The New Zealand government is backing the forest and wood-processing industry to play a major role in New Zealand’s economic recovery, with the launch of the Invest in New Zealand Wood Processing prospectus to encourage wider local and offshore investment. “The Government is confident that the future of the forestry and wood-processing…
The Swiss timber market has so far navigated the pandemic “relatively well”, the Swiss Timber Commission (HMK), which met in Bern on June 24, assessed the current situation. Many construction projects approved last year are currently in the implementation phase. The sawing industry, in particular, has so far largely been…
The government of Gabon has passed new laws that will come into effect in 2021 and will affect the forestry and timber sectors. The tax structure has been reset with the aim of encouraging processing for export. While this has not been verified reports suggest the export tax changes are…
The Södra Foundation for Research, Development and Education has decided to grant an additional SEK 6.8 million to 13 research projects linked to forestry and the forest industry. “Investing in research is crucial to facilitating the transition of society, regardless of whether we are in a boom or a slump,…
The Canadian pellet producer Pinnacle Renewable Energy has started operations at Williams Lake facility after months of capital upgrades. One of the main ones was equipment that can process wetter fibre. Instead of primarily relying on the shavings and sawdust of sawmills, the Williams Lake facility can also process up…
Russia’s ULK Group is investing more than Euro 400 million in one of the country’s biggest sawmill investments in modern times. The ambition is to have one of the world’s largest and most modern sawmills, with an annual capacity of more than 1 million cubic meters (425,000 MBF) sawn timber…
Conifex Timber Inc. announced that at its annual general and special meeting of shareholders held on June 22, 2020, all management nominees were elected as directors of the company. Conifex also plans to recommence operations following its temporary curtailment at its Mackenzie, British Columbia sawmill on July 6, 2020 on…
Mercer International Inc. reports that its Celgar mill in British Columbia, Canada, in addition to regularly planned maintenance downtime of five days, will be taking approximately 30 days of additional downtime (aggregate 52,000 ADMTs) in July 2020. The additional downtime largely results from reduced fiber availability in the mill’s procurement…
In response to a 5-0 decision, in which a NAFTA panel affirmed an International Trade Commission’s (ITC) findings that the U.S. softwood lumber industry has been materially injured by Canadian subsidies to their forest products industry. Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, issued the following statement: “The…
The Brazilian timber industry, represented by the Brazilian Association for Mechanically Processed Timber (ABIMCI), recently sent a written request to the governments of Brazil and the United States urging both sides to facilitate trade and good practices between the two countries. This came about because of the joint initiative of…
