at AKD Softwoods is a BioVision edger grading line. This BioVision system features a new scan frame outfitted with BioLuma 2900LV sensors. The HD laser profiling and HD visual data is fed to the system’s MillExpert software platform to maximize both volume and value recovery of structural and appearance grade products by positioning the saws based on the knot sizing permitted for structural lumber. www.usnr.com

JoeScan

Today’s complex and demanding sawmill environments require 3-D scanning that is reliable and easy to use, which is why an increasing number of mills rely on JoeScan scanners, says the company.

The foundation of JoeScan products is summed up in four to page 52 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

51

techupdate from page 51 simple terms: simple, fast, accurate and reliable. Every model comes with plug-and-scan Ethernet and built-in durability that delivers accurate data in the roughest environments.

As JoeScan has perfected its products, it has also added speed and versatility. The new JS-25 X-series scanners take up to 850 profile measurements per second, with each profile containing

Halco Software Systems

up to 242 data points. In addition, the JS-25 X-series scanner models accommodate virtually any scanning need—indoor, outdoor, transverse or lineal. From logs to lumber, JoeScan provides dependable scanning for bucking, carriages, sharp chains, gangs, edgers, planers and more. www.joescan.com

Halco’s WSO is a production planning optimization system. It determines the mill’s optimal production mix, and the optimizer parameters required to produce that mix.

WSO combines SAWSIM with linear programming optimization in a proprietary iterative technique. WSO determines the operating plan that maximizes profit, considering logs to be processed, market prices, sales mix constraints and committed orders, and mill flow/bottlenecking machines.

Most mills run WSO weekly. WSO results are presented in a KPI report, which becomes the plan to which everyone is working: management knows the plan, sales knows the production mix to expect, and the mill knows their production targets. Optimizer parameters are then entered to implement the plan.

WSO maximizes profit by resolving trade-offs between recovery, sales mix, and production rate. Sales average is increased with a high-value mix that satisfies market constraints. The production rate is increased, using bottleneck machines most efficiently. Recovery is increased, eliminating doing “extreme things” to rebalance inventory.

Halco says that every company that implemented WSO at one mill has gone on to place orders for second, third, or fourth sites. www.halcosoftware.com

ProLogic+

This year, Prologic+ officially released its new QC scanners.

Being in the prototype phase from 2013 to 2014, the product range is now ready for the industry.

Starting with CQC (Cant Quality Control) and BQC (Board Quality Control) scanners, both systems analyze all kinds of defects such as surface roughness, wane balance, thickness and width variation, average sweep in real time on the cants or sideboards.

In collaboration with HewSaw with its log turner, the Prologic+ log scanner collects dense surface points and log pictures for each

to page 54 52

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

Some say 45⁰ vs. 90⁰ does not make a difference, we beg to differ… stay tuned!

27 YEARS OF

TECHNOLOGY, QUALITY & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

VALUE THROUGH INNOVATION T. 450 434.8389 • info@autolog.com • WWW.AUTOLOG.COM 1240, Michèle-Bohec, Blainville (Qc) J7C 5S4, Canada ® Trademark Autolog, Production Management Inc.

techupdate from page 52 individual scanned log and then passes that info to the RCS (Rotation Correction System) scanner. By overlaying dense profiles and pictures previously given by the first scanner, the RCS Scanner compares the actual complete final rotation from the first rotor and if needed, adjusts or fine tunes the rotation with the second rotor, when needed. www.prologicplus.com

Optware

The Optware-x Sawmill Enterprise System allows mills to proactively plan and optimize activities across multiple machine centres by creating a virtual model of a business.

The software works like a compass, pointing out the activities which will result in maximum profits. The technology makes it possible to add hundreds of thousands of additional profit dollars per year to the bottom line, says the company.

The model captures data from existing sawing solutions, production systems, lumber grading systems and financial systems to determine the best possible solution. The tool can be used to assist decision making in a number of areas including: which logs should be bought; how should logs be processed; how do cutting patterns affect production volumes and downstream work centres; what prices should be entered into the sawing solution tables; and what is the most profitable lumber product mix. www.optware.com

Raptor Inc.

FX85-Q is the evolution of Raptor’s geometric scanning to full surface defect recognition on green or dry lumber.

There is no requirement to mask chainways as the integrated transfer enables the cameras to see the entire board without the need to remove images that obstruct.

