Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

Visit LsJ’s website at www.forestnet.com!

March/April 2015

increasing Lumber recoVery at tolko’s Lakeview sawmill b.c. interior contractor ProfiLes: mid-boundary contracting and Kineshanko Logging

canada’s toP Lumber Producers: Who’s on top? aLberta’s manning diVersified sees $30 million upgrade With this issue…

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FEATURES On the Cover: March/April 2015 Volume 46 • No. 2 Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton

A Cat 522B feller buncher was the most recent equipment purchase for logging contractor Mid-Boundary Contracting, which is based in the rugged B.C. Southern Interior. Read all about how the new Cat buncher is performing for Mid-Boundary in this issue of Logging and Sawmilling Journal, beginning on page 14.

(Photo of Cat 522B buncher courtesy of Mid-Boundary Contracting)

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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4 Spotlight—The clock

is ticking on the Softwood Lumber Agreement

There is a united front on the part of Canada’s lumber producing provinces for extending the Softwood Lumber Agreement, but the U.S. government—and the U.S. lumber industry—have yet to say where they stand, even though the agreement expires this October.

8 Upping lumber recovery at Lakeview

Tolko Industries’ Lakeview Lumber Division in Williams Lake, B.C., has recently seen some significant upgrades that are already delivering results in lumber productivity and recovery.

14 Safety in B.C.’s

logging industry: a work in progress

Safety has always been a priority for logging contractor Reid Hedlund, of MidBoundary Contracting—who is also chair of the Interior Logging Association—and though the industry has seen success at reducing the number of accidents, it continues to take ongoing effort, he notes.

22 Top Lumber Producers

– Who’s on Top?

Logging and Sawmilling Journal’s annual listing of Canada’s Top Lumber Producers, produced in co-operation with industry consultants, International WOOD MARKETS Group.

34

Upgrades bring efficiency—and green power Alberta’s Manning Diversified Forest Products has invested $30 million in sawmill upgrades, new equipment that delivers higher production and more efficiency— and green power.

40 Cat—through and

through

B.C.’s Kineshanko Logging recently celebrated its 40th year in logging, and all through that time their equipment has only been one colour: Cat yellow.

48 Careful logging in

Algonquin Park

A careful approach to logging by contractors such as Jessup Bros. Forest Products is yielding jobs, good quality timber and an ample wood supply from Ontario’s wellknown Algonquin Provincial Park—timber that also helps to sustain jobs at local sawmills.

65 The Edge

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

74 The Last Word

Tony Kryzanowski says a lack of joint ventures may be stunting the growth of the forest industry.

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar ........................................................................................................7 Suppliernewsline.........................................................................................70 Classifieds / Employment Opportunities ......................................................72 Ad Index / Subscriptions..............................................................................73 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

3

spotlight

The cLock iS Ticking on the Softwood Lumber Agreement

There is a united front on the part of Canada’s lumber producing provinces for extending the Softwood Lumber Agreement, but the U.S. government—and the U.S. lumber industry— have yet to say where they stand, even though the agreement expires this October.

By Jim Stirling

I

t can be rare to have a number of Canadian provinces agree on any one thing, but Canada’s lumber producing provinces are united in their position on the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA): they favour a continuation of managed trade through a SLA. The U.S. government and the industry there officially remain preoccupied with other trade issues and have made no public declarations on the SLA. Unofficially, the word from the U.S. is one of dissatisfaction with the SLA in its current form.

Uncertainty, therefore, is the key word as the expiry of the existing SLA signed by the two countries in 2006 approaches this October.

There is, however, a rider in the agreement preventing any trade action by either party for one year from the expiry date. That means it could be October 2016 before things can turn really nasty.

There really is nothing new under the sun with lumber trade disputes with the U.S. Canadian lumber shipments to the U.S. were first subjected to a U.S. imposed tariff in 1789. The current deal imposes tariffs on Canadian lumber entering the U.S. market when prices are less than U.S. $355 per thousand board feet. It’s something that’s happened very infrequently in recent years. The 2006 soon-to-expire SLA has delivered a modicum of stability, allowing both countries to go about their business with relatively few wildfires.

4

“The position of the forest industry in Canada, including British Columbia, along with the perspective of the federal government and the views of provincial governments is that while it is not perfect, the Softwood Lumber Agreement should be extended and renewed for another nine years,” summarizes James Gorman, president and CEO of the Council of Forest Industries and president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council.

B.C. produces more than 50 per cent of Canadian softwood lumber production. “The reason we take that position is that we are of the view that the SLA has worked for both countries,” explains Gorman. “We believe managed trade provides greater certainty to both sides and produces stability in the marketplace.

“Managed trade,” he added, “also contains mechanisms for dealing with disputes.”

Canada’s share of the U.S. market in 2006 was 34 per cent with the U.S. meeting 61 per cent of its domestic demand.

Those respective figures are now around 28 per cent and 71 per cent. “It’s an indication that the Softwood Lumber Agreement has worked for the U.S.,” Gorman notes.

The growing Asian market has changed the Canadian dynamics of lumber marketing, especially for producers in B.C. The explosive growth in Chinese lumber demand has boosted exports from barely registering on a bar chart in 2005 to 3.35 billion board feet in 2013. Final shipments Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

for 2014 are expected to show a dip from the previous year as the rate of the middle class expansion in China slows somewhat.

The move to diversifying markets and to open trade with China is because the Asian market is real and extremely valuable to Canadian lumber manufacturers.

Another factor that’s real—unfortunately so, in this case—is the legacy of the mountain pine beetle epidemic in the B.C. Interior.

“One of the most important issues for both parties (in the SLA) is that interior to page 6

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spotlight from page 4 B.C. lumber production is set to decline because of the mountain pine beetle epidemic,” explains Gorman. “We anticipate the AAC will come down and it will change the industry for decades to come in B.C.” And, as pointed out, B.C. produced more than 50 per cent of Canadian softwood lumber production and the majority of that has traditionally been harvested in the B.C. Interior.

At the time of writing, while characterized by volatility, the value of the Canadian Loonie had slipped marginally below U.S. 80 cents. As noted economist Roslyn Kunin recently remarked, the currency gap doesn’t make reaching a deal with the U.S. any easier. She says the currency gap makes Canadian lumber cheaper to buy for American consumers. And that fact, Kunin added, is likely to further fan the flames of American protectionist sentiment.

That factor may need little enough encouragement as it is. The balances of power have shifted under the U.S. system recently. The Republican party now controls both the House and the Senate in

the U.S. which could well indicate a more protectionist attitude in many of its trade relationships, including a lumber deal agreement with Canada.

A further factor has changed since the existing SLA was signed in 2006.

Canadian investment in the U.S. forest industry has increased. Canfor Corp., West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., and Interfor are the three major companies to expand their holdings in the U.S., mainly in the southern yellow pine manufacturing belt.

“Canadian based companies now own

about 15 per cent of the U.S. lumber market,” estimates Gorman. “It’s of interest,” he agrees, “but it doesn’t change the fundamentals (of SLA renewal).”

It does, however, mitigate those three companies’ individual exposures to any punitive measures instigated against Canadian imports by the U.S. 80 cents.

Not all groups in Canada want to see a renewal of the SLA. For example, the Independent Wood Processors Association of B.C. (IWPA) reckons its members have been effectively forced out of reliable

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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spotlight and affordable access to Crown timber through the province’s timber auction system and the consolidation of forest tenures in B.C. The IWPA is unlikely to sway Canada’s position going into formal SLA discussions with the U.S. But the B.C. Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is apparently working on a position paper investigating options for boosting the viability of secondary manufacturing wood processing businesses in the province.

A byproduct of the present SLA has

been the bi-national Softwood Lumber Board. “Its key focus is to grow the use of softwood lumber in North America in non-residential markets,” explains Gorman.

The U.S./Canada cooperative approach takes on competitive building materials used in mid and high rise buildings both internally and externally. The six-storey Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George is a standing showcase for what can be achieved with all wood construction. The Softwood Lumber Board

builds relationships between the two countries, he notes, but that cooperation could be at risk without a new SLA. Although at press time the U.S. had not made public its official position on SLA renewal, Gorman remains hopeful in the ability of the two countries to extend the agreement. The likelihood for that might be clarified when the U.S. makes clear its opening gambit in the high stakes negotiations. “It is going to be an interesting year,” understates Gorman.

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millupgrade

Upping lUMber recovery at Lakeview Tolko Industries’ Lakeview Lumber Division in Williams Lake, B.C., has recently seen some significant upgrades that are already delivering results in lumber productivity and recovery.

The sound of a well-running sawmill is sweet music to shift charge hand Roy Betts. It means the upgrades at the Tolko Industries mill in Williams Lake, British Columbia are delivering their intended benefits.

By Jim Stirling hen a sawmill is running well, it just sounds right. It’s an intuitive sort of thing. The Lakeview sawmill is sounding better all the time.

It’s sweet music now to shift charge hand Roy Betts. It means the upgrades to the Tolko Industries mill in Williams Lake, British Columbia are delivering their intended benefits. Betts well understands the mill’s rhythms. He’s been patrolling the catwalks there since Lignum ran the operation in the mid-1970s.

Betts’ ears aren’t deceiving him.

“The upgrades have helped out our lumber recovery and our productivity,” confirms Ryan Oliver, plant manager for Tolko’s Lakeview Lumber Division.”We’re up about 15 to 20 points with our lumber recovery.”

The focus for a comprehensive range of upgrades in 2014 was rebuilding the sawmill’s back end, explains Oliver. “We have three breakdown lines feeding a single sorter. We were a back-end constrained mill.”

Lakeview can process logs from four

8

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

W

inch diameters to 26 inches on its three breakdown lines: a headrig side, a 10 inch canter line and an eight inch canter line.

The rebuilt back-end begins with a new unscrambler and lug loading system from Comact. Boards are delivered to an Autolog trimmer-optimizer—with options for remanufacturing—before passing through a Carbotech International fence and multi-saw trimmer.

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speed has also been improved with the Mill Tech sorter running easily at 155 lugs/minute compared with around 118 lugs under the old system.

Other new equipment installed in the upgrade includes an electric dual fork stacker and auto strip system both supplied

by Carbotech. AMS Controls provide sequencing for the mill’s upgraded back-end.

The sophistication of the new equipment installed in the Lakeview sawmill plays an essential role in the mill’s ability to improve the overall operation’s lumber recovery factor. Autolog’s trimmer-optimizer illustrates the point. “It provides the technology for us to see heavy shade in an individual board,” explains Oliver. “The laser scanning density is so tight you can clearly see the shadowing on the cracks. We can change the trimming parameters for that piece accordingly to increase recovery.”

It’s been a long and painful period that’s felled many an operation along the way but the worst of the mountain pine beetle epidemic has passed. The percentages of green wood coming across Lakeview’s scales is slowly increasing. Beetle killed wood now comprises about 40 per cent of the mill’s diet with the balance in Douglas fir, spruce and balsam.

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9

millupgrade

from page 9

The upgrades have helped Tolko Lakeview Lumber Division's lumber recovery and its productivity. The mill is up about 15 to 20 points with its lumber recovery.

improved grade outturns, notes Oliver.

The development of the Chinese market and its sustained appetite for generally lower grade defect-prone beetle killed wood came at the right time for Lakeview, along with other mills in the B.C. Interior.

One of the other operations to benefit from processing beetle wood during the U.S. market slowdown is a neighbour in Williams Lake. Lakeview forwards blocks from its milling operations to Parallel Wood Products Ltd, where they are finger-jointed into studs.

Tolko’s project priority last year was eradicating Lakeview’s back-end bottleneck. However, the primary breakdown process was not ignored with comprehensive changes made to the mill’s headrig. The project involved having USNR upgrade all the headrig’s controls, incorporate laser scanning and switching drives from DC to AC. “We’re expecting a 25 point recovery impact on that line,” anticipates Oliver. The revamped headrig had only been operational a couple of weeks when LSJ visited but the project will prove a great success if early experience proves permanent. “We’re still finetuning the controls but the headrig has been excellent.”

A high degree of automation comes with the mill’s new back-end equipment. But the impact on the mill’s work to page 12

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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millupgrade

The rebuilt back-end begins with a new unscrambler and lug loading system from Comact. Boards are delivered to an Autolog trimmer-optimizer (pictured), with options for remanufacturing, before passing through a Carbotech International fence and multi-saw trimmer.

from page 10 force “has been very minimal,” reports Oliver. “No one lost their jobs and we’ve continued to hire new employees.” That constitutes an extra plus for the Williams Lake job market pool especially during a time when the regional mining industry is throttling back.

The mill’s new equipment, especially surrounding the trimmer-optimizer, allowed Lakeview to further upgrade its sawdust control and mitigation strategies.

One of the direct control impacts is the

12

hiring of two full time tradesmen, each working 40 hours a week. Oliver says the clean-up supervisor prioritizes projects and generates work orders. “It’s working well and we’re seeing improvements,” reports Oliver “It’s an old mill and it isn’t easy to keep it in compliance but increasing the labour is achieving that. Everything in the mill these days is influenced by dust control and will continue to be.”

The Lakeview Lumber Division is coming off a very busy 2014 and one with significant capital investment. Tolko is a private, Canadian owned forest products

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

company and is not obliged to divulge any dollar figures attached to its projects. ”I can say that last year the investment in Cariboo region mills was more than in the rest of the company,” says Oliver. The total includes significant improvements to the planer mill at Tolko’s Soda Creek Division, its sister mill in Williams Lake.

The investment represents a corporate decision that speaks volumes for Tolko’s regional commitment to the Cariboo.

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industryprofile

Safety in B.C.’s logging industry: a work in progress

Safety has always been a priority for logging contractor Reid Hedlund, of Mid-Boundary Contracting—who is also chair of the Interior Logging Association— and though the industry has seen success at reducing the number of accidents, it continues to take ongoing effort, he notes.

By Paul MacDonald

A

s chair of B.C.’s Interior Logging Association (ILA), and as co-owner of Midway, B.C.-based logging contractor Mid-Boundary Contracting, safety in the forest industry has always been a high priority for Reid Hedlund.

Further adding to his advocacy role for industry safety, Hedlund is also a member of the Board of Directors of the BC Forest Safety Council.

