Backs To The Wall – But some survivors have found the rescue remedy
A government careers website proclaiming ‘cheaper furniture imports may decrease demand for furniture finishers … [but] opportunities exist to work on unfinished or damaged imported furniture’ seems to sum up the current state of Kiwi furniture industry, as Michael Dover reports.
A ‘sleeping’ technology invented early last century is behind a new wood modification process that could revolutionise the use of radiata pine in outdoor applications on a global scale. Tony Neilson reports.
Increasing demand for proof of sustainability is threatening the US$3 billion American hardwood log and lumber export trade, and the campaign for credibility is also heating up – as Tony Neilson reports.
The Australian plantations industry will work with researchers and governments to develop standards that ensure carbon in timber is credibly tracked and accounted, following the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Emissions Trading report.
The future of visually graded structural softwood timber products in Australia is being ‘recalibrated’ following recent testing and concerns about trade practice implications, as John Halkett reports.
Since late 2005, when government plans to introduce a long-flagged carbon tax were dumped, there has been an embarrassing energy policy vacuum in New Zealand, which looks set to continue for some time. Michael Dover asks what the wood processing industry is doing about its future energy needs and its carbon footprint.
In a post-CCA era, chemical suppliers are about to launch a raft of sophisticated new timber preservation systems and products, demonstrating how fundamental science can work with commercial interests.
In a paradoxical turn of events, New Zealand could well benefit from mounting anxiety among Asian companies about their longer-term wood security, wage rates and continuing freight cost increases – as Tony Neilson reports.
At a purpose-built industrial site in heavily timbered Tasmanian forest, a wood processing joint venture opened in May that could signal the beginning of a totally new approach to value added investment across Australia and New Zealand.