The system uses profiling lasers as well as tracheid and color

vision techniques to see a number of defects such as knots, pith, cracks, blue stain, rot, chalk markings and dirt.

With the tracheid technique, laser light is distorted differently depending on the properties of the wood, making it possible to detect differences in fibre angle and defects such as blonde knots.

System modularity allows the customer to begin with dimensional measurement initially and add vision/tracheid at a later date, without changing the hardware.

FX85-Q is available for edging and trimming applications. www.raptorint.ca

VAB Solutions

VAB Solution’s constant research and development has produced a significant step forward in patent pending sawmill trimmer scanner technology, says the company.

Using a full laser line to generate grey scale imaging and differential measurements of both edges, it allows the detection of rot and decay and never before achieved width measurement precision, according to the company.

Key features are rot and decay detection on all four faces and both ends that allow accurate trimming using detailed greyscale imagery; what the company says is the best accuracy in the industry using more than 20 differential measurements on edges, allowing edge and width measurement accuracy of +/0.005’’; high reading density by scanning the boards under a continuous laser line instead of only laser dots; scan density can be adjusted as low as 1/16” if needed; permanent calibration requiring a check only once a year; and fewer components reduce costs and future maintenance.

Canada’s Sexton Lumber will be installing this new trimmer scanner in the coming weeks. www.vab-solutions.com

to page 56 54

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

Don’t Miss These Exciting Features at the Show: • Health & Wellness Zone • Demo Zone

For more information, please contact: Mark Cusack, National Show Manager mcusack@mpltd.ca • 1-888-454-7469

techupdate from page 54

Comact

For well over a decade now, profiling heads have been an integral component of Comact primary breakdown systems, such as the DDM, as well as secondary breakdown systems, such as the TBL3.

profile sideboards and thus limit handling, not to mention relieve existing edgers. Profiling enables reducing cutting height of the twin since logs have already been profiled. Due to the fact that saws have less material to cut through, it is therefore possible to increase edging speed by up to 25 per cent.

For a sawmill seeking to increase its throughput, this is a sizable advantage besides getting rid of those typical edger bottlenecks, says the company. Thanks to the integration of profiling heads both at primary and secondary breakdowns, Comact has managed to offer productive, profitable solutions specifically adapted to the needs of its clients. www.comact.com

SCS

SCS says it provides the only end-to-end line of integrated moisture measurement sensors and related process optimization tools for sawmills, kilns and planers.

To meet the needs of its clients aiming to operate ever more productive and profitable sawmills, Comact has improved its product offerings over the last few years. In fact, Comact has delivered various projects where profiling heads have been integrated into the twin canter (primary breakdown) in order to

The transverse sensor provides moisture content data every 16 microseconds as boards pass over the sensors. Laser sensors detect boards as they pass over the sensors and apply correction factors for warp or curve sawing. Similarly, temperature sensors monitor the temperatures of boards as they pass over the sensors, applying a correction factor to ensure that there is always a strong correlation between sensor readings and true measurements, regardless of the temperature. For green lumber, moisture sorting can be used to optimize drying schedules, reducing overall drying times as well as the standard deviation of kiln charges. For dry lumber, moisture content inputs can be used by the in-line grading system to maximize grades, provide better cut-in-two solutions or minimize trim decisions. www.scsfp.com

FinScan

With the opening of FinScan Inc. in North America, FinScan is once again consolidating its leading position in both sawmill automated grading solutions and customer support for Canadian and American sawmills.

Based on 25 years of experience, the company’s new BoardMasterNOVA scans 100 per cent of individual boards from all sides providing fast board dimensional and quality analysis. Based on required grades and market value, the system optimizes and automatically generates 56

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

techupdate

detailed instructions for trimming, cutting, re-edging, ripping and sorting. Technological innovations allow the system to detect biological defects and shakes/splits in a more efficient way than traditional operations.

When combined with the EndSpy and MoistSpy solutions, customers get a complete, comprehensive and fully configurable grading system. Ultimately, they achieve an optimized solution for each of their particular production runs while achieving the best possible yields. wwwfinscanusa.com

Baxley

The Ecoustic board stress grader uses proven acoustical resonance technology to determine the stiffness of lumber simply, efficiently, and inexpensively, says the company.