The industry’s safety record has improved significantly since the BCSFC was set up, after some disastrous years in the 14

Safety has always been a priority for Midway, B.C.-based logging contractor Reid Hedlund (above), of Mid-Boundary Contracting, who is also chair of B.C.’s Interior Logging Association (ILA), and a member of the Board of Directors of the BC Forest Safety Council.

forest industry. In 2004, some 43 people were killed in the industry; there were 10 fatalities in the industry in 2013.

Hedlund said his involvement with the council has raised his awareness of safety personally, and with the ILA. “That really opened my eyes because we look at things on a more provincial level to see where the fatalities and major injuries are happening, and talk to people who have lost a co-worker—there’s no doubt the biggest impact is when someone gets hurt in a logging operation or, much worse, if there is a fatality.

“That made me more aware of what Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

we were dealing with, and brought it back home, not just to my company, but for the operating area we work in, and the southern interior.”

Hedlund says they have been fortunate in the Boundary region of B.C., where Mid-Boundary operates, in that the number of logging accidents has been low. But one accident, and one injury, is still one too many, and the industry and the ILA are working hard to keep safety front and centre with all logging operations. The last thing they want is to become complacent about a good safety record. “It takes ongoing effort—including at the company

industryprofile

I’m involved with, Mid-Boundary Contracting,” he says.

When Hedlund started in the industry in 1981, the move was already well underway towards mechanical harvesting, and there have been definite safety benefits over the years since from the shift.

Some handfalling is still done now in the region, but it is in specific special situation areas. Virtually all of the harvesting is now done by machine.

Though it is focused around the Midway and Grand Forks area of the B.C. southern interior now, Mid-Boundary has also worked further afield, in the Okanagan, towards Cranbook to the east and Williams Lake in the north. Most of the logging work it does now is for forest company, Interfor, and Interfor’s Grand Forks sawmill, 50 kilometres from Midway.

Interfor has taken over many of the operations of Pope & Talbot, which had a long-established major presence in the Boundary region. Pope & Talbot went bankrupt in 2007, after being in business for 150 years.

Virtually all of Mid-Boundary Contracting work was for Pope & Talbot, so it’s no surprise that P & T going under left the logging company in a very difficult spot—and Hedlund, and partner Joe Baiton, have had to do some substantial re-structuring in the years since. They’ve had the difficult task of figuring out the way forward for the company.

Presently, part of that lies in seeking more harvesting work, to make better use of the equipment they now have.

“We have four feller bunchers, but are

really running the equivalent of 1.5 machines because that is all we need at this point with the logging we are doing,” says Hedlund. One of their bunchers is new, while the other three are older machines.

The older machines help fill in, when needed, and are a good fit when they are doing right-of-way work.

They are currently running one side in the work they do for Interfor, with a buncher, skidder, hoe-chucker, loader and associated roadbuilding equipment.

“We are trying to do more logging while the opportunity is there, and looking to get geared back up,” says Hedlund.

The opportunity may lie in doing more work for Interfor, and perhaps doing timber sale work, which the company has done in the past.

Historically, Mid-Boundary has worked with several types of equipment, including Cat and Tigercat. The outfit had the first Tigercat 630 skidder in B.C. and the first Tigercat 830 leveling buncher. “We helped Tigercat with the levelling mechanism on the 830, and we still have that machine,” says Hedlund. to page 16

Mid-Boundary Contracting keeps very detailed equipment records. When it came to making the transition to SAFE certification a number of years ago, they were pretty much already there in terms of having the information on the maintenance of their equipment required by the SAFE program.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

15

industryprofile from page 15 The most recent purchase for MidBoundary was a Cat 522B buncher. “We have the second one off the production line, and it’s doing a phenomenal job for us,” says Hedlund. “We’ve been getting strong support with the Cat dealer, Finning, and their service department.”

The 522B, a zero tail swing machine, is designed for medium to high production clearcut and or select cut on rough terrain.

The machine performs in a variety of small through larger tree size applications. The 522B model is a leveling machine, and is powered by a Cat C9 ACERT 303 hp engine, which delivers a good amount of power on steep terrain, such as the ground Mid-Boundary often works in. Cat says the machine’s unique boom design provides industry leading lift capacity throughout full reach range, a benefit in large timber.

Mid-Boundary also have a Cat 322C loader, a Cat 320B excavator, a Cat 545 skidder, and three Cat D8 machines.

Hedlund notes that Mid-Boundary is being very careful and selective about the equipment purchases they make—and for the time being, is holding on to older

Like all logging operations, Mid-Boundary has to deal with unpredictable weather and difficult ground conditions, but with a solid equipment lineup and experienced operators, they strive to have their logging operation be a well-running, safe, log delivery machine. equipment, and working that, whenever possible.

The downturn, and Pope & Talbot going out of business, has made them take a hard look at where they were, and where they want to be in the future, he says.

“The downturn has made us more

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aware of how much we want to invest in equipment—do we want to subject ourselves and the company to the risk that we had before?

“In other parts of the province, contractors had their cuts reduced during the downturn. But when Pope & Talbot went under, we no longer had any work—period.”

They carried on as best they could, doing timber sales work, and selling logs to the the Zellstoff pulp mill in Castlegar, which had been supplied with chips from the Pope & Talbot mills, which were shut down.

“But basically we went from 28 loads a day to eight loads a day. Trying to do that with a skeleton-size crew was a challenge.”

Not to minimize the struggle that MidBoundary has gone through, and the challenges it continues to face, but these days they are focusing on the present, and the future—and making that work.

“We’re working to build things back up, and make sure we have good equipment out there for our guys, and meet all the safety standards,” says Hedlund.

He notes that new equipment, such as their Cat 522B, has the latest in safety features, and is tops when it comes to ergonomics and operator comfort.

Mid-Boundary operates its own trucks—they have five trucks, four Kenworths and one Peterbilt—and would like to increase their truck hauling. But like the rest of the industry, they’re finding it difficult to get good drivers.

to page 18 16

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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industryprofile from page 16 They have some good long-term employees on the trucking side, but they’ve also lost some people to the oil patch and the mines, and the bigger paycheques they can offer, notes Hedlund. “Some of them have come back, though,” he added.

He noted that Mid-Boundary faces other challenges, too, since it is based in the village of Midway, vs. being located in a larger centre, like Kelowna or Kamloops.

The village of Midway, though it is located in the beautiful Kettle Valley on the scenic Crowsnest Highway, is still a smaller centre.

Hedlund says that safety drives their selection of employees, both in the bush and with logging truck drivers. “You don’t want people rolling in and out of your crew all the time, with operators and truck drivers. A bad driver can put all the other drivers, and others in your operation, at risk.” Having local road knowledge, or developing that local knowledge, is key, he says, such as knowing when to take it easier on a section of logging road when it starts to rain.

And, Hedlund adds, not every trucker can drive a logging truck safely.

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He mentions one recent resume he received from a driver. From a quick glance, it looked like the driver might be a good candidate—the resume said he had a lot of driving experience, including “mountain driving experience”.

“But it turned out he had zero experience in the woods. For the forest industry, driving the Coquihalla Highway is not the same as having experience mountain driving, hauling logs.”

For the time being, even though they’d like to do more hauling, Mid-Boundary is going to work on keeping their current fleet of trucks fully staffed, and busy. The last thing they’d want is to make the investment in additional trucks, and not be able to find good drivers. “We don’t want to be making payments on a nice, shiny truck that is just sitting in the yard,” says Hedlund.

Ramping things up on the logging side would allow them to run operations more efficiently. “Running multiple logging crews would help to even things out—at times, you might be in a poor production site in one side, but the other sides are doing fine. The lows and the peaks wouldn’t be as sharp, and it would be

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

easier to manage,” he says.

Or if you have multiple crews, one might be shut down by fire in the summer months, but other crews, in other locations, could still operate.

“If you’ve got a diverse logging operation, it’s easier to manage crews, equipment, cash flows—your unit costs for running the whole operation come down.”

They have fixed costs, such as running a shop, and those bills have to be paid regardless of how many sides or crews they are working.

“Those fixed costs are there, whether you are running five loads a day—or 25 loads a day,” says Hedlund.

Due to their location, Mid-Boundary does most of its own mechanical work.

The dealer locations, whether they are in Penticton, Vernon, Kelowna or in the other direction, Castlegar, are some ways away.

They keep very detailed equipment records. When it came to making the transition to SAFE certification a number of years ago, they were pretty much already there in terms of having the information on the maintenance of their equipment, required by the SAFE program.

They have two service trucks, and one

industryprofile full time serviceman in the woods to keep things happening out there.

They rely on their equipment operators to give the serviceman a head’s up on when something might be going on with a piece of equipment, so repair time can be scheduled, rather than a breakdown occurring.

“That can be a huge benefit. With the bunching, skidding and processing, if you are doing hot logging and there is a break in that production chain due to a machine being down, it gets expensive and it has a direct impact on cash flow,” says Hedlund.

Even though, like all logging operations, they have to deal with unpredictable weather and difficult ground conditions, they strive to have their logging operation be a well-running, safe, log delivery machine.

Going forward, Mid-Boundary will be making further equipment investments to keep that happening, though the investments may not be as regular as they were in the past.

Coming up is the transition to short log trucking, from the long log trucking they currently are doing for Interfor. “We’re looking at significant investment to do that,” says Hedlund. “But we have to make sure there is a return on the equipment investment we are making.”

The Interior Logging Association, which Hedlund chairs, helps independent logger members make their case for fair rates with the forest companies.

In the past, negotiating rates might have consisted of a contractor going in to the company, and simply saying they were not making enough money.

Saying ‘I need more money’ is no longer a good way to negotiate a better logging rate, says Hedlund.

Loggers need to look at their operations in a hard, business-like way. “Rather than looking at did they make money at the end of the year, it’s looking at the specific operations that are making money, why they are making money, and expanding those operations,” he explains.

With computers, it is more easier than ever to figure out equipment costing, what blocks a contractor made money on, and which ones they didn’t—and why.

Some contractors, and more in the future, are going to be well armed with information on the details of why they need a rate increase.

“It would be good to be able to print out report information for every block, whether it is 2,000 metres or 20,000 metres, to know what the phase costs

were and what the unit costs are.

“Loggers are now more business oriented,” adds Hedlund. If anything, they now have the equivalent of MBAs from the school of hard knocks, and surviving the worst industry downturn since the depression.

And though they may be independent loggers, there is now more information sharing going on, through associations such as the ILA. “Independent loggers are independent loggers for a reason—they

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

tend not to want to share information. But that is changing, and we are starting to share information about financials, costs and safety.

“Just as the forest companies expect to get a reasonable return on their investment in their sawmills, they need to fully understand that logging contractors need to have a reasonable return on their investment in logging equipment, too,” says Hedlund. “And that investment is significant.”

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toplumberproducers

Canada's lumber pro expanding further — The annual survey of Canada’s top lumber producers by International WOOD MARKETS Group Inc. shows familiar faces at the top—Canfor and West Fraser—but also that Canadian lumber companies are now a big part of the U.S. industry.

By Russ Taylor

T

he 2014 annual survey of the top Canadian lumber producers by International WOOD MARKETS Group Inc. reveals ongoing investments (not all in the ‘home’ country) in acquisitions, expansions and restarts. For the entire Canadian lumber industry, output volumes in 2014 were slightly higher (+3 per cent) as compared to 2013, but the top 10 Canadian producers recorded lower production (-1 per cent) in 2014 with a resulting contraction in Canadian market share.

North American Lumber Shipments Expand

For the fifth year in a row, total North American softwood lumber shipments rose by 3.7 per cent in 2014 versus 2013—from 53.5 billion board feet to 55.5 billion board feet. Continued (albeit tepid) recovery in U.S. housing markets and robust growth in residential repair/remodelling helped to offset the slowdown in North American exports to China and Japan. As a result, Canada’s shipments 22

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

toplumberproducers

oduCers but in the u.s. grew by 3.1 per cent (+735 million board feet to 24.2 billion board feet), with U.S. shipments up 4.1 per cent (+1.2 billion board feet to 31.3 billion board feet). The largest increase in shipments originated out of Eastern Canada, where volumes rose by 532 million board feet to 7.8 billion board feet (+7.1 per cent), of which mill restarts and upgrades in Ontario contributed 244 million board feet, resulting in a hike of +21.5 per cent (to 1.4 billion board feet) for that province. Results were mixed in Western Canada: • Alberta shipments were up 180 million board feet to 3.7 billion board feet (+5.2 per cent).

• B.C. Coast production rose by 103 million board feet to 1.4 billion board feet (+8.2 per cent).

• B.C. Interior shipments were actually lower in 2014 (-50 million board feet or -0.4 per cent) due to the respective closures in 2014 of Canfor’s Quesnel sawmill and West Fraser’s Houston sawmill

(which were balanced by various mill upgrades in the region and the restart of Hampton’s Babine sawmill). Clearly, the mountain pine infestation has been a game-changer for Interior producers.

Canadian “Top 10”

From 2010 through 2013, the top 10 Canadian producers consistently grew their shipments at a faster pace than the overall Canadian industry. This trend was broken in 2014: softwood lumber shipments by the top 10 Canadian lumber producers grew at a slower rate than Canadian shipments as a whole (-0.8 per cent for the top 10 versus +3.1 per cent for Canada). As a result, the Canadian top 10 saw their output ease marginally from 15.58 billion board feet in 2013 to 15.45 billion board feet in 2014, while their

share of national production slipped to 63.8 per cent from 66.3 per cent in 2013.

This lower production trend is an indication of fibre constraints (particularly in the B.C. Interior but also in Quebec) limiting growth opportunities for producing lumber. The U.S., conversely, has been an attractive option for some of the leading Canadian producers in that it offers more readily available/affordable timber in close proximity to recovering housing markets.

Turning to the rankings of the top 10 Canadian firms (table 1), six were based in Western Canada (representing six out of the top seven) and collectively produced 11.8 billion board feet (48.0 per cent of Canada’s total shipments), a decline of 357 million board feet from 2013. Output of the top four eastern Canadian producers was 3.66 billion board feet (15.1 per cent of Canada’s shipments), 226 million board feet more than the previous year.

The top five Canadian producers were Canfor, West Fraser, Tolko, Resolute and Interfor, with their order unchanged from 2013. However, output was lower for the top three due to their B.C. interior mills to page 24

Canfor is still Canada’s largest lumber producer, followed closely by West Fraser.

