unwanted biomass Biomass rounds out a sustainable forest economy. BIOMASS CANADIAN Volume 14 No. 3 Editor -Amie Silverwood (289) 221-8946 [email protected] Associate Editor -Andrew Macklin (519) 429-5181 [email protected] Contributors -Christopher Rees, Treena Hein, Gordon Murray, Jean-Luc Bernier, Stephanie Thorson Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Media Designer -Gerry Wiebe Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Business Media. Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Circulation Carol Nixon email: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-re-lated groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publica-tion may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2014 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca o ver the past couple of months, I’ve been to opposite ends of the coun-try where the forest industry in two regions have both struggled to recover from the global financial crisis. In Atlantic Canada, the forest industry has lost about 15,000 jobs in the last decade with newsprint production suffering the greatest losses. The strong Canadian dollar was a big factor that hurt the re-gion’s export performance, but Atlantic forest exports have risen steadily as the Canadian dollar has fallen. Despite recent comebacks, the industry struggles still. Over this time, the region has lost a lot of capacity in the pulpwood sector, which has left a large inventory of underutilized chips. The Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC), has been looking into new tech-niques to make better use of the region’s wood fibre. On the B.C. Coast, an increasing ele-ment of the timber harvest is log exports while softwood lumber production peak-ed in 1987 at 4.674 billion bf and was at 1.332 billion bf in 2012. Because of the humid climate, the moisture content in the wood is high, requiring more time and money to dry. Much of the lumber produced is sold green, and this has limit-ed export opportunities to Europe (which requires all Canadian lumber be kiln-dried or heat-treated) and Japan (which implemented new building laws for earthquake-proof buildings and a switch to more stable kiln-dried lumber). Poor sawmilling economies at B.C. coastal mills have caused many manufac-turing plants to close. More and more tim-ber has become too expensive to harvest at the log prices the operating mills can afford to pay. Sawmill residuals are sold to local pulp mills and hog, bark from saw-logs, is an unwanted by-product. Though both regions have unique rea-sons for mill closures, what they have in common is an abundance of underutilized wood fibre. As manufactur-ing plants have closed, saw-mills and logging contrac-tors have found themselves with fewer customers for their chips, sawdust, tops and limbs. In order for the forest industry to remain stable over the long run, woody biomass must fetch a value in the marketplace. As regions that were hardest hit by the U.S. housing market and global financial crisis continue to recover, the ones that find innovative markets for their biomass will be the most competitive. A focus on improving productivity and developing the higher end of the production cycle is important to the wood products industry. Advanced building materials and sys-tems will give the Canadian industry an advantage. But as a country we must ex-tract biochemicals, develop biofuels and use residuals to make wood pellets and chips for our domestic markets in order to build a strong economy. Any forest industry that has unwanted by-products is uncompetitive. Rather than penalize log exporters to encourage more wood manufacturing, regulators should consider innovative ways to make all wood fibre more domestically valuable. • 6 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass May June 2014: Page 6
