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China Wood Imports 2013
Read more: China Wood Imports 2013Log and lumber imports into China rose to an all-time high in 2013, says the Japan Lumber Reports Friday, due to recovering demand and tight inventories after the government restricted credit funding in mid-2011. Import of logs into China last year was 45.2 million cubic metres, a 19.2 per cent increase over 2012. Lumber imports…
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Labour Agreements
Read more: Labour AgreementsTwo sets of labour negotiations reached agreement this week. The BC Northern Interior Bargaining Committee (USW) and the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations (Conifer) have shook hands and reached a tentative agreement, said a United Steelworkers release Wednesday. Labour Agreements Talks resumed this week in Prince George, BC, where Conifer and the USW…
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Skeena Mill Closed Due to Dust
Read more: Skeena Mill Closed Due to DustSkeena Sawmills, in Terrace, BC, was temporarily shut down late last year after a WorkSafe BC safety audit found high levels of combustible sawdust at the location, according to the Terrace Standard Monday. The stop work order, issued Dec. 19, 2013, was lifted the following day after a clean up took place. A WorkSafe BC…
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National Association of Home Builders’ Convention
Read more: National Association of Home Builders’ ConventionThe data looks very good for all types of US housing starts in 2014 and beyond, according to economists from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Wednesday. The association is forecasting 1.15 million total housing starts in 2014, up 24.5 per cent from last year’s total of 928,000 units. Single-family production is projected to…
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US Farm Bill and Federal Timberland Management
Read more: US Farm Bill and Federal Timberland ManagementThe massive US Farm Bill, long debated, finally passed the House of Representatives Thursday in Washington, DC. Counties in timber-producing states dependent on log harvest for revenue have been anxiously awaiting this news. The old farm bill expired in 2012. Its replacement is 959 pages long and will cost approximately US$956.4 billion over 10 years.…
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2014 Truck Logger Conference and Trade Show
Read more: 2014 Truck Logger Conference and Trade ShowIt was a rollicking time last week in downtown Vancouver, BC, for the 71st Annual Truck Logger’s Association convention and trade show. The TLA’s theme this year was “The Business of Logging – A New Era”. So it is not just for coastal operators but in the interior as well. A boisterous crowd pressed themselves…
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Madison’s Announces . . .
Read more: Madison’s Announces . . .Madison’s has completed our annual update of Madison’s Online Lumber Directory! Don’t miss out on this valuable information resource, freshly researched and updated. The new data is being installed on the website, as an online subscription. Get instantly connected with the Canadian solid wood and pulp and paper products industries! Each of the more than…
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LiDAR
Read more: LiDARUnmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or vehicles (UAV) at an accessible price are ready to take off for the surveying and geospatial professions. Of particular interest to forest operators, UAVs are very useful for forest surveys. For example, digital surface models and orthophotos can be created from UAV images of regrowth areas within a cutblock. Height…
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Sawmill Investigaton Review Ordered
Read more: Sawmill Investigaton Review OrderedA WorkSafeBC investigation has found ample evidence that the Burns Lake sawmill accident in early 2012, which killed two workers and injuring 20 others, was “preventable.” But there will be no penalties for the operators of the mill in the village about 220 kilometres west of Prince George because the Crown says WorkSafeBC’s investigation was…
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Canada Invests in Lumber Exports to India
Read more: Canada Invests in Lumber Exports to IndiaThe federal government is investing an additional $600,000 to spur efforts to boost lumber exports to India, a potentially large market that’s home to about 1.2 billion people. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced Wednesday the funding to Forest Innovation Investment India (FII India). Ottawa has already provided $1.6 million to FII India, which is…
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December US Housing Starts
Read more: December US Housing StartsNew-home construction in the US retained a strong pace in December, a sign the housing market can absorb modestly higher interest rates. US housing starts decreased 9.8 per cent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. But the figure was well above summer levels and exceeded economists’…
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Canfor to Invest
Read more: Canfor to InvestCanfor will be adding another power-generating turbine to its biomass-fired energy system as part of $8 million in capital upgrades to its Fort St. John, BC, sawmill, the company announced Tuesday. Canfor Corporation President and CEO Don Kayne said, “This capital project will improve cost efficiency at our Fort St. John mill and help move…
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Carrier Layoffs
Read more: Carrier LayoffsOperations at Carrier Forest Products near Prince Albert, SK, are to cease entirely later in January, the Alberta government announced Friday. The remaining 12 workers have been issued layoff notices. According to Shane Vermette with the Alberta Ministry of Economy, all workers at the Prince Albert sawmill have been offered jobs at Carrier’s Big River,…
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Biomass Fuel Production
Read more: Biomass Fuel ProductionA microorganism first found in the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia in 1990 may be a key to more efficient cellulosic biofuel production, said DomesticFuel.com January 6. The microoorganism can digest cellulose almost twice as fast as the current leading component cellulase enzyme on the market, according to researchers at the…
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Sawmill Accident Ruled Not Criminal
Read more: Sawmill Accident Ruled Not CriminalNo criminal or regulatory charges will be laid in connection with an explosion and fire that killed two workers at a Burns Lake, BC, sawmill in January 2012. The Criminal Justice Branch said Friday that based on the evidence provided by WorkSafeBC there is no substantial likelihood of conviction against the Babine Forest Products sawmill.…