Logging Logging & & Sawmilling Sawmilling Journal Journal -- March/April March/April 2015 2015

23 23

toplumberproducers from page 23 finding less commercial sustainable timber as a result of the mountain pine beetle infestation. The top five Canadian companies produced a total of 11.6 billion board feet (48.0 per cent of Canadian lumber output), versus 12.1 billion board feet (51.4 per cent) in 2013. Canfor retained its lead spot despite its output dropping by 11 per cent (to 3.74 billion board feet) due to the sale of its Daaquam mill (Quebec) and the closure of its Quesnel mill. In close second spot was West Fraser at 3.48 billion board feet (-3 per cent, due in part to the closure of its Houston mill).

Tolko placed third, but its output slipped by 3 per cent to 1.89 billion board feet. Fourth-place Resolute saw a 7 per cent increase to 1.59 billion board feet, with the gain coming despite its Quebec mills having had to adjust to AAC reductions and a timber reallocation policy. Interfor was able to raise its output by 8 per cent by expanding production at its five B.C. mills (three Interior and two coastal ones) to 943 million board feet.

Canadian Companies Buying Up U.S. Mills

Leading the “Canadian invasion” into the U.S. have been West Fraser, Canfor and, most recently, Interfor. A decade ago, West Fraser was the only major Canadian producer with U.S. mills (table 2). As of the end of 2014, Canfor, West Fraser and Interfor were collectively running 31 mills in in the U.S. that produced 3.6 billion board feet—31 per cent of their combined total North American production.

Interfor’s March 2015 acquisition of four mills from Simpson Lumber is projected to raise its U.S. capacity to two-thirds of

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its total output. Earlier in 2015, Canfor acquired a 55 per cent interest in two sawmills in Georgia (Beadles Lumber and Balfour Lumber), while West Fraser purchased Bibler Brothers in Arkansas.

The WOOD MARKETS survey shows that the largest U.S. producers (and especially Canadian firms with sawmill ownership in the U.S.) are continuing with their investment strategies aimed at increasing their capabilities and mill efficiencies in preparation for the approaching U.S. lumber market recovery.

West Fraser’s ownership of American sawmills now has the company ranked at fourth spot in the U.S. with output up 15 per cent to 1.82 billion board

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

feet in 2014, reflecting the addition of two Arkansas sawmills in the first half of 2014, along with the full-year operation of its opened Florida mill. Interfor is now ranked at #9 in the U.S. with output of 1.24 billion board feet at nine mills—this excludes its 2015 acquisition of Simpson Timber’s four U.S. sawmills. Canfor is ranked at #7 in the U.S. and is expected to add to its U.S. sawmill ownership in 2015.

North American Production Expanding

In late Q1/2015, the North America industry was back in a familiar position: there was too much production vs.

toplumbercompanies

demand. Lumber prices and sawmilling margins have generally been very attractive for mills all over North American since 2012, where supply and demand has stayed in a reasonable balance. However, higher margins result in higher cash flow and at some point this cash gets reinvested in sawmills. This then results in higher production and lower cost mills that need to run to pay back their investments. This

scenario is partly responsible for lumber production increases that are not tied to market dynamics.

While there still might be some lean inventories in the U.S. supply chain, sawmill inventories have been rising in Q1/2015.

And against this background, there is the first wave of Swedish lumber production arriving in the U.S. market, driven by currency exchange devaluations vs. the

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

U.S. dollar, as well as few other export market alternatives to ship lumber to. So, whenever the Swedes start shipping into the U.S. market, the Germans may not be too far behind. When these regions start to become competitive in key export

to page 26

25

toplumberproducers from page 25 markets, they can have some staying power due to the differences in sawmilling technology employed. Simply put, European mills serve a multiple of markets that all require different sizes, lengths, grades and specifications. To be able to produce lumber for these many European and export markets, European sawmilling technology has evolved to be different to North American technology—this has impacted not just costs, but allows for wider product lines, expanded markets and improved margins! And the opportunity to set up mills and operate extended production runs for the U.S. market is something that Europeans have been waiting for since 2006.

The Europeans are Coming!

WOOD MARKETS has been visiting European mills since 2000 and we know what some of the export market strategies are for some of these countries. However, with log costs also very high in Europe (at least double U.S. log costs), the European sawmilling strategy is to reduce fall-down

grades and maximize value from the expensive logs. To accomplish that, all mills first sort and grade their logs through a log merchandizing line where logs are scanned and typically sorted by diameter class, grade and length. Many mills have 60 to 80 log sorts; some have 160.

Since the logs are sorted into batches of similar diameter, grade and length,

the optimum product and market solutions are matched up to these log sorts to maximize value back to the log. These log batches are run into fixed setworks in the mill, as since the logs are already pre-sized and graded, there is no need for moving and shifting setworks in log breakdown equipment as is extensively used in North America.

With fixed setworks and using batched logs, European mills can achieve higher lumber production output per hour, day, week, etc., as compared to North American mills. Instead of having a 2 to 3 metre (6 to 9 foot) gap between logs, European mills can have 0.5 metre (1.5 foot) gap that allows for greater linear production per hour. As well, processing pre-graded logs yields very little low grade lumber from every production run, optimizing value.

The cost advantages of European sawmilling have been documented in WOOD MARKETS bi-annual Global Timber / Sawmill / Lumber Cost Benchmarking Survey since the first issue was released in 2001.

In essentially every survey (based on U.S. dollars), European mills continue to have the lowest sawmilling costs in the world (US$/Mbf or US$/m3). And in the current situation with the Euro and the Swedish Krona depreciating 19 to 20 per cent since July 1, 2014, the cost advantages of European mills are becoming ultracompetitive today in export markets, and potentially the U.S. market.

The other key advantage of European sawmilling technology is that mills are extremely flexible —they can essentially cut any size (thickness and width) of lumber that is being requested based on the to page 28

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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toplumberproducers from page 26 sorted log inventory. As a result, European mills are extremely versatile in selling to almost any market in the world since they are not constrained by fixed sawing programs or concerns about fall-down grades.

As well, European sawmilling technology can easily produce square-edged dimension lumber and studs (i.e., home centre grade) and provide specified lengths (like a truckload of 16-foot) since the mills take orders from the pre-sorted log (diameter, grade and length).

As a result, customers in Europe as well as in Japan, China, the Middle East, North Africa, and also the U.S., have a strong preference in dealing with sawmills that produce lumber with flexible European technology. The answer is quite simple— they can produce lumber to the exact specifications of the customer. And with the lowest sawmilling costs in the world, you can see why European lumber is found all over the world, limited only by market price (which is often a constraint due to the much higher European log prices).

But with a world-class European technology sawmill now operating in Florida,

this could become a game-changer for the U.S. industry. Logs costs are currently half the price in the U.S. South as compared to parts of Europe. This means that not only will a sawmill featuring European– technology equipment located in the U.S. South be very competitive in the U.S. market, it should be very competitive in a number of key export markets. U.S. South (as well as Canadian SPF) mills have traditionally had restricted export market opportunities due to their inflexible sawmill technology, aside from older headrig mills.

To fully understand and see the differences between European sawmilling technology (and the new U.S. South mill now starting up) and that in North America, you really have to see sawmills in operation. WOOD MARKETS is offering this opportunity through its Eastern Austria Industry Tour on June 18 and 19.

This is being held in conjunction with WOOD MARKETS’ Vienna International Wood Products/Markets Conference & Expo in Vienna on June 17 as well as the bi-annual Schweighofer Prize Awards Ceremony and Reception (June 16).

There is a second option for an industry tour to visit Holzindustrie Schweighofer’s sawmill operations in Sebes, Romania that

also features some of the best European sawmilling equipment that operates 24/7.

More information on all of these events can be found at: www.woodmarkets.com/ conference/global-conferences/. ___________________________________ This article was summarized from WOOD Markets Monthly International Report (March 2015) by Russ Taylor, President, International WOOD MARKETS Group.

International WOOD MARKETS Group Inc. is Canada’s largest wood products consulting firm. Its consulting team has provided industry and market expertise in the solid wood products field to its clients since 1993. The company provides market research, new business development and business plan/strategy as well as other consultative services to wood product companies in North America and around the world. The firm also publishes eight strategic industry reports including its landmark WOOD Markets Monthly International Report (since 1996) and monthly China Bulletin. Further information is available on www.woodmarkets.com.

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industryshows

canada north Resources expo: the place to be Visitors to the upcoming Canada North Resources Expo, being held in Prince George, B.C. May 29 -30, will enjoy an extensive range of displays, an excavator rodeo, sawmill and wood processing equipment demos—and perhaps even a grapple skidder show.

By Jim Stirling

A

forestry flashback is on the menu for the Canada North Resources Expo 2015 (CNRE) in Prince George, British Columbia May 29-30.

“The demo zone is one of the CNRE’s big features,” explains Mark Cusack, national show manager for the event’s presenter, Master Promotions Ltd. “There are at least 25 per cent more outdoor exhibitors, each occupying more space than during the last CNRE here in 2013.

We’ve got four acres out there including the CN Centre and we’re more than halfway through filling the outdoor space,” he says. “This harkens back to the forestry shows here in the 1980s.”

Overall, he adds, the show was closing in on 90 per cent sold in mid-March although both inside and outside exhibitor space remained available. Apart from the extensive range of outdoor static equipment displays, visitors to the CNRE can enjoy an excavator rodeo, sawmill and wood processing equipment demos and hopefully a grapple skidder show, continues Cusack. Also included among the attractions are demonstrations of crushing and screening machines.

Despite the slump in oil prices and production activity and declining demand and prices for most metals, Cusack reports the interest in the showcase offered by the CNRE from those sectors has not waned. “We haven’t had any cutback or downsizing,” says Cusack.

The increase in interest and outdoor exhibitors for the 2015 show compared with 2013 has not altogether surprised Cusack and Matt Mitchell, Master Promotions’ show manager. “We did receive a great response to that 2013 show,” he 30

says.”And when exhibitors returned our re-booking forms, many of them were asking for more exhibitor space for 2015.”

The biennial CNRE is the big jobs show. It was launched in its present form in 2013 when it attracted more than 8,000 visitors. The show evolved from Prince George’s famed Forest Expo and its earlier incarnations.

The CNRE’s focus this year is on forestry, heavy construction and project infrastructure. On the forestry front, that includes the harvesting sector, woodlands operations, community forests, silviculture, pulp and chips. That leads into the wood biomass industries, including wood pellets, power generation and biofuels.

The CNRE also attracts an across the board representation of natural resource industry professionals: the decision makers assembled in one place at one time.

The transportation sectors—key to any natural resource extraction and export industry—are also well represented at the CNRE. Suppliers and service providers supporting the CNRE are the glue to hold together all the diverse components of natural resource development. Training and employment services are an increasingly important challenge for all the Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

natural resource industries and that definitely includes forestry. Those services will be well represented at the CNRE, from representatives of career planners to training schools and post secondary institutions. A form of recruitment fair is part of Resources Expo. Companies and exhibitors identified by yellow flags during the show are actively seeking new personnel, notes Cusack.

Visitors touring the exhibits in the CN Centre and other site buildings will notice clusters of similarly themed services, points out Moira Pellerine, Manager of Marketing & Operations for Master Promotions.

A returnee from the 2013 show is the Health, Wellness and Safety Zone. The zone features linked and often interactive demonstrations—Pellerine recalls that in 2013, visitors could even get a massage. Organizations like the BC Forest Safety Council, WorkSafe BC, the regional heath authority and organizations like the Canadian Mental Health Association participate.

A first at this year’s CNRE is a Northern B.C. Safety Conference to be held in conjunction with the show, on Saturday May 30. The agenda was not available at press time.

Master Promotions is based in New Brunswick and has been producing trade, consumer shows and conferences in Canada since 1973. The company produces about 30 shows a year, coast to coast.

Master Promotions staff works closely with a Prince George-based organizing committee and with show presenter Logging and Sawmilling Journal to create the Canada Northern Resources Expo.

For more information and bookings, contact www.cnre.ca

Improving Working Capital to Optimize Enterprise Value

By Greg Yaceyko, CPA, CA When considering what the forestry industry has experienced in recent years, it should be a foregone conclusion a business should continually be looking for ways to strengthen its working capital and operating cash flows. In terms of working capital, one should carefully monitor (and measure) how the operating activities of customers, employees, and suppliers impact a business’ overall cash flow position.

Improving operating cash flows would decrease the probability of having to draw upon an operating line of credit or at the very least, reduce your bank’s operating line of credit requirements. As a result, there would be reduced interest costs incurred from these financing requirements. Another example would be if a supplier offers early payment discounts: as a result of reduced direct costs, a business could generate higher operating cash flows, and better gross margins. Ideally, if you are following a regular equipment maintenance schedule, improved operating cash flows could enhance your business’ ability to follow the desired schedule. Or, if you happen to be the owner of a privately owned business, you may even be able to free up some cash flow to pay for that personal vacation you always wanted–but be aware of any potential personal tax impacts of reducing existing shareholder loan amounts.

Operating cash flows also can be improved by having flexibility over one’s billing cycle, which involves both the time required to invoice the customer after the goods and

services have been provided and the time it takes for the customer to pay the relevant invoices. However, some businesses are often limited to having a fixed customer payment schedule, which makes things more predictable for budgeting operating cash flows, but offers fewer opportunities in creating further efficiencies. In any event, it is prudent to have a clear understanding of the timing of your customer accounts receivable cash collection terms, as it invariably impacts other areas of operating cash flows.

When making capital expenditures, a business owner should also look at opportunities to leverage a portion of the purchase with long-term financing. By doing so, you would not be “stripping” the business’ operating cash position prematurely, and this would result in achieving a stronger overall working capital level.

The above situations clearly have the potential to improve the health of a business’ working capital position, which is a good thing. However, you should also consider how a strong working capital position could impact your business financially in the future, particularly in succession planning. When the plan involves selling the business, then naturally you would want to maximize the proceeds received from the sale.

Sale purchase agreements quite often have a clause relating to working capital. Such agreements often establish a minimum

working capital amount to be maintained in a particular business in lieu of operating cash flows that are maintained on an ongoing basis. The longer a certain working capital level can be achieved, the more likely that working capital level will be considered sustainable, in terms of establishing a minimum working capital target to be negotiated and agreed upon by both parties.

