American Hardwood Supplement 2018

AMERICAN HARDWOOD Southeast Asia Supplement 2018
The world’s forests offer hardwoods of every description and increasingly more and more hardwoods
are being planted, especially in Asia. Why therefore is the North American natural hardwood forest
resource so important to Asian manufacturers? Michael Buckley FIWSc MPhil, explains.
North American hardwood forests offer diversity of species
The hardwood forests of the USA and Canada hold the most
diverse array of hardwood species anywhere in the temperate
regions of the world – and they are under-utilised. Whereas
the hardwood diversity of Europe was largely eliminated in the
last ice-age by the east-west Alps, the same did not happen in
North America where the Appalachian Mountains run north-south
allowing the trees to come back as the ice melted. In consequence,
for example, there are very many oaks in the USA, of which 16 are
commercially available, compared with two oaks in Europe. Other
native species, such as tulipwood, black cherry, black walnut and
hard maple are now unique to the North American continent.
Many of these American hardwood species, from alder to
walnut, are preferred by designers for the choices of colours and
grains they exhibit for furniture, flooring and high-end joinery.
Equally important is the fact that they perform well, depending
whether the priority is strength, hardness, machinability or the
need for a first class finish. Many of them stain easily and well,
providing further choices for designers of interior products and
are available sawn in long lengths and wide boards. Another
issue is the composition of the forests. While species diversity is
important, so is the fact that oak is dominant, representing nearly
40% of the standing timber, at a time when oak is the most popular
temperate hardwood in world markets for hardwood flooring and
furniture. More recently research projects by AHEC have produced
new opportunities for exterior applications. Thermally Modified
Timber (TMT) in ash, oak and tulipwood and Cross Laminated
Timber (CLT) in tulipwood offer new opportunities for American
hardwoods in Asia.
For many product applications (and for paper) Asia’s increasing
plantations of fast-growing species (rubber, acacia, eucalyptus) do
provide some vital material, but their small diameter logs require
more processing of laminating, finger-jointing and gluing. They
cannot match the larger diameter American species for yield in
solid wood. However there is room for both in Asia’s burgeoning
production and consumption. For decorative veneer the USA is
also an essential provider of raw material, often to cover Asia’s
plantation species.
But to come back to the point about harvesting, all 20 main
commercial American hardwoods are readily available in volume
on a consistent basis. When consistency is vital to large scale
manufacturers in Asia, there is another unique benefit which is
High quality sawn lumber from USA
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