The Softwood Forest Products Buyer - January/February 2021

The Softwood Forest Products Buyer - January/February

The Forest Products www.softwoodbuyer.com Vol. 36 No. 1 The Softwood Industry’s Only Newspaper...Now Reaching 36,034 firms (20,000 per issue) January/February 2021 Softwood Industry Met with Success in 2020 – Despite the Pandemic Softwood lumber industry spokespeople report that 2020 was a successful year for their companies – despite COVID and other challenges. One industry executive stated that success in 2020 could be measured by the fact that his business stayed running during the pandemic. In 2021, the spokespeople predict, the challenges will be having enough product, maintaining company culture in a workfrom-home environment and having a dependable labor force. James Venters Alta Forest Products Chehalis, WA 2020 was a successful business year, but it has created a number of challenges heading into 2021. Supply chain shortages on both raw material and finished lumber will be the main obstacles to overcome next year. We have a good mix of Retail and Stocking Distributors serving both the DIY and installing contractor markets. We use the term “shipping off the saws,” meaning material is produced and shipped the same day. That term applied to nearly every product we produced this year. We had such a tough time keeping up with demand that introducing new products really wasn’t an option this year. There were several capital projects finished this year. Nearly all of them were geared towards improving the utilization of our raw material. We experienced railroad delays throughout the year with the worst delays coming in spring and early summer. Over the road freight has been tight all year and costs are up significantly. b Rob Chimko Dakeryn Industries North Vancouver, BC 2020 was very successful financially but mentally exhausting with COVID and working remotely. We sell to retailers, treaters and box stores. In transportation, we have had winter shortage of trucks. As an exporter, we noticed duties dropping from 20 percent to 9 percent but there are no significant concerns. b Continued on page 24 In Keeping with the Times, Hi-tech Solutions Are a Trend in Softwood Mills In 2020, in the Softwood lumber industry, challenges came from – what else? – COVID-19. However, as the year went on, business for equipment and services providers for Softwood mills increased. A trend was hi-tech solutions. However, one company recommended that technology be kept at least a little bit simple so that employees in mills can operate it. Optimism was expressed when thinking about 2021. Mario Godbout AUTOLOG Sawmill Automation Blainville, QC AUTOLOG offers: Sorter/Stacker systems, a Primary Breakdown Optimizer and a full set of optimizer and control systems for the sawmill. What new equipment/machinery/services do we anticipate will be available in the coming year for the sawmill industry and/or secondary manufacturers, and/or millwork/moulding companies? The R-TRAC Rotation Tracking System is a revolutionary non-contact rotation measurement system that measures the rotation of a log in real time without interacting with an optimizer. The R-TRAC sends the total rotation measurement to a PLC every 10ms and the PLC can control the log turner in a close loop based on these measurements. R- TRAC allows for you to turn the logs within 5 degrees every time, the first time. No after correction is needed. What trends in equipment and service purchases did we observe in 2020 and what do we anticipate in 2021? Primary breakdown optimizer upgrades were more common in 2020 and we expect that trend to continue as equipment currently in use is outdated. The new optimizer version gives more flexibility and has a better log modeling, resulting in more recovery. People tend to under evaluate the return on updating software, but software usually has an improvement rate faster than that of a mechanical upgrade. Updating a 10- or 15-year-old software can give a very good ROI. What new technology, specifically in computer programming, software, and services, is the latest? Our GEN3 technology provides the users with more tools to help them in their day-to-day tasks. GEN3 was developed with two goals in mind. The first one was to build a better software with best practices and the second goal was to help the customer with their daily tasks. This provided tools (such as live simulation, keeping previous solution, simulation capacity, display zones, faces measurement, etc.) that help with quality control, testing product basket and minimizing downtime by allowing more offline tests that do not impact production. We also worked on a better modeling of the log (more accurate) which offers a higher yield and a shorter payback. b PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID JEFFERSON CITY. MO PERMIT NO. 303 Change Service Requested The Softwood Forest Products Buyer P.O. Box 34908 Memphis, TN 38184-0908 George Barker Biolube, Inc. Fort Wayne, IN Biolube Inc., provides trouble-free Lubie® spray application equipment, saw lubricants, moulder bed lubricants, grinding coolants, pitch cleaners and other specialty products that allow sawmills to increase their bottom lines with the most environmentally friendly products available. For 2021 the Lubie bandsaw lubricant line, both hardwood and Softwood, is being reformulated to give higher performance without Continued on page 31