By improving your operating cash flow cycles, you should also be able to negotiate a lower minimum working capital amount with a purchaser and therefore be compensated for any working capital amount in excess of the minimum working capital requirement negotiated by both. As a result, a vendor would be able to maximize the total amount received for the business that was sold. And, of course, you also want to ensure the business sale transaction has been structured in the most tax-efficient way possible, as different sale scenarios can often result in quite different after-tax proceeds positions for a vendor.

Cash is king, both now and in the future. It’s important for you to ensure your business’ working capital and operating cash flow are strongly positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Take advantage of your MNP business advisor’s expertise and work together to see it happen.

Greg Yaceyko, CPA, CA, is a Business Advisor with MNP’s Foresty & Forest Products team and can be contacted at greg.yaceyko@mnp.ca

YOU NEED TO IMPROVE WORKING CAPITAL

Where do you go from here?

As a business owner, you know you need to strengthen your working capital and operating cash flows but may not know where to start. Working closely with you, MNP’s Forestry professionals help you to carefully monitor and measure how the operating activities of customers, employees, and suppliers impact your business’ overall cash flow position.

By delivering industry insights and solutions that go beyond traditional accounting, MNP looks at your business from all angles so you can strategically plan and make the decisions you need to create the future you envision.

Connect with MNP’s Forestry team members at the Global Softwood Lumber Conference in Vancouver on May 7, 2015.

Contact James Byrne, CPA, CA, Business Advisor & Regional Leader Forestry & Forest Products at 778.225.7240 or james.byrne@mnp.ca

Albertasawmilling

Upgrades

The new HewSaw R200 1.1 is lowered into position at Manning Diversified Forest Products. The sawmill was able to increase throughput from 400 feet per minute to 500 feet per minute with this installation.

bring efficiency— and green power Alberta’s Manning Diversified Forest Products has invested $30 million in sawmill upgrades, new equipment that delivers higher production and more efficiency—and green power.

By Tony Kryzanowski

I

t has long been the objective at Alberta’s Manning Diversified Forest Products (MDFP) to make better use of the company’s wood waste, and a recent $30 million investment in a new biomass power system, pellet plant, planer upgrade and HewSaw small log line has fulfilled that objective.

The sawmill in the town of Manning, north of Peace River, is the first in Alberta to use a thermal oil vaporization process from Italian company Turboden to generate power, with the sawmill’s wood waste, specifically its bark and sawdust, used as fuel. The system will generate 3.5 megawatts (MWs) of power, enough to supply

34

the sawmill and create a new revenue stream through the sale of excess power to the provincial grid.

Owned by sawmill manager Real Arseneault, the Paddle Prairie Métis Colony, Alphonse Decant, Steve Kaufman, and the Schmidt family, the dimension lumber sawmill has a long history of being innovative, having installed one of the first high speed curved sawing systems in Canada from Sweden a few decades ago. Now they are showing leadership by investing in the bio-economy, in both green power production as well as wood pellet production with a new Andritz pellet mill.

Arsenault says the sawmill expects to produce about 110 million board feet of lumber this year, an improvement of Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

about 15 per cent over previous years, consuming about 400,000 cubic metres of spruce and pine, producing lumber from 2 X 4 to 2 X 12, up to 16’ lengths. Their primary product is 2 X 6, with the ability to pull higher value material such as lam stock for glulam producers, J-grade, and square edge lumber.

The entire operation provides 117 jobs, with the sawmill operating its small log line on a two shift basis, while the large log line and planer mill operate on one shift.

MDFP’s biomass power system supplier, Turboden, is part of the Mitsubishi group of companies. The technology used in the power generation system is Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology. The

Albertasawmilling company supplied its Turboden 32 HRS model for this installation.

The MDFP system is a combination of both a Wellons energy system, which also provides heat for the sawmill’s dry kilns, and the Turboden ORC power generation system.

Power generation using ORC technology starts with a fuel source, in this case wood waste, that heats the thermal oil in the Wellons system to a high temperature, typically about 300 degrees Celsius. The thermal oil from the Wellons system is then transported to the power generation building where it heats the working fluid in the Turboden ORC system through a heat exchanger. The working fluid vaporizes and drives a power turbine before condensing back to a liquid. Both the Wellons and Turboden fluid systems operate in a closed loop.

“By doing this, as a forest company, we have made ourselves totally sustainable off one tree,” says Arsenault, noting that the company now generates no waste, and has a use for all components of every tree that it harvests to both derive an income and as a fuel source for both its heat and power needs. “I think it is as green as we can get.”

The Italian-designed Turboden power plant installed at Manning Diversified uses Organic Rankine Cycle technology, and is the first system of its kind installed in Alberta.

MDFP was operating a teepee burner to dispose of its hog fuel, but had until 2015 to decommission that unit. One alternative was to truck the hog fuel for use in other energy systems.

“But we thought, why would we want to be running up and down the highway with trucks?” says Arseneault. “We really

thought that we should try to do something here ourselves. There were several good reasons to make this investment including making better use of a sustainable resource, creating an additional income stream for to page 36

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Albertasawmilling The Manning Diversified sawmill expects to produce about 110 million board feet of lumber this year, an improvement of about 15 per cent over previous years. Their primary product is 2 X 6, with the ability to pull higher value material such as lam stock for glulam producers, J-grade, and square edge lumber.

from page 35 the sawmill from its sawdust and bark, and removing trucks off the highway.”

At present, MDFP is only planning to use the wood waste it generates at the sawmill, but they have conducted tests of potentially supplementing that wood supply with slash from its cutblocks.

Arseneault says they have conducted tests tapping into that source and it looks favorable; but they intend to operate the system for about a year to evaluate exactly

36

how much waste wood it consumes before considering other sources.

When investigating biomass power generating systems, MDFP wanted a low maintenance system that could be operated by staff. The ORC option seemed to be the best fit. The company also had to keep its capital costs reasonable because Arseneault says there isn’t a great deal of income being generated from power generation at the present time. Turboden became the best option because its working thermal oil is less volatile as it is a silicon-based oil.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

MDFP has also made a number of investments in its sawmill and planer mill.

A new HewSaw line was installed in the summer of 2013. It is a HewSaw R200 1.1 that includes a V-flight conveyor from Hollins Industries as part of HewSaw’s optimized rotary log positioner. ProLogic+ provided the optimizing technology for the system from the infeed onwards. The new line allows MDFP to increase both accuracy and recovery, and it provides it with edging capabilities. To reduce log gaps and improve throughput, the R200 1.1 also uses internal scan zones so that once a log moves past a given zone, the zone starts setting for the next log.

Arseneault says by making this investment, they were able to dispose of their

Albertasawmilling standalone edger after the old HewSaw, resulting in processing and edging in a single pass, while helping to increase their production and recovery.

“We run this machine at 500 feet per minute versus 400 feet per minute on the old one,” he says, adding that the new HewSaw was a better fit for the increased volume of logs being shipped to the mill, which tended to be on the smaller side. It was also good timing to make that investment as the industry was coming out of a downturn, and upgrading their equipment as the market recovered has helped with a faster payback. Also, the small log line is able to operate continuously on both the day and night shift because there is no additional edging function at the back end of the production line. This has resulted in higher production, and they have noticed a slight increase in recovery.

With just a two-and-a-half week window during the mill’s annual summer shutdown to remove the old HewSaw and install the new HewSaw, it took a great deal of co-ordination and project management on the part of MDFP staff and the equipment suppliers. This hands-on approach by MDFP helped keep the project on track and allowed the mill to complete the project without any significant loss of production.

Installation of the planer mill upgrade was also handled internally. A new Gilbert high speed planer was installed as well as a Comact GradExpert computerized lumber grading system.

This project was done in summer 2014. What motivated MDFP to page 38

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

37

Albertasawmilling from page 37 to upgrade its planer mill was the higher throughput volume coming from its sawmill. By improving their speed, they were able to maintain staffing levels to one shift in the planer mill.

“We used to be able to do 1200 feet per minute and now we can do 2600 feet per minute on the planer,” says Arsenault.

He adds that by installing the Comact GradExpert computerized grading system, they were able to eliminate four grading positions and it is delivering very consistent grading results.

“Our uplift is occurring in more J-grade and less trim loss,” Arseneault says. “It’s been a real benefit to us.”

The pellet plant uses shavings from the planer mill as its source of raw material, which Arseneault described as a fairly inexpensive way to manufacture pellets because the shavings are already dry.

Some of the shavings are also marketed for horse bedding.

The large log line featuring a CSMI curved sawing system and its board edger will receive an entire scanning upgrade this summer. RemaSawco will provide the

scanning system on the main breakdown unit with PHL supplying the board edger scanning system.

The Andritz pellet plant was installed at the same time as the biomass energy system, with construction also handled internally.

All these investments are wrapping up at a time when the labor market in Alberta is undergoing a significant change with the recent downturn in the price of oil. For years, there has been a strong competition between the province’s forest industry and the oil and gas industry particularly for skilled labor.

“I’m hoping that the labor force doesn’t have the same kind of pressure on it because it has been really difficult to find people,” says Arseneault. “We just don’t have enough people in Alberta and it makes it difficult for all industries to try to do business under those circumstances.”

While Arseneault understands the difficulty that job loss in the oil patch can bring for people, he adds that a less heated Alberta economy could have considerable benefit by removing some of the stresses for labor and services on both the private and public sectors in the province.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

2015-03-19 8:28 AM

contractorprofile

Cat—through and through B.C.’s Kineshanko Logging recently celebrated its 40th year in logging, and all through that time their equipment has only been one colour: Cat yellow.

Among Kineshanko Logging’s recent equipment purchases was a Series Two Cat tracked 552 buncher, a full tilting machine with a rotating wrist.

By Paul MacDonald

B

.C.’s Kineshanko Logging recently celebrated an anniversary, and it was a special one considering the wringer the forest industry went through the last few years: in 2014, it celebrated its 40th year in business.

A number of logging contractors fell by the wayside during the downturn—or just simply left the business. But Kineshanko Logging, now run by the second generation of the Kineshanko family, persevered.

40

“Things are going better these days,” says Jeff Kineshanko, who now runs the operation with his, brother, Jon. Their father set up the business in Lumby, in B.C.’s Southern Interior, way back in 1974. The two brothers, and their mom, Joanne, took over the running of the business in 2006.

The industry went into a tailspin in the years following.

During the lean years of 2008 and 2009, they made full use of the equipment boneyard they have, and some of Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

their older equipment, explained Jeff.

Sometimes, that involved the equivalent of “MacGyvering” equipment to save on a trip to the dealer or to the shop.

“In the tough years, we figured out ways to make things work, so it did not cost a lot. But we are still like that—we run pretty lean,” says Jeff.

And Jeff credits them getting through the tough times by just plain working to page 42

contractorprofile from page 40 hard—and long—hours. “You do what you have to do.”

But the industry turnaround is now firmly in place, and contractors such as Kineshanko Logging have responded by investing in new equipment.

On the iron side, to keep their equipment up to date, Kineshanko Logging has the approach of purchasing one piece of new equipment every year, though they took a break in 2009. “It’s a set replacement program,” says Jeff, “and we’re now continuing with that business model.

“We don’t want our equipment to get to the point where it’s not worth much on trade-in because of the number of hours on it,” he added.

And on the equipment side, Kineshanko Logging runs pure Cat yellow. Every piece of logging equipment the outfit has is Cat, from B.C. Cat dealer, Finning.

In fact, they’ve been dealing with Cat and Finning so long that they’ve seen the retirement of a couple of their sales reps.

Their most recent purchases, early in 2014, were a new loader—a Cat 324LL equipped with a Weldco-Beales powerclam and hydraulic outrigger—and a new Series Two Cat tracked 552 buncher, a full tilting machine with a rotating wrist.

“They’ve been working out well,” says Jeff. “We were really only looking to get one new machine, but we got a really good deal on the loader, so we pulled the trigger, and bought that, too.”

They lean heavily on the 552 buncher, he says. “We rely on it for 100 per cent efficiency.”

When the other equipment needs some work, Kineshanko Logging has a shop in Lumby, and Jeff does a lot of the repairs. “If it’s a big component, we’ll pull it out and take it to Finning in Vernon,” which is just 25 kilometres down the highway.

“For example, last spring we found a chunk in the front end of the 545C so I pulled the front diff, and took it into Finning in Vernon. They did their thing, and we brought it back and put it on ourselves.”

If there’s a lot of welding involved, he’ll call on RAP Welding, of Lumby, who Jeff says they have dealt with “forever”.

“We try not to send things out if we can do it ourselves. I try to do most of it myself, some welding, building the hoses, the oil changes,” he said. It’s a work approach that was instilled in Jeff by his father. “He was very much do-it-yourself.”

The have a service trailer that is some42

Jeff Kineshanko (above) now runs the Kineshanko Logging operation with his brother, Jon. Their father set up the business in Lumby, in B.C.’s Southern Interior, back in 1974. The two brothers, and their mom, Joanne, took over the running of the business in 2006. times on the logging site, equipped with hose presses, welding equipment and an air compressor, for doing work in the bush. They’re looking for something a bit smaller, that can be more easily taken on the highway, and moved from site to site.

Lately, though, they’ve been fortunate in that they’ve been working fairly close to town. “It’s only been a 40 minute drive into the bush—with repairs it doesn’t take too long to come down to the shop, put something together, and get back.”

They usually aren’t working much further than an hour’s drive from Lumby.

Keeping their equipment up and running is not just important, says Jeff—it’s essential. “We have one skidder and one buncher as our prime machines, and if they go down, we have spares of each,” says Jeff.

They have a 2012 Cat 320D with a Pierce Denharco DM 4550 delimber and a 2007 Cat 320C with a Denharco DM4400 delimber, as well as an older back-up machine. “If we need to do some repairs, it’s good to be able to put something in there to keep the wood moving.

But they are awesome machines, and we Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

have lots of parts around for them.”

All in, they have 10 pieces of heavy equipment, again, all of it Cat. They’ll bring the equipment into the shop for any work during break-up.

“Everything else, we’ll try to do it in the bush.”

They do a lot of preventative maintenance, and do the SOS fluids sampling through Finning. “It helps, but it’s not bulletproof,” says Jeff. “If a bearing starts to go, you can see it in an elevated oil sample that comes back, and you can look into it. It’s good, but it’s just not 100 per cent. Sometimes something just grenades.”