A board’s structural strength is determined by its stiffness or

modulus of elasticity, or MoE. With known density, the stiffness is proportional to the speed sound waves travel through a piece of lumber. This is the science behind the Ecoustic board stress grader.

It was developed by Calibre Equipment of New Zealand, and licensed to Baxley Equipment for manufacture in the U.S. and Canada. There are over 18 systems currently running in the U.S., and one scheduled for a March install in Canada.

The Ecoustic board stress grader is CLSAB approved and is compatible with all visual graders and manual grading systems. www.baxleyequipment.com

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015 2015-02-11 1:20 PM

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SUPPLIERNEWSLINE Samuel Strapping brings better bander performance to Boise Cascade EWP

Samuel Strapping Systems recently partnered with Boise Cascade’s Engineered Wood Products (EWP) division to install a bander in their White City, Oregon facility.

Boise Cascade EWP’s Oregon facility is one of the largest laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and I-joist manufacturing plants in the world, and must meet the needs of over 60 dealers across North America.

Their existing single bander configuration could not process product as quickly as it was being delivered, and this had resulted in a bottleneck that slowed down operations.

As it turns out, Samuel Strapping Systems had previously outfitted one of the White City plant’s sister mills in New Brunswick.

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BC Saw Filer’s Association Stay Sharp & Stay Safe

58

By Tony Kryzanowski

Armed with this previous experience, Boise Cascade approached Samuel Strapping Systems and asked them to provide a solution.

In response, Samuel Strapping Systems offered a top sealing strapping machine set up with a VK30 polyester strap head and a CD12SJ powered dispenser, which was installed on the same production line as another brand of strapping machine.

When asked about the performance of the Samuel Strapping bander, Dennis Ekstrand, manager of EWP maintenance and construction, said: “After we put the Samuel Strapping bander in with the second bander, we reduced our cycle time by approximately 33 per cent. Additionally, the Samuel Strapping cycle rate exceeds the cycle rate of the other brand.” www.samuelstrapping.com

John Deere introduces M-series tracked feller bunchers and harvesters

Three years in the making and backed by over a half-century of experience in the woods, the John Deere M-series tracked feller bunchers and tracked harvesters are officially now making their debut.

The latest additions to the John Deere family of tracked forestry machines include the 800M and 800MH-series reduced tail swing, along with the 900M and 900MHseries that improve upon John Deere’s large-size machines.

The 800M and 800MHseries machines share many common components— including the engine, undercarriage, booms and cab—with their 900M and 900MH-series counterparts, simplifying maintenance and repairs when needed.

The Rapid Cycle System (RCS) on the machines combines automated felling head arm cycling with simple boom control, dramatically reducing operator fatigue while increasing efficiency and productivity, says the company. RCS can be tailored to individual skill levels and specific harvesting conditions, from large single tree harvesting to high speed, multi-stem cutting.

An added benefit for operators is its selectable operation, which allows them to engage and disengage RCS with a single touch of a button. Multiple RCS settings can also be saved according to individual operator preferences based on skill levels. RCS is standard on all 800M and 800MH-series machines and as an option on the 900M and 900MH-series.

The new operator station on all M-series machines is roomier and more comfortable, with ergonomically designed controls.

Fully adjustable armrests provide fingertip control of all machine functions, and an air conditioned seat provides exceptional daylong comfort in the climate controlled cab. Floor-to-ceiling front and side windows plus an overhead skylight provide 44 per cent more visibility, providing an outstanding view of the cutting area. www.johndeere.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

SMS Equipment now carries Fecon line

SMS Equipment Inc. has augmented its equipment offerings with the addition of heavy duty, high production products from mulching industry leader, Fecon.

Established in 1992, Fecon manufactures a broad line of durable, purpose-built machines that fit a wide range of applications across four primary markets: vegetation management, environmental, oil and gas and construction.

Fecon is wellknown for innovative and proven attachment technology, including its signature Bull Hog line that features several configurations for skid steers, PTO tractors and excavators. Traditional drum and innovative depth control rotor systems are available to match individual users’ clearing, right-of-way, pasture, wildlife restoration and other application needs.

Attachments can be mounted on practically any brand of equipment, including Fecon’s own tracked and rubber-tired mulching tractors.

