hm - June11 - cover.indd - National Hardwood Lumber Association

INSIDE NHLA
MALAYSIA TIMBER COUNCIL VISITS NHLA
The Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) recently completed a
mission to the United States which included stops in Los Angeles,
New Orleans and Memphis. On April 18, MTC delegates
visited NHLA headquarters where NHLA Chief Inspector, Dana
Spessert gave a presentation on the NHLA rules for grading North
American hardwood lumber. Other speakers included David
Caldwell and Judd Johnson of the Hardwood Market Report who
reported on hardwood market conditions. On day two of the
Memphis visit, delegates toured the NHLA member facilities
of J.T. Shannon Lumber in northwest Mississippi. The tour
provided delegates a unique opportunity to view the green chain,
grading stations, sorting and kiln facilities, as well as the flooring
manufacturing and packaging complex.
The MTC U.S. Mission had four outlined objectives:
• To enhance trade relations and increase timber trade with
the U.S.
• To promote Malaysian timber products and create awareness
on Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) in the U.S.
• To exchange business ideas and information on timber utilization
and explore business opportunities.
• To look into remanufacturing opportunities with U.S.
manufacturers and explore the possibility for sourcing
American hardwoods.
The MTC Global WoodMart will be held October 4-6, 2012 in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
NATIONAL INSPECTORS ATTEND QUALITY
CONTROL TRAINING
NHLA National Inspectors; Jack English and Benji Richards
recently attended two Quality Control Workshops offered by the
Lumber Quality Institute. The first two-day course held May 2-3
focused on lumber quality and process control.
“These workshops are geared toward softwood but many of
the applications can be used in a hardwood mill”, stated Chief
Inspector Dana Spessert, who previously attended the quality
control workshop.
Benji and Jack represented the only hardwood industry people in
the class of thirty. “But we often added to the conversations, giving
a hardwood approach to a softwood situation,” explained Jack. Both
inspectors agreed that the concepts learned in the workshop would
help the hardwood industry by increasing profits by better quality
without losing production. “This is important to all hardwood
producers not only in these tough economic times but also when
things improve in our industry,” said Jack.
The second workshop on Lumber Quality Leadership was held
May 4-5. The leadership workshop was conducted by Terry Brown,
Director of the Lumber Quality Institute with more than 30 years
of experience in helping sawmills solve quality and productionrelated
problems.
“The knowledge gained at the leadership workshop will help us
on a daily basis to work with NHLA members, employees and
colleagues,” explained Jack. “Sometimes it only takes a different
thought or attitude to change a negative situation to a positive one.”
8 JUNE 2011 HARDWOOD MATTERS WWW.NHLA.COM