Graeme Hart’s Rank Group is ruthlessly ripping New Zealand forestry and wood products giant, Carter Holt Harvey apart and the redundancies are mounting. But many say he is only doing what is long overdue – forget the sentiment, it is good management at work. Inwood captures the analysts view of the drastic measures.
The (admittedly controversial) performance of the entrepreneurs behind APP leads me into this month’s theme - is a radical approach to processing required to reinvigorate the New Zealand wood business?
With gas supplies failing and New Zealand needing another 800GWh of electricity supply per annum to meet a projected 2% increase in demand, has the day of woody biomass dawned? Can forest owners look to gain good revenue from forest waste and residues?
Fed up with being stalled by environmental groups in the Forest Stewardship Council certification process, the New Zealand Forest Owners Association published a ‘National Standard’ last year but without independent international accreditation it is of little use to the industry. Now it is in the process of assessing the forward options and it could be that a transtasman plantation forestry standard is one of the favourites.
It promises to be one of the best yet - the New Zealand Forest Industries Exhibition in Rotorua from 9-11 March 2006. Notwithstanding the recent hard times in the industry the exhibitors have bought their stands and are ready to put on show the latest equipment and technology.
The Inwood-organised Global Vision international conference on 8 March 2006 in Rotorua will reveal the winning ways of big businesses and small. The final preview of the event.
Harvesting optimisation technology comes at a price – just who should foot the bill for the investment? And, of course, it is not a magic wand with the ability to transform pulp logs into quality timber at a single stroke – there are many variables to be factored in when estimating the value of the end result against the investment in technology.