Having all Cat equipment, they can keep the range of their spare parts at a minimum.

These days, their equipment is working in mostly green wood, but Jeff says they have done their share of bug-killed wood in the past—and still do some now. “Tolko has done a lot of clean-up work in beetle wood over the years, in the Aberdeen to page 44

contractorprofile from page 42 Plateau and down by the Big White ski resort, and we’ve helped out with that.”

They were never strictly in beetle wood with Tolko, Jeff noted, as Tolko has a good broad mixture of wood types in its wood basket.

That wood size can vary greatly. “We can get from small, six to eight inches at the butt, to getting only 12 pieces to the truckload, with certain blocks,” says Jeff.

“There’s a lot in between.”

At peak, in the summer months, they will do up to nine sorts, with the wood going to some Tolko operations, but also to other mills, to best optimize the type and size of wood.

Their logging location is dictated by the season, of course. They will start the season in low elevation, and then move up to the wetter blocks as they get into the colder weather, and the ground firms up.

“The snow helps, but we try not to work in the really deep snow.” Last spring, they finished up logging an area with five feet of snow, but Jeff notes their time there was brief. “That was the last block of the season, and Tolko was looking to top up their inventories.

“You don’t want to be doing too much of that—basically, you have to move all the snow or the skidder can’t get around.

Your costs go up immensely.”

After a record setting fire season last year, Jeff and other B.C. loggers are undoubtedly hoping this coming summer will be better. The fire season in 2014 resulted in a near record loss of timber,

Kineshanko Logging has four of their own trucks, three 2012 Kenworth T800 tridrives and a 2007 Kenworth T800 tri-drive lowbed, and up to three contract trucks.

the third highest since 1950, when the B.C. government started keeping track.

Some 1,424 fires consumed more than 3,590 square kilometres of forest.

Fortunately, says Jeff, they weren’t too affected by the fire shutdowns. “We had a bit of a slowdown over the summer, and fire was part of the equation for that. But Tolko was also trying to keep its inventory levels down, too.”

It can be touch and go during fire season, he says. “But we’re usually fortunate in that we might have three or four days of hot weather, and then a rain shower knocks it down.”

In terms of dividing up responsibilities for Kineshanko Logging, Jeff looks after the logging side of things, and his brother, Jon, oversees the trucking. They have four of their own trucks, three 2012 Kenworth T800 tri-drives and a 2007 Kenworth T800 tri-drive lowbed, and up to three contract trucks. “Jon does the low bedding, too, which works out well. Anytime we have to move, he can jump on the low bed—so we don’t miss much time moving.”

Tolko pretty much keeps them busy for 9 to10 months of the year.

Joanne, their mom, is still involved with the business, though less so these days.

She and her sons took over the operation of the business after the very untimely death of her husband, Terry, of a heart attack in 2006. Terry was one of the icons in the logging industry in the area, and was a long time director of the Interior Logging Association. Jeff is also a director of the association.

When they took over the business, Kineshanko Logging was a falling/skidding

to page 46

When the equipment needs some work, Kineshanko Logging has a shop in Lumby, and Jeff Kineshanko does a lot of the repairs. If it’s a big component, they’ll pull it out and take it to the Finning branch in Vernon, which is just 25 kilometres down the highway.

44

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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contractorprofile from page 44 operation but they oversaw its development into a full phase stump-to-dump operation again. Joanne, who is also a former mayor of the town of Lumby, was presented with the 2014 Woman of the Year Award by Vernon Women in Business, for her commitment to the family business and her service in municipal government and the community.

“That was,” says Jeff, “very cool.”

46

Jeff’s wife, Dawne, very capably takes care of the office for the company.

Tolko has talked with Kineshanko Logging about increasing the size of their cut and operations, but Jeff says they are not sure that makes sense from an economics perspective. “We don’t want to be the biggest—we just want to be the best.”

And it would mean hiring more people, and good people can be hard to come by. “The biggest key to everything in a logging operation is having the right

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

guy in the seat. If you’ve got the best equipment going, and you don’t have the right guy operating the machine, well, it’s not going to work.

“We have good long term employees, and I think we treat them well.” If they have an opening, it’s usually filled by someone who hears of the position by word-of-mouth.

Their employees usually run the newer equipment, while Jeff and Jon will operate the older pieces.

Following their equipment purchase approach, the next item that’s likely on their shopping list will be a new machine for piling wood. “We skid the wood in and pile it with an excavator with a power clam grapple. We’re using one of our old Cat 325FB machines that never die, for that work.”

Once the new machine is bought, they’ll use the 325 elsewhere in their operations. “Those are machines that we will never get rid of,” says Jeff. “They never break down, and they’re really not worth much on trade-in. We have two 325 machines, and they are workhorses—one has 40,000 hours on it. They’re very reliable machines, and if they need some work, you don’t need a laptop to fix them—they don’t have computer systems.”

And you can pretty much bet the new machine will be a Cat. The other equipment dealers come knocking on the shop door, and Jeff is always happy to meet and talk with them, but they have a solid relationship with Finning and Cat. “The other guys talk to us, but they know we’re a hard sell. We don’t really see any reason to go anywhere else—Finning treats us really well.

“There really is not too much negotiating,” Jeff says. “You tell Finning you’re ready for something new, and they give us good trade-in value for our equipment.”

He likes the idea of having one solid business equipment relationship—and leveraging the benefits of that approach.

“With multiple brands, you have multiple parts. But we have one type of oil filter that fits all of our equipment—that’s it.

“And if we do need someone from Finning out in the bush for warranty service or anything like that, if another machine needs some attention, he’s there. You’re not paying extra travel time for another dealer person to come out.”

Overall, he says, the big yellow Cat equipment continues to work well for them—and that’s what it’s all about.

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Ontariologging

careful logging in Algonquin Park A careful approach to logging by contractors such as Jessup Bros. Forest Products is yielding jobs, good quality timber and an ample wood supply from Ontario’s well-known Algonquin Provincial Park—timber that also helps to sustain jobs at local sawmills.

By Tony Kryzanowski

M

ention Ontario’s well-known Algonquin Provincial Park, and for some it brings to mind the sound of loon calls and canoe paddles breaking the water. For others like Pembroke-based Jessup Bros. Forest Products Ltd, it also brings to mind the sound of feller bunchers and skidders, which has helped to support this family business and other area loggers for generations.

In the past, there has been plenty of room for multiple uses in the park. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada, and at close to 3,000 square miles, it is about one-and-a-half times the size of Prince Edward Island—or about a quarter the size of Belgium.

Over the past 50 years, a wide range of opinions have been expressed about what

A zero tail swing Tigercat 822C feller buncher is the right tool for the job to carefully log in Algonquin Provincial Park, say contractors Jessup Bros. Forest Products.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

Ontariologging Stephen Bursey (left, in photo), AFA Manager of Operations, Pembroke, reviews harvesting plans with Jessup Bros. Forest Products owners Eldon (centre) and Glen Jessup. Given the delicate nature of logging in Algonquin Provincial Park, this conversation is constant.

activity should and should not be allowed in the park, however.

As recently as this past October, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, Gord Millar, called for an end to logging in the park, despite the fact that logging has occurred in the area since 1830. He said it was time to bring it “in line with modern values,” while also claiming that there is an ample wood supply outside the park to support the local forest industry.

That is certainly a questionable point, as wood from the park accounts for 45 per cent of the Crown land harvest in areas of Ontario south of North Bay—and area sawmills depend on its quality as they manufacture a variety of appearance grade products from both the softwood and hardwood species harvested from the park. There is an ample supply of pulp wood, but sawlogs, utility poles, and veneer quality logs are in short supply throughout the region.

The Algonquin Forestry Authority (AFA), a self-financing Operational Enterprise Crown Agency established in 1974, oversees logging in the park. Back then, the timber licenses owned by 20 companies operating within the park were

cancelled and assigned to the AFA. It generates revenue by marketing the wood harvested by its contractors to a variety of sources, and several area sawmills and pulp mills have come to depend on it.

Stephen Bursey, Manager of Operations in AFA’s Pembroke office, says wood harvested in the park is in high demand because it is “as good or better” than the wood fibre basket that surrounds the park.

Wood fibre from within the park is an important local source of red and white pine, poplar, oak, maple, yellow birch, white birch, jack pine, spruce and hemlock, much of it prime timber in the 120 year old range. Bursey says what has contributed to the wood fibre’s high quality is AFA’s careful management of the park’s forest resource.

Bursey’s responsibilities include managing the Pembroke AFA office, co-ordinating harvest activities in the northern and eastern half of Algonquin Provincial Park, negotiating timber sales, ensuring that committed volumes are delivered to client mills, and overseeing and enforcing the long laundry list of restrictions placed on logging contractors working within the park.

For example, logging is prohibited in July and August within 1.6 kilometres of a canoe route, including lakes, or within 30 metres of a public access road or recreation site. No logging can occur within 60 metres of campsites, portages, hiking and ski trails, and only modified partial cutting within 120 metres of all these recreational features.

Ontario’s new Endangered Species Act presents an entirely new set of guidelines as to when logging can occur. For example, species at risk restrictions limit logging in many areas between October and Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

April. There are a host of species-specific harvest and road construction restrictions, including timing and harvest modifications for wildlife such as hawk nests, wolves, moose and trout. There is also concern with certain species of turtles and the need to preserve their habitat, as they are long lived and don’t reproduce quickly.

These are just some of the many guidelines that AFA operates under and must enforce, so Bursey says they appreciate working with conscientious loggers like Jessup Bros. Forest Products. They have a lot of experience logging in the park.

Owned by Glen and Eldon Jessup, Jessup Bros. Forest Products logs primarily on the east side of Algonquin Provincial Park on contract for the AFA, harvesting about 45,000 cubic metres annually over about a 10 month season. They have 14 employees and a number are family members and relatives. Glen and Eldon work well as a team, with Eldon supervising harvesting operations to the landing and Glen taking care of the log haul.

“There are only certain places where we can work in the summertime and there are some roads we can’t use from Canada Day to the Labor Day long weekend because of tourist traffic,” Glen explains. Because of logging and haul restrictions, it’s sometimes a challenge to find enough area to keep working during the summer until other areas are opened up, he says. Then there are issues like the turtle habitat, which also restricts where and when they can log.

“We’ve been managing to work around everything, but it takes a lot of planning,” Glen says. One of the challenges for the

to page 50 49

Ontariologging from page 49 company is the number of moves they have to make to work within the guidelines, because it’s costly to move logging equipment and it represents downtime and loss of production.

Glen and Eldon got their start in logging working with their father. At that time, horse logging was on its way out and mechanical cable skidders arrived on the scene, which speeded up the logging process considerably.

“There was a big blowdown in the park in 1984 so we logged here salvaging that wood for a couple of years,” says Glen. By 1990, they were logging exclusively in the park full time.

About a decade ago, feller bunchers— as an alternative to chainsaw operators— started to become the norm in that part of Ontario in the shade tolerant forest south of the Ottawa River. There has also been a conversion from line skidders working with chainsaw crews to grapple skidders, driven primarily by chainsaw operators being less available since the industry downturn in 2008, and the greater efficiency of grapple skidders.

Today, Jessup Bros. Forest Products is almost entirely a mechanical harvesting operation, and Glen says that this method is definitely a safer way to log. He adds that the feller buncher and grapple skidder combination is also much more

50

The transition from cable skidders and chainsaw crews to grapple skidders has resulted in significantly higher production for Jessup Bros. Forest Products. Their skidder line-up is made up of three John Deere 648E skidders. efficient, with the feller buncher’s ability to accumulate trees, especially when dealing with small stems, and the grapple skidder’s ability to quickly grapple and transport large drags of trees without the need to choke the trees. Also, the feller buncher and skidders work more efficiently in snow. This area can accumulate over a metre of snow in winter.

Glen says a major difference between their logging operation compared to other area loggers is that they don’t handle the marketing of their wood. Other area loggers who belong to Sustainable Forest License (SFL) groups are responsible for selling the wood they harvest, whereas the AFA is responsible for selling the wood harvested from the park as a major source of its income.

In a reflection of their approach to careful logging, Jessup Bros. Forest Products has opted for a Tigercat zero tail swing feller buncher.

“With the zero tail swing feller buncher, wherever the tracks go through, the machine will spin a circle and not touch trees,” says Glen. “So this approach is better for the trees that are left behind because you don’t bump the trees and skin the bark off of them.”

This approach also allows the feller buncher to fit through tighter spots and it maintains a healthier wood basket for the next time that an area is selectively logged. The logging is essentially a sustainable, select harvesting approach where AFA will enter an area and mark trees for harvesting, with the intention of returning to the area on about a 30 year cycle to harvest trees that have achieved merchantable size within that interval.

The Jessup fleet includes a Tigercat 822 feller buncher, purchased in 2011.

“When we are in select cutting and Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

trying to fit through the trees that are being left, you have to have the right size machine,” says Glen.

They also have three John Deere 648E skidders, two Serco 270 slashers, a Serco 270 log loader, a Serco 200 log loader, and a Serco 125 log loader. For hauling logs, they have two Western Star trucks, with 48’ trailers.

Glen says that the wood market has definitely improved since the downturn, which took quite a severe toll on the local forestry workforce. For example, at one time, there were a number of subcontractor skidders available, but many packed it in during the downturn because it was hard to keep their equipment working at a reasonable rate.

With the wood market improving, it’s now difficult to find people and equipment in the area to meet their needs.

That’s one reason, despite a reduction in the volume of wood the company was harvesting prior to the downturn, that Jessup Bros. Forest Products is satisfied with the volume and workforce it has in place right now.

“Along with extra production comes three times the headaches. So we are happy working with the one feller buncher and the volume we are producing,” Glen says.

The Jessups also understand that strict logging guidelines are a fact of life of working in Algonquin Provincial Park, and the best they can do is adapt to what is asked of them. They are also passing along their knowledge and experience to younger family members who may one day decide that there is a future for them in forestry—and this careful style of logging,

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industryevents

British Columbia Saw Filers Association

Focus on filing

The upcoming B.C. Saw Filer’s Association conference in Kamloops, B.C., features a solid line-up of speakers—and the opportunity to see the latest in saw filing equipment from equipment manufacturers.

By Paul MacDonald

I

t presents the opportunity for the key people in the filing rooms who really make it happen at sawmills to get together, and it’s coming up soon—the B.C. Saw Filer’s Association will be holding their upcoming conference in Kamloops April 24-25 at the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Center.

