Riding The Rollercoaster And Enjoying The Experience

Timber-based industries, large and small, are struggling to survive in the prevailing chaotic commercial circumstances, and now it seems the banks have branded forestry persona non grata,

Once one of New Zealand’s most progressive and successful sawmills, Thames Timber in the Coromandel region suddenly came to the brink of closure last year. But within nine months it was turned around by the Herculean efforts of a team that introduced new product lines, a new route to market and a revolutionary way of sourcing logs.

A drier, warmer climate and better building practices will apparently protect Australia from the ‘leaky building syndrome’ that has had a devastating impact in New Zealand and Canada, and caused property values for some building styles to fall.

Low profits and the anti-progress lobby have had a lot to do with the New Zealand wood processing industry falling decades behind some of its international competitors. And, as Elizabeth Howarth reports, all eyes are now on a small but signal sawmill proposal deep within one of the country’s ‘Greenest’ regions.

When Europe’s carbon trading scheme kicks off in January 2005 it will actively discourage the purchase of forest-generated credits to balance carbon budgets.

When Japan suddenly introduced tough new standards last year to control products that contribute to Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) levels in buildings, New Zealand and Australian panel exporters scrambled to reduce formaldehyde emissions from their products.

The American market for clear lumber and mouldings is always unpredictable. The highs are lucrative and exhilarating but the lows are traumatic and loss making.

The radiata pine log export trade to Korea is in a shambles following the biggest rout of any commodity business in years. By July, two ports in Australia had been temporarily closed and the situation in New Zealand was little better