“We are very proud to incorporate Fecon’s line of equipment into our dealer solutions and we have already begun our partnership with all the staff at Fecon. Their products are an ideal complement to our current product offerings and we are eager to introduce this line of equipment into the Canadian marketplace,” says Bruce Knight, President and CEO, SMS Equipment. www.smsequip.com

Springer supplies screw unscrambler to Roseburg

suppliernewsline well as lower conversion costs as a result of the investment.” The new system will be delivered in May with installation starting June 2015. www.springer-microtec.com

Diacon Technologies plays important role in mold prevention Diacon Technologies Inc. is a supplier of mold prevention products, including Mycostat, Diaplex, and Smart Flow.

The company says that its Mycostat product is the leading name in mold inhibition for both softwood and hardwood and composites, both green and kiln dried.

Diaplex is unique, turnkey spray equipment offered in both lineal and transverse spray systems. High quality, robust, and easy to maintain, Diacon Technologies says that Diaplex is the leading spray technology.

Smart Flow is unique in that it is the only computer measurement system in the industry today, says the company. Smart Flow measures, records, and controls all facets of the company’s Diaplex spray system. www.diacon.com

5th

The Roseburg Forest Products upgrade at the company’s mill in Dillard, Oregon, focused on the optimization of the log handling process, implementing a state-of-the-art screw unscrambler with a short buffer conveyor and stop-end feeder made by Springer.

The system will be integrated into the current log handling equipment line-up and is custom-designed for the length of Roseburg’s logs. The existing step feeder will be removed, and the new screw unscrambler will align and singulate the logs faster and more efficiently for the following conveyor unit.

“The screw technology turned out to be our favored solution—a chainless system makes sense in terms of keeping maintenance costs low,” says Barry Hutchins, manager of solid wood engineering at Roseburg. “Revisions are easy and spare part requirements minimized. It is also equipped with a fully automatic lubrication system. We expect significant improvements in productivity as

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classified

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Trelleborg Wheel Systems Appoints US Field Engineer

Ac# Advertiser Page Autolog Sawmill Automation........... 53 BC Saw Filer's Association................ 58 Bell's Firewood Processors................ 56 Brandt Tractor................................. 11 Brunette Machinery Co.................... 45 Caterpillar....................................... 15 Cleanfix NA..................................... 12 CNRE ............................................. 55 Comact............................................. 5 DAGR Industrial Lighting................. 48 DK Spec.......................................... 43 Finning CAT..................................... 47 Gilbert-Tech.................................... 33 Global Log & Lumber Conf.............. 59 Globalstar......................................... 7 ILA Convention & Tradeshow........... 57 Industrial Equipment Mfg................. 13 JoeScan........................................... 52 John Deere..................................... 25 Liebherr.......................................... 19 Linck GmbH................................... 49 London Drugs................................... 8 Murray Latta Prog. Machine............. 50 Nicholson Manufacturing................ 46 Northern Ontario Forestry Expo....... 54 Olofsfors-Iggesund Sawbars............. 18 Peterson.......................................... 27 Ponsse............................................ 40 Port of Prince Rupert....................... 38 Prologic+........................................ 37 Rhino Print Solutions....................... 57 Rivard Engineering........................... 12 Rosta Inc........................................... 6 SKS Engineering................................. 6 SMS Equipment.......................... 20-21 Steelworks Welding & Fabrication.... 14 Stihl ............................................... 2 Terex Fuchs..................................... 34 Tigercat........................................... 64 Trelleborg.......................................... 9 VAB Solutions.................................. 39 Wagner, a div. of Allied Systems....... 31 Waratah.......................................... 63 Wood-Mizer.................................... 26 Woodland Equipment...................... 35

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

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INDEX

Effective January 2015, Reed Jacobs has been appointed as Field Engineer for Trelleborg Agricultural and Forestry Tires for North America. Reed brings to the role considerable experience in the agricultural and forestry tire industry in North America. He will focus on offering premium support to Trelleborg’s end users and customers by overseeing product warranty and field testing.

Trelleborg customers in North America will benefit from the upcoming manufacturing facility in Spartanburg as well as the addition of Reed Jacobs to the commercial team.

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thelastword

Outlook is positive for Canada's lumber producers

By Jim Stirling

C

anada’s recent lumber and wood byproduct marketing diversification strategies should help the more progressive forest companies weather the next two or three years. Two recent reports lead to that conclusion.