The trade show portion of the event begins at noon and ends at 7 pm on the 24th and is open to all filers, mill managers and maintenance supervisors.

The keynote speaker this year is Troy Connolly, general manager for B.C. Lumber of Tolko Industries.

Also speaking will be Vito Vallese from Pro Mac Manufacturing on the history and evolution of saw splines, Udo Jahn from Modern Engineering on guides, Dave Smith from Fuchs Lubricants on saw and guide lubrication and Pat Robson on wheel grinding.

In addition to the speakers, a highlight is the showcase of exhibitors. Last year, the conference had 40 exhibitors offering a look at the latest in filing technology, products and services, and organizers are expecting this section of the show to be sold out again.

“Along with the forest industry, we’ve seen some success in the past few years,” says Bryan Glaister, the association’s president. “The importance of a conference such as ours is not only that it allows us to renew old acquaintances and make new ones, but it also brings together new technology and ideas for us to learn and remain competitive in the future.”

The companies will include displays on new equipment and technology. “We’ve got quite a bit of equipment coming this year,” said Glaister. This includes bandsaw auto-levelers, guide dressers, circular saw top and facers, auto tippers and lubrication systems. An important part of the

52

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

convention is the trade show, where filers can meet one on one with the equipment suppliers.

“Technology continues to evolve,” Glaister added. “Everything used to be leveled by hand. While we have auto-levelers now, they are only tools to help filers. You still need to have a skilled sawfiler to recognize what needs to be done to a saw to make it perform.” So while the new automated equipment is being incorporated, and older equipment replaced, the saw filer is not going anywhere—they run the show, and help make sure the mill is getting the most out of each and every log, and in a safe way.

The saws used in mills need careful maintenance for safe operation. Repairs of damaged saws requires a high degree of skill, and it takes many years of full-time saw filing to become proficient in the trade.

Another important part of the convention is the informal gettogethers among the saw filers themselves. “Guys love to talk shop,” says Glaister. “And everybody does things just a little different, and that is the beauty of sawmilling. There is more than one way to achieve results.

“Sawfiling is a lot of troubleshooting and problem solving, and coming up with a better solution—and the proof is in the final results,” he added.

After years of being in the doldrums, the Canadian forest industry has been ramping up operations the last several years.

As a result, there has been increasing demand for mill workers, especially on the sawfiling side of the mill. And the shortage of qualified and experienced sawfilers is acute, to say the least.

“It’s a huge issue right now,” says Glaister. “Whether it’s in the B.C. Interior or on the Coast, everyone on the mill side is looking for filers. There is a real shortage. We’re not training people fast enough to replace the people who are retiring.”

There are several reasons for the shortage. During the industry downturn, when sawmills were shut down, some people simply left the industry, and headed to other industries, such as construction and the oil patch. to page 54

Comedian Clinton Gray

I

n the theatre room of the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Center after the B.C. Saw Filers Association trade show on Friday April 24, there will be a full buffet dinner followed by entertainment featuring Comedian Clinton Gray. Tickets are $25.00, a good value for an excellent meal and a few laughs.

The association’s Annual General Meeting will be held on the Saturday. Membership dues for Filers and Associates will again be $20.00 this year. Registration is available on site Friday and Saturday, however, the association is planning a early registration option where dinner tickets may also be purchased. Further information about registration is available at the B.C, Sawfilers website at http:// www.bcsawfilers.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

53

industryevents AgenDA FriDAy, April 24th 11:30 am������������ Open for registration 12:00-7:00 pm ��� Trade show open 7:00 pm ������������� Theatre opens for meet & greet, dinner & show featuring comedian “Clinton Gray” SAtUrDAy, April 25th 8:30 am�������������� Doors open for registration – coffee available 9:00 am�������������� Annual AGM 10:00 am������������ Keynote speaker: Troy Connolly, General Manager, B�C� Lumber, Tolko Industries 11:00 am������������ Break 11:15 am������������ Vito Vallese from Pro Mac Manufacturing Ltd� Topic: “The History & Evolution of saw splines” 12:00 pm ����������� Simonds International Luncheon

from page 53

12:00 pm ����������� Executive Meeting/Lunch

“There really wasn’t a demand for saw filers then,” says Glaister. “But now the lumber market has turned around, and the mills are putting on third shifts, and the demand for people is there. And with the demand for lumber from the mills, there is money to be made.

“But it’s coinciding with guys retiring— so it’s kind of like a perfect storm. We’re really up against it right now.”

Not surprisingly, due to a lack of demand, saw filing training, which is now offered at the Williams Lake campus of Thompson Rivers University, went through a lull as well, during the downturn. “But those classes are now full,” says Glaister.

1:00 pm ������������� Udo Jahn from Modern Engineering Topic: “Guides” 1:45 pm ������������� Break 2:00 pm ������������� Dave Smith from Fuchs Lubricants, Topic: “Saw & Guide Lubrication” 2:45 pm ������������� Break 3:00 pm ������������� Pat Robson, Topic: “Wheel Grinding” 3:45 pm ������������� Break 4:00 pm ������������� Open forum discussion� Open mic discussion on filing issues� Input from Filers

The ideal would have been to have had a steady number of apprentices going through the program, even through the downturn, but that is not realistic in an up and down industry like forestry.

The Williams Lake campus of Thompson Rivers University is the only training institution in B.C. that offers technical training for the three trades that make up the saw trades: saw fitting, circular saw filer, and benchperson. The saw filer apprentice program at TRU provides the knowledge and skills required to become both a provincially and inter-provincially certified trades person. Full information on the program is available at: www.tru.ca/ williamslake/programs/trades/sawfiler.html As anyone who works at a sawmill knows, sawfilers are a key part of what make a mill work. “The mills now are looking to cut to fairly tight tolerances, and having skilled filers to help achieve that is definitely an asset,” says Glaister.

The preference is to hire skilled saw filers that can get up to speed quickly with a mill’s filing program, rather than apprentices, who naturally face a learning curve.

Unlike a lot of traditional trades apprentice programs, which can involve a lot of classroom work up front, apprentices in the sawfiling program need to do their training in a mill. “There are classroom hours, but you need to get the on the job hours and you need to do that within a sawmill,” explained Glaister.

Looking at the demand, new sawfilers have very attractive job prospects.

“Everyone I talk to is looking for filers,” to page 56

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

industryevents

from page 54 said Glaister. “One head filer I talked to recently said they needed four saw filers.”

Some mills are in such need of saw filers that they are willing to contract sawfiling services, and pay top dollar.

Glaister said the forest companies have woken up to the need for sawfilers—some companies are even looking to set up their own training programs.

Glaister entered the business through his father, who started filing at the former

56

Whonnock Industries sawmill in Ruskin, in B.C.’s Fraser Valley. “My Dad had a saw shop and I learned from there. My first mill job was with Terminal Forest Products where my dad was employed at the time.”

Glaister said the best sawfiling candidates tend to be people who are very detail-oriented. “We’re measuring in thousandths of an inch—sometimes we’re talking about thousandths of an inch the way other people would talk about feet— but it’s all about details like that.

“The mills today are looking at using as

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

much of the log as possible. The less saw deviation we have, the lower our target sizes, the more money they can make.”

Like every other facet of the forest industry, doing something “just good enough” does not cut it anymore.

An overall focus for the Sawfilers Convention will continue to be on the evolving equipment and filing methods—and the skills of the people that oversee all this equipment.

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ECO-Tracks™ is a trademark of Olofsfors AB

engineeredwood

Doug Webb and a group of partners developed a business plan for Thompson River Veneer Products to meet what was then a market need for dry commodity veneer in B.C. But as the market changed, they’ve switched gears and are now focused on plywood production.

Plywood going up—literally B.C.’s Thompson River Veneer Products Ltd is benefiting from the general upturn in the economy, and sees demand for its plywood growing with building codes now allowing an increase in wood structure heights.

By Paul MacDonald

P

ending changes in Canada’s building code regulations have Canadian lumber producers looking for expanded markets in the residential construction market. But the move to the use of more

wood in higher residential buildings is also expected to benefit the country’s plywood mills, as well.

“We’re seeing some significant changes in how wood, especially engineered wood such as plywood, is being used,” says Doug Webb, manager of Thompson

River Veneer Products Ltd, (TRVP) a Kamloops, B.C. producer of plywood and a dry veneer supplier.

According to reports, the federal body that establishes the standards for building codes—the National Building Code of Canada—is preparing to raise the cap on wood-structure heights to six storeys from four storeys. And the decision could open up additional business opportunities for the industry, both on the lumber side and plywood side.

Some provinces are already there. B.C. changed their code to six storeys from four storeys in 2009, and Ontario recently followed suit.

Webb sees the plywood sector as benefiting from this change, as plywood, rather than OSB, is used more often in the construction of these residential buildings.

“We’re kind of bullish on where things to page 60

58

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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engineeredwood from page 58 are going,” says Webb, a veteran of the solid wood and engineered wood sectors of the industry.

Such changes, along with healthy Canadian housing construction numbers, are encouraging for TRVP, an independent operation that started operating in 2006.

After a decade of doing consulting work through the 1990s and early 2000s, Webb and a group of partners developed a business plan in 2004 to meet what was then a market need for dry commodity veneer in B.C. “The market research indicated there was a shortage of dry commodity veneer in the B.C. Interior, where most of the province’s plywood mills are located,” explained Webb. “We invested in leading edge technology on the dry veneer side of the business, and went for used equipment on the plywood side—our intention was that the primary source of revenue for the company would be the dry veneer.”

The installation of a state-of-the-art Coe (part of the USNR group) veneer dryer was completed in 2006, along with the plywood press line, in a new 75,000 building, on a 12 acre site.

That investment in leading edge equipment has paid off, says Webb, as the dryer continues to work extremely well for them.

“At the time, it was the first of its type, and had features that other veneer dryers didn’t have,” he explained. “Coe was really interested in doing some pioneering work with the dryer, and we supported that, and it’s worked out really well for us.”

In addition to the Coe dryer, the line

Thompson River Veneer Products is quite a bit different than most B.C. plywood producers in that they don’t have their own log supply—and the headaches that can come from that—and they don’t produce their own plywood materials, the veneer and the interply material. includes Metriguard and Ventek scanning and grading systems to ensure consistent quality. They have a 12 bin dry veneer stacker that has proved to be extremely efficient, Webb says. Among the companies involved in the project were Systematic Mill Installations, Stolberg Engineering and Logan Construction.

On the plywood side, virtually all of the equipment was purchased used. “It was equipment that was made in B.C. or Washington, so it was all equipment that we were familiar with,” said Webb.

At the time they were shopping around for equipment, there were some major closures of plywood plants in the U.S. A lot of their equipment came from a former MacMillan Bloedel plywood plant in Alabama. This included a Globe prepress, a press loader and unloader from

Thompson River Veneer Products equipment includes a state-of-the-art Coe (part of the USNR group) veneer dryer (above), along with a plywood press line.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

Durand-Raute, and a hot press that was built at Burrard Drydocks in North Vancouver, a shipyard operation that at one time also built manufacturing equipment for the forest industry.

Webb says they were able to achieve some significant cost savings in buying used equipment vs. new, but they also had some rebuild costs by going this route.

“We certainly had challenges until we got the equipment working to where we wanted it, but I think we are there now.

It’s still older equipment, but it works reasonably well for us.

“Given what we have for equipment and capacity, we’re faring pretty well for use of the capacity, but we still have room to improve,” he said. They are working with some faster curing resins to reduce press times, but still keep quality high.

Webb notes that TRVP is quite a bit different than most B.C. plywood producers in that they don’t have their own log supply—and the headaches that can come from that—and they don’t produce their own plywood materials, the veneer and the interply material.

“This is the first operation I’ve worked at in my career that we don’t have to deal with log supply—the other operations typically all had logs and lathes, and that makes the operations bigger and complex,” But it is hardly a piece of cake, he quickly added. “We don’t have log supply issues, but there are always challenges with the business, even with veneer supply,” says Webb.

TRVP started up just as the industry was going into a downturn, and Webb to page 62

engineeredwood from page 60 says the years following were extremely challenging for the company. “From 2007 to 2009, those were not kind years to anyone in the forest industry. It was very difficult for us, but we managed to keep things going.”

As with most forest industry manufacturing operations, there is only so much that can be done in terms of trimming costs during a downturn—all operations have some fixed costs, and TRVP is no different in that respect.

To deal with one of their major cost areas, the company participates in BC Hydro’s Power Smart program, to achieve energy efficiencies. Internally, they worked hard to focus on cost control and productivity through those difficult times, says Webb. “To the best of your ability, you just buckle up and try to get it done.”

And through those years, and in the years since, the market has changed, he says.

“Some of the plywood plants we were selling dry veneer to had expanded and modernized their own veneer capacity,

so it reduced the need for our dry veneer product.”

The focus has changed for the company; though it is still produces both dry veneer and plywood, most of its sales revenue now come from plywood.

The veneer the company custom dries and cuts comes from a number of sources, mostly B.C., but sometimes from the U.S., depending on the value of the Canadian dollar. A low Canadian dollar makes veneer sales there attractive, but on a bigger scale, it also helps to keep American-produced plywood out of the Canadian market.

“Where the dollar is at right now, around 80 cents, and with strong housing markets both side of the border, is a good situation,” says Webb.

When the U.S. housing market dropped, it had a huge impact on Canadian lumber producers; but it also affected companies such as TRVP, which primarily sells its plywood into the Canadian market. “Canada was a bit more resilient, but it certainly impacted all our wood products, and prices were very suppressed.”

Webb noted that TRVP has some strong

alliances with its suppliers. “We worked together with them, and we’re still with them now that things have turned around.

That strategy has paid off and has fostered some strong relationships with the companies that we buy product from.”

With a solid equipment set-up, improvements in recent years at TRVP could be characterized more as tweaking. They have added a Globe glue spreader, so they now have three spreaders, and an edge profiler and tongue in groove equipment. They have also added two Toyota forklifts to the operation.

Webb says they have a strong preventative maintenance program at the plant, especially on the dryer, to make sure they are able to achieve maximum efficiency.

The plant runs three shifts, five days a week, with maintenance done on weekends.

Interestingly, most of the employees they hire—and hired, when the plant was first set up—have no experience in the forest industry.

“I prefer that,” says Webb. “It sounds like a challenge, but with good people, they want to learn and want to be part

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

engineeredwood of developing solutions, and the growth of the business. Our workforce has been very accommodating, working with us during the start-up of the new mill, and right through the downturn.”

TRVP has about 85 employees now; like a lot of the forest industry these days, they are finding it difficult to find good people.

“What we look for in an employee is pretty simple, really,” says Webb. “We have a pretty busy workplace, so they need to be able to work in that kind of environment—and we look at their work history.” In perhaps a reflection of the times, Webb says out of 10 people interviewed after an initial screening, perhaps one or at most two, might be hired.

One of the reasons Kamloops was chosen as a location for the plant was its then-ample supply of labour, along with proximity to material supply, customers, and a good transportation infrastructure.

But they now have to compete with mines in the area for people, and the oil and gas patch in northern B.C. and Alberta draws skilled people away.

“We need to hire quite a few more people to bring this mill up to where we want it, in terms of capacity,” says Webb.

And the future success of the company lies in its people, to a large extent, he added.

Any expansion they do will involve capital, but a major focus will be on the contributions of employees towards growth and innovation. “We have always done it that way,” says Webb. “You can usually achieve a lot more benefits through the power of people than the power of money. You can throw money at something, but you can achieve a lot with employee buy-in, having people involved from the very start.

“I’ve seen where if you don’t do that—and you can make an investment in equipment, it doesn’t run well.

People make iron run—it’s not the other way around, he says.

Their careful selection of employees is very important, says Webb. He says that has been one of several things that have led to the success of the business.

“The others would be the equipment we have and the way the plant was designed, and our investors and core operating group, who are also investors.”

Since they are an independent plywood and veneer operation—and are not owned by a forestry giant like West Fraser or Canfor—they don’t have access to a deep-pocketed parent company. So being lean and resourceful is just part of their DNA, really. “It also allows us to be pretty

fast on our feet, and make decisions quite quickly—and push the button on those decisions.”

With the upturn in the market, TRVP is looking at increasing capacity over the next year or so; some of that may come from hiring additional people, and some by making equipment additions. “We’re just in the process of analyzing the best way to do this,” says Webb.

There was a lot of foresight when the facility was first built—it was designed and engineered for expansion. “There are a lot of things—the size of the electrical

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

system, the sprinkling system, the fire suppression system—that were designed for expansion. At the beginning, when we were building the plant, it hardly cost us anything to do, but it sure would cost us a lot to do now.” Even structurally, extra footers were put in place with the thought of future expansions.

“So, we’re looking at how we can make this place bigger. But we want to make sure that we design and build something that will offer good long term growth, and also offer long term return for our investors.”

63

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March/April 2015

The edge New design guidelines for guided circular saws

A

round 1970, a new type of circular saw started making its appearance in sawmills.

This new design featured guides, instead of a collar, to support the saw directly below the cutting region. This allowed much better cutting accuracy as well as the use of thinner saws and/or faster feed speeds, thus lowering production costs.

Optimization of saw thickness and feed speeds can be determined by trial and error, but the results are most often specific to the particular conditions in that sawmill, and not generally applicable to other mills. Work on the development of an engineering model that could predict saw behaviour was thus initiated by sawmill equipment manufacturers, saw makers, and university researchers.

The first models proposed for guided circular saws were developed to calculate critical speeds, but did not yield the desired predictability. Cutting experiments at FPInnovations’ Sawing Laboratory in our Vancouver facility showed that guided saws cut very well even at critical speed, but that every blade will reach a rotation

speed at which it starts to vibrate wildly (the flutter zone), even while idling. The inability of the models to predict the effects of critical speeds and the onset of the flutter zone resulted in the sawmills having to send saws to our Sawing Laboratory to be tested individually, if a speed increase or a change in plate thickness was required in their operations.

Ahmad Panah, a wood machining scientist at FPInnovations’ Vancouver facility, has recently completed his PhD in mechanical engineering. His research work included the development of a refined model for guided circular saws that would

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

correctly predict the onset of the flutter vibration and good cutting performance at critical speeds. This research has resulted in the creation of a set of charts and tables to assist mill personnel in evaluating their saws.

A publication containing these tables will be available soon from FPInnovations, and a webinar will be held to explain the new information.

For more information on these new guidelines, please contact Bruce Lehmann, Assoc. Research Leader – Sawing and Machine Performance at FPInnovations, at bruce.lehmann@fpinnovations.ca

65

The Edge

Keep your forest fleet on the road to success with FPInnovations' fall seminar

T

his October, FPInnovations will expand the support it offers the forest industry through a new networking and professional development opportunity in Prince George, B.C. The event, a one-day woods-to-mill symposium for fleet transport professionals, will include workshops and networking opportunities, as well as a supplier forum.

“The impetus behind this seminar is based on our own experiences with fleets,” says Cameron Rittich, Senior Scientist at FPInnovations. “Every time we visit a fleet, we are able to identify areas where there is room for improvement.

Sure, there are some early adopters out there among forest fleet operators, but often we notice there’s hesitancy too.”

Rittich attributes this to a lack of time and opportunity to thoroughly research and understand what proven tools are out there that can help fleet managers, planners, coordinators and procurement specialists improve efficiency and safety in their daily operations. And, since forest

66

fleet operators tend to be risk adverse, information can help address the concerns of managers about adopting new technologies.

He notes that although factors such as the difficult economy, increased international competition, and damage to harvests caused by pests have motivated forest fleets to scrutinize operations, there are still plenty of fleets who have yet to fully take advantage of existing technologies and processes that could improve efficiency and safety, and ultimately save them money.

“Our own experience—and feedback from our members—tells us that there needs to be a forum for forest fleet professionals to connect with each other and with suppliers so that they can share best practices and stay up-to-date with the latest advances,” explains Rittich.

The seminar will target everyone from fleet owners, managers, and dispatchers, to transport supervisors, regulatory officials, and health and safety officers.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

“We’ll keep the agenda tightly focused on topics we know are priorities for members—road safety and construction, logistics, and transportation,” he adds. “Our goal is to make sure that everyone who attends gets real value for their time.”

Workshops will cover innovations in the log and chip haul sectors; a look at logistics planning tools for fleets and forest companies; driver recruitment and training; energy efficiency technologies; intermodal transport options; collaborative models for transportation; and accident prevention and best practices in trucking.

This fall’s seminar will be the first of this kind offered by FPInnovations and the intention is to offer the event annually in Western Canada.

For more information, contact Cameron Rittich, Senior Scientist at FPInnovations. Email: Cameron.Rittich@fpinnovations.ca; telephone: 604 222-5740.

The Edge

Keeping Canada competitive: the genomics advantage

BY APRIL VAN ERT SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER FPINNOVATIONS

F

aced with intense global competition, Canada’s forest sector is seeking improved solutions and new ways to add value for customers and end consumers. FPInnovations plays a lead role, working with research partners, in helping the forest industry innovate based on transformative breakthroughs in science. Among such game-changing opportunities are technologies based on the rapidly advancing study of genes, known as genomics.

“Genomics has created waves of innovation all around the world, particularly in the areas of human health and medicine.

Now, the game-changing potential of genomics is ready to be brought to our forests,” says Pierre Lapointe, FPInnovations’ CEO. Genomics is the study of a species’ DNA, known as its genome. In sequencing the genome of individuals of a species, scientists find differences between them at given positions in their DNA. These differences are called DNA markers. These markers help identify genes that code for particular traits expressed in individual organisms of that species.

Lapointe is enthusiastic about the prospects of genomics solutions to put Canada on a strong competitive footing.

“Forest genomics is giving us the knowledge to grow better forests, faster.

FPInnovations is eager to help turn this knowledge into powerful innovations that will give Canada’s forest sector a significant competitive advantage,” Lapointe adds.

Already, Canada’s forest research community has completely or partially sequenced genomes for a few commercially important tree species and for some pest species that impact the forest resource.

A research team centered at Laval University is helping to accelerate traditional tree breeding using genetic markers, a method called genomic selection. In the case of white spruce, conventional methods require up to 30 years to breed and test trees in the field for improved growth, adaptation and wood fibre value. With genomic selection, the time is significantly

reduced—to six years—permitting nurseries to rapidly select trees for reforestation programs.

The Laval University team is led by Dr. John Bousquet, Canada Research Chair in Forest Genomics. The team includes collaborators from Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service and the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, among others.

“Just as we can decode the genomes of trees to select for the best growth and wood quality, so too can we use their genetic profiles to identify trees that have an inherent level of resilience,” says Bousquet. “Genomic selection is also very promising when it comes to breeding trees that will be more resistant to pests and pathogens, and current efforts focus on developing planting stock with such attributes,” adds Bousquet.

An advantage of this approach is that it does not modify the genetic material of an organism. Its focus is on learning how genes naturally control physical characteristics, then using this knowledge to support particular management objectives.

“Such objectives include producing wood for desired end-uses, growing forests to survive in the face of pests and changing climate, and providing customers and producers with more certainty about the source of products,” as indicated by Dr. Jean Beaulieu, member of this team and research scientist with the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre and NRCan. Furthermore, genomics applications have a role to play in protecting Canada from invasive species. “The increase in international trade means that we are constantly under threat of attack from invasive species and pathogens that could be devastating to Canada’s forest sector,” says Dr. Richard Hamelin, a senior research scientist with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service and professor at the University of British Columbia. “The horticulture industry alone imports millions of plants each year and some of those plants may carry pathogens that can be damaging to commercial forest tree species. Just like a person with the flu can contaminate other persons even before they show symptoms, plants can be infected without showing sympLogging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

toms and become dangerous carriers of pathogens.”

Hamelin’s research team has developed DNA diagnostic kits to detect markers of pathogens before there are visible symptoms, permitting the early identification that is key to quarantining and destroying the infected plants before the contagion spreads. Likewise, these diagnostic kits can be used to identify traces of pests when the insects are too early in their development for a reliable visual identification.

Looking beyond the cost-savings from improved and accelerated breeding, and reduced risk of losses from pests and pathogens, genomics can give Canada’s forest products an edge on international markets. “Using genomics, we can certify that our wood products are of a certain quality, and free of pests and pathogens,” Hamelin explains.

There is more than promise to the rapidly progressing field of forest genomics. There are already some tools available—and more in mature stages of development —that can change the way industry does business, from rapidly producing genetically improved planting stock to reliably detecting the presence of damaging agents, to certifying the quality of raw materials and end products. It all adds up to a greater ability to manage for value along the supply chain.

However, Canada is not the only country to see the benefits of genomics.

“We’re among the world leaders in forest genomics but other countries are moving fast,” according to Hamelin. Among the developed countries, Sweden, the U.S. and France in particular are investing significantly in forest genomics, and developing countries such as China and Brazil also have strong forest genomics programs. The race is on to remain competitive. Effectively harnessing and applying Canada’s forest genomics capacity will help our industries stay in the game.

For more information about forest genomics, please contact Guy Smith, Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, guy. smith@nrcan.gc.ca 67

The Edge

Quality science leads to fire-safety changes in building code for taller wood buildings

BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI

A

lberta Innovates Bio Solutions (AI Bio) supports more use of innovative biomaterials and wood products in construction. But use of these building materials will only increase if important issues like fire safety are addressed, particularly as construction of taller all-wood buildings takes hold.

“Use of these products and the construction of taller all-wood buildings requires compliance with building codes to ensure public safety,” says Steve Price, executive director for bioindustrial innovation at AI Bio. “Fire is a principal safety concern. If fire safety is not addressed, new biomaterials and taller all-wood buildings will not be accepted for use, and opportunities for greater uptake will be curtailed.”

Fortunately, as building codes change to permit mid-rise buildings, many concerns related to fire safety have been addressed through research work done by organizations like the National Research Council of Canada, NEWBuildS, FPInnovations and the Canadian Wood Council (CWC). AI Bio is a financial supporter of many of these organizations, and also recently sponsored a tall-building seminar for industry professionals in Edmonton.

While wood-product manufacturers saw a business opportunity in taller, all-wood construction from four to six storeys, they also recognized a need to invest in studying issues related to health and safety, structural integrity and fire performance, says Michael Giroux, CWC president.

Changes have been made to building codes in B.C. and Ontario, and are being considered in Quebec, as a result of this work. These include sprinklers installed throughout building living areas, installation of sprinkler systems on balconies, noncombustible cladding on building exteriors for upper floors, and sprinklers in void spaces. Expected changes to the National Building Code of Canada, allowing for allwood, mid-rise construction up to six storeys, will also include these requirements.

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Len Garis, past president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C., adjunct professor at the University of the Fraser Valley School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the current City of Surrey fire chief, was actively involved in gathering and presenting fire safety data when both B.C. and Ontario recently agreed to allow in their building codes the construction of all-wood buildings from four to six storeys.

Some of his research at the University of the Fraser Valley was financially supported by the CWC. Garis studied about 2,000 fire incidents in B.C. over a five-year period in threeand four-storey wood buildings. Of those, 565 had sprinkler systems and 1,377 did not.

Installation of sprinkler systems in key areas of taller wood buildings is expected to have a major impact on addressing fire safety issues.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

“Our retrospective analysis showed that buildings that were sprinklered actually performed quite well with the protection equipment that was installed,” he says.

“We found that 96.2 per cent of fires that occurred in a sprinklered environment never left the room of origin.”

Garis says fire occurrence during building construction continues to be a concern and the CWC agrees. Garis is currently working on another CWC-funded study at the University of the Fraser Valley aimed at designing an operational document to help developers follow best practices during the critical construction phase of all-wood or wood hybrid midrise construction.

“Not all builders are equivalent,” says Garis. “We may be able to deal with some of the construction site issues by just being smarter about where, for example, contractors position their propane, where they keep their combustible materials, and how they are stockpiled. These are all standard site issues.”

He adds that development of this bestpractices tool is being done in collaboration with the American Wood Council, and will be shared with building code officials and construction personnel, “to try to raise the bar on construction site fire safety.”

“Everything that I’ve seen and everything that we’ve looked at retrospectively suggests that these buildings should be no more different and no more risky than anything else we are building today,” says Garis. “There are very few fire risks, and everything that we are seeing so far says that those fire risks are more than mitigated by the fire protection equipment that is being installed.”