The International Wood Markets Group in 2014 took the brave step of preparing its five year lumber demand forecast. The company’s intelligence estimates the bellwether U.S. housing starts will slowly climb from a little more than one million units in 2014 to 1.46 million by 2019. International Wood Products predicts British Columbia lumber production of 12.6 billion board feet in 2015 (up from 12.3 billion last year) with a price of U.S. $362 per thousand.

The trend is predicted to continue its improvement in 2016 with B.C. lumber production of 12.8 billion board feet and a price of U.S. $377 per thousand. But unlike the past, B.C.’s sawmills won’t have the luxury of simply ramping up production to meet the U.S. lumber demand peaks. Instead, the mountain pine beetle’s bite will sink deeper. The sawlog fibre quantities simply won’t be there.

As a consequence, International Wood Markets expects B.C.’s lumber production to dip to 12.5 billion board feet in 2017 and prices will reflect the fibre situation, reaching about U.S. $425 per thousand.

By 2019 and the end of International Woods Products’ time frame assessment, B.C. producers’ share will have shrunk to 11.8 billion board feet, although the price will remain high, at U.S. $400 a thousand.

A non-beetle factor affecting predicted prices comes from Quebec. The company said the provincial government there has reduced Crown timber harvesting levels to meet its conservation goals.

Interestingly, although not specifically mentioned in International Wood Markets’ analysis, the possibility exists in B.C. of an opposite move to Quebec’s. The B.C. Liberal government has indicated it might consider removing areas of timber currently under varying levels of protection from industrial activity to help counter the fibre

shortage impacts of the beetle infestation.

Fortunately, B.C. is no longer a one trick lumber market pony. There’s Asia and hard work to thank for that. China especially has forestalled some interior mills from closure. Chinese lumber demand is not what it was, rating lateral to dipping.

But it maintains a significance.

Japan, Korea and other regional markets have their issues but will likely help B.C. lumber producers who have done their homework in the region and proven themselves reliable shippers of quality products.

All in all, according to International Wood Markets Group’s analysis, marketwise, the outlook is short term positive for Canada’s lumber producers.

Meanwhile, the export outlook for biomass energy production looks predominantly rosy for the next several years.

“The markets are growing at a tremendous rate. It looks like global consumption is going to double in the next few years,” pointed out Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada in a report late last fall.

The demand is being driven by political resolve in Europe and latterly in Asia.

Some European countries are committed to weaning their industries off a traditional reliance on coal-fired power in favour of renewable sources. Some European countries have signed on to European Union commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent from 1995 levels by 2020.

Generous European subsidies help make the importation of wood pellets from jurisdictions like B.C. a viable option, despite the formidable transportation challenges. B.C.’s wood pellet manufacturers have been quick off the mark to capitalize on the situation. Currently, 13 wood pellet manufacturing plants produce approximately two million tonnes of product annually, mainly for export.

Cheap natural gas drives the domestic Canadian heating market despite wood pellets’ availability and advantages.

Canfor Corp. will add to B.C.’s wood

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - February 2015

pellet manufacturing capacity when its new plants in Chetwynd and Fort St. John come into production. The plants, adjacent to the company’s existing sawmills at each location, will manufacture wood pellets from sawmill residues and capitalize on surplus capacity to generate electricity for the B.C. grid, thereby creating an additional revenue stream.

Korea and Japan are following Europe’s lead toward more renewable power and wood pellet shipments. While these shipments are relatively modest today, these countries have air quality targets that auger well for Canadian pellet manufacturers.

The wood fibre is available in B.C. to support the predicted growth. The trick is to secure access to a steady supply of low grade fibre at prices acceptable to major licencees and the biomass industry.

The B.C. Ministry of Forest, Lands and Resource Operations has said it will introduce supplemental forest licences to help facilitate the process. Timber allocated under the licences would be classified as uneconomic for lumber production. The licences would, among other advantages, give the wood pellet manufacturing industry a bargaining chip when negotiating with licencees for long term fibre supply contracts.

The Canadian forest industry is however never short of issues that can derail the best of predictions. Last year’s Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the Ts’ilhqotin Nation claim could prove a case in point. What the Court’s decision means for the day to day functioning of the forest industry remains unclear. The possible ramifications range from minimal to catastrophic. Most First Nations groups are wisely holding their counsel and assessing their options.

But what is clear from the Court’s decision is that failure to show deference and respect to First Nations on land access and use issues will have its consequences.

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