However, because there are still so few all-wood or wood-hybrid higher-rise buildings throughout the world, being able to fully assess the fire risk at this time is more difficult since there is little historical data available for review, the fire chief says,

The Edge

Stationary biomass round baler shows promise to lower transport costs

BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI

T

he Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) has successfully tested and demonstrated a newly-developed, Canadian-built, biomass compaction and storage system. The system, designed and built in Quebec by Gyro-Trac Corporation, can compact various types of woody biomass, such as sawdust, chips, shavings, bark, branches and even construction waste, into 48” round bales.

The woody biomass compaction and storage trial was conducted in Nova Scotia as part of CWFC’s program aimed at demonstrating various biomass densification, conditioning and handling methods for reducing the cost of transporting woody biomass between the harvest site and production facility. This project was funded under the Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD) through Natural Resources Canada.

It is investigating a variety of biomass densification, conditioning and handling methods in many different environments across Canada.

“We’re trying to demonstrate various options to make biomass use and delivery more economically feasible,” says Tim Keddy, CWFC Wood Fibre Development Specialist. “One of the biggest challenges with woody biomass is the cost associated with delivery and storage.”

The compaction and baling technology was originally developed to compact municipal waste and construction debris into dense round bales by Recyclage Ungava in northern Quebec, to reduce transportation costs. The system consists of a 265 hp power unit, collection hopper, an auger that can reconstitute the debris, and a conveyor that transports the debris from the auger into the compaction and baling unit.

Unlike the Gyro-Trac BBS system demonstrated earlier this year by CWFC— where the mobile unit equipped with a mulching head and chipper can mulch, chip and produce a compacted round bale all at the same time—this stationary system requires a loading implement such

as a front end loader to feed the unit.

Keddy says this system, while stationary, is capable of producing more bales per hour and can be loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved from one location to another, with set-up taking about an hour.

Keddy says the purpose of the demonstration and trial in Nova Scotia was to address two issues related to biomass transportation and storage. The initial phase of the trial is to evaluate the feasibility of reducing biomass transportation costs by packaging woody biomass into compacted bales. Depending on the moisture content and bulkiness of the biomass, trailers filled with woody biomass typically are not capable of reaching their maximum legal weight, therefore increasing the transportation cost per tonne. In one test at Shaw Resources, a truck trailer with a 53’ walking floor was filled to capacity with mill residue shavings. The shavings were then unloaded and compacted into bales. The compacted bales, once reloaded onto the trailer, resulted in less than 45 per cent of the trailer being occupied. The ability to transport more than twice the volume of biomass per load could result in significantly reduced transportation costs.

The second phase of the trial is to evaluate the long term storage potential of biomass compacted in round bales.

Moisture content increases during storage, which can result in decomposition and Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

methane build-up in storage piles, and it’s an issue that is consistently being studied. Researchers wanted to know if the moisture content would remain stable or even decline during storage if the biomass was compacted into round bales. CWFC baled three types of woody biomass, wet unhogged bark, green and seasoned chips, with various moisture contents at the Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia site as part of the PERD study. Researchers are returning to the site every three months to split a few bales from each type and sample the moisture content and evaluate the decomposition.

Keddy says that preliminary assessments of compacted bales that were produced by the Gyro-Trac BBS system show promising results.

“The chips from the bales were still white after two years. The material was as dry, if not drier, as when the bale was created,” says Keddy.

For more information about this PERD project, contact CWFC Wood Fibre Development Specialist, Tim Keddy at (780) 435-7212 or tkeddy@NRCanRNCan.gc.ca or Derek Sidders at (780) 435-7355 or Derek. Sidders@NRCanRNCan.gc.ca. For more information about this collection and compaction system, check out www.gyrotrac.com.

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SUPPLIERNEWSLINE Watch for it!

New Deere skidders!

In the May issue of Logging and Sawmilling Journal, our Tech Update will be on skidders and it will include information on John Deere's just introduced game-changing L-Series skidders.

John Deere collected invaluable input from loggers, and company engineers then devoted 250,000 hours designing prototypes based on these fresh ideas, and continued to refine the machines until they got them exactly right, says the company.

Watch for it in the May issue!

TimberPro launches new C Series feller buncher

TimberPro now offers a new C Series feller buncher in three sizes, with both a leveling and non-leveling configuration. In a significant move, the cab has been moved from the right to the left hand side, allowing for easy access to critical components.

The 1800 rpm max engine speed increases fuel efficiency.

It also comes equipped with an energy recovering hydrostatic swing pump and rubber belting protection to the boom and gullwing to reduce debris in the engine and hydraulic compartments.

Its feller buncher booms are designed for heavy attachments or can be outfitted with an optional 6’ squirt boom for dangle attachments. www.timberpro.com

USNR acquires Söderhamn Eriksson

USNR recently announced that it has acquired Söderhamn Eriksson and all of its subsidiaries from Cellwoodgruppen AB. Even before this acquisition, USNR was the world’s largest supplier of equipment and technologies for the sawmill industry, and the addition of Söderhamn Eriksson further cements USNR’s leadership position, the company says.

George Van Hoomissen, President and CEO of USNR, said that he was interested in the opportunity to acquire Söderhamn Eriksson because he felt Söderhamn Eriksson’s strong market position in Europe would complement USNR’s strong position in North America, and that both companies’ positions would be strengthened as a result of a combination in South America, Australia/New Zealand, Russia, and Asia.

“We believe that Söderhamn Eriksson’s extensive sales, distribution, and service networks in Europe will help USNR to more broadly introduce and support its products in Europe,” stated Chris Blomquist, vice-president of sales for USNR. “Lack of local support infrastructure can be a challenge, but now the combined 70

By Tony Kryzanowski

organization has an extensive OEM support network spanning 15 time zones, three continents, 10 countries, and at least nine languages.”

Within the Söderhamn Eriksson organization, this acquisition is also viewed as positive and transformative. “We have products that are very well-suited to the North American style of sawmilling, and we are optimistic that with the support of USNR, we will be able to successfully introduce these products into the United States and Canada,” said Henrik Lefvert, managing director for Söderhamn Eriksson.

Lars Lindvall, international sales manager for Söderhamn Eriksson, said that they will be able to creatively package solutions that combine products from Söderhamn Eriksson with those from USNR. “We have of course been able to collaborate with USNR in the past, and have done so on a number of occasions, but we are now in a position to provide fully integrated, end-to-end solutions anywhere in the world.”

“The combination of USNR and Söderhamn Eriksson offers customers far more options when planning a project,” added Chris Blomquist. “By combining our product lines and our service and support operations, customers will be able to design the solution that best meets their needs.” www.usnr.com

New forestry winch attachment for processing heads is first of its kind

GS Manufacturing’s new no-connection forestry winch enables any processor to clean up cut block corners, skid logs, pull vehicles or attach to a stationary position in order to help maneuver a processor safely into place. Powered by the processor feed rollers and held in place by the grab arms, this winch has been tested on the Log Max7000XT and can be adapted to other 3 and 4 wheel processor models. Because the winch is not connected hydraulically to the machine, it can be picked up quickly, used and loaded in a pickup box to be made available to other operators.

Weighing in at 1200 lbs., it has a 10,000 lbs. maximum winch force and adjustable winch speed to 50 ft/min with between 200’ and 300’ of winch line. www.gsengineering.com

BID Group of Companies names new CEO

Alistair Cook is the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BID Group of Companies.

Cook became CEO after a 23-year career with Canfor where he served as senior vice-president of operations in Canada before joining the BID Group of Companies.

Brian Fehr, Chairman and Managing Director of the BID Group, says that Cook’s extensive experience in the forest products sector places him in an ideal position to lead the BID Group

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

suppliernewsline of Companies as an industry leader in providing customer solutions for a rapidly changing, technology driven industry.

The privately-owned BID Group family of companies has over 30 years of experience in providing industry leading solutions through such companies as Comact, PHL, Deltech, Nechako Construction and SEC. Specializing in the forest industry, its ability to provide a turnkey solution that includes engineering, project management, installation, startup, and after-sales service furthers its strategic services to its customers. The company has offices in 14 locations across North America. www.bidgroup.ca

Wagner launches innovative new log handling machine

The Wagner logstacker has long been the backbone of some of the industry’s largest log yard operations.

Recent shifts in the industry created a need for a smaller, more agile machine to handle cut-tolength logs. Wagner says that customers demanded a machine able to outperform anything else on the market. Rather than simply responding with a re-sized machine, the company surveyed operators, maintenance crew members and customers to design a machine that addresses all of their needs.

The result is the new L60.

The pressure check indicator on the L60 allows for quick troubleshooting of the six major hydraulic systems with the push of a button. The upgraded vehicle monitoring system allows plant managers to view real-time location, speed and fuel efficiency among 18 reporting parameters remotely from any computer, tablet or smartphone. The Wagner L60 is the only machine in its class with a rotating operator’s platform, says the company.

All Wagner machines are designed and manufactured in the Allied Systems Company’s manufacturing facility near Portland, Oregon. www.alliedsystems.com

geometry. This yielded immediate positive results.

Scanning the boards at an angle allowed for improved edge detection and width accuracy. High density and faster scanner sensors combined with slanted features allowed for the detection of splits and shake, holes and torn grain.

The R&D group worked for several months on extensive software algorithms that were necessary to achieve these positive results.

Other benefits were also achieved. For example, the slanted heads did not retain dust and debris so the cleaning protocol was reduced to almost nothing, says the company. As an additional benefit, the air cleaning system was no longer necessary thus reducing system and maintenance cost.

Autolog supplies its transverse optimizer system on Windows 7. Multi-processors architecture, multi-threading applications and SQL database are all standard items within the optimizer systems. www.autolog.com

Pacific Power Group improves yarder operation monitoring

With its ACDAT monitoring systems, Pacific Power Group has introduced a simple, intuitive yarder monitoring and information system designed to provide safe, smooth production increases.

Screen displays show all line tensions, crew and rigging positions, ground profile and more. Pacific Power Group has also introduced a new cab designed specifically for yarders, which the company says provides superior visibility. www.pacificpowergroup.com

Bringing colour to new heights.

Autolog scanning angle at 45 degrees improves accuracy

Autolog says that it is continuously upgrading its transverse optimizer family of products with new software and improved technology. In 2009, its R&D group came up with the innovative idea of slanting the scanner heads to help improve board and cant

www.rhinoprintsolutions.com

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71

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

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73

thelastword

Is the lack of joint ventures stunting the growth of the forest industry?

By Tony Kryzanowski

T

he Canadian forest industry is on the cusp of greatness, but to achieve that greatness, companies should take a page from the energy sector and learn how to work together better in joint ventures.

The nuances of the ‘deal’ where a number of parties take ‘a piece of the action’ seems like an entirely foreign concept to the forestry sector, but is so desperately needed if the Canadian industry is serious about becoming a dominant global player.

My concern is that joint ventures— which would lead to faster commercialization of new wood-based, advanced bio-materials and structural building products—are lacking in the forestry sector and this will result in many lost opportunities, loss of technological advantages, and will lead eventually to stunted industry growth.

At a time when the industry seems satisfied with softwood lumber sales being fueled by increased housing starts south of the border and a low Canadian dollar, solid wood producers should be concerned about the trend toward more modular and offsite building construction using engineered structural building products, instead of single 2 X 4’s and 2 X 6’s. If this trend continues, the softwood lumber market for building construction materials may not continue to be business as usual.

The solution could be joint ventures among small, medium and large dimension lumber producers to provide the materials that the building industry may demand in future—especially if the industry is serious about achieving more market share in the commercial/industrial building sector and as multi-residential buildings are built taller.

There seems to be a preference to encourage single companies to commercialize processes that bring new products like cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and cellulose filaments (CF) to the market.

74

I believe this is a weak approach and tends to pit one forest company against another. A much better approach would be to create larger groups of joint venture partners, with everyone having some skin in the game, to more quickly and widely create the marketing pipelines for these types of new products.

The reality is that in the much bigger picture, Canadian companies are not really competing with each other for market share especially in more advanced materials. Canada is competing with Brazil, Finland, the U.S., Malaysia, and others to create and dominate the market for new products—and yes, dominance should be the goal to encourage further investment.

Single source development and marketing of new wood-based materials does us greater harm than good because, inevitably, whatever head start we may create for ourselves in the development of technology will be lost by small and slow commercialization efforts.

I understand the importance of protecting patents. But at what point does a mild obsession with patent protection start to hinder commercialization? We are stronger, together.

Here’s an example of how the energy sector does business. Among the project partners in Syncrude’s oilsands project at Mildred Lake near Fort McMurray are direct competitors like Suncor, Imperial Oil, Murphy Oil, the Canadian Oilsands Partnership, Nexen, and Mocol Energy.

Somehow, these companies managed to sit around a boardroom table and hammer out a joint venture deal. Unfortunately when it comes to the Canadian forestry sector, there seems to be more interest in the takeover than the joint venture.

What certainly represents a legitimate concern—and is the biggest unknown—is the actual size of the pie for new structural building products and bio-materials.

The market may seem small in some cases, but with more joint venture partLogging & Sawmilling Journal - March/April 2015

ners, it becomes much easier to build a bigger pie.

I am absolutely convinced that there is room for everyone in the Canadian forest industry to profit in the development of new markets for building products.

Unfortunately, there seem to be too many Canadian forest companies not satisfied unless they own the whole pie, and this is the crux of concern that the Canadian forest industry’s growth will become stunted down the road. This shortsighted quest to achieve immediate shareholder value by attempting to own or dominate a market for a new building product or advanced bio-material may result in a short term benefit, but the entire industry will feel the pain down the road when other countries do a better job of capturing market share for these products.

One area where there is an immediate opportunity for joint ventures is production of large-scale bio-energy using forest slash and short rotation woody biomass.

Developing centralized power production plants so that transportation costs are equally shared by the joint venture partners is one way to manage this cost. Also, supplementing this fuel source with short rotation woody biomass plantations close to a power facility can also factor into the viability of these plants.

As to earning a fair rate for this power, some provinces and U.S. states already have experience with feed-in-tariffs (FITS) where power generation from more environmentally friendly sources is offered a guaranteed rate to encourage investment, recognizing the benefit to combating climate change that these projects represent.

This beats the annual ritual of burning slash piles, and also provides many new job and business opportunities—there is zero reason for burning slash piles if the industry can join forces and be part of green energy generation.

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