Australia’s structural timber supply chain industry has applauded the success of the Buy Aussie Timber First (BATF) campaign, launched to promote Australian timber sales during uncertain times, following the destructive 2019/20 summer bushfires and the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Industry will now look to refocus the campaign. The 9-month BATF campaign helped deliver a message of support about …

The timber industry has been historically dominated by men, but things are changing fast both inside the mill and in the office. In the latest issue of Timberlink’s Newsletter, they spoke in depth with Denise Morrison and Carley Murphy, both working with Timberlink mills about their careers, the challenges they have faced and about why a career in timber is …

Construction has long been plagued by a lack of collaboration and communication right along the supply chain, according to construction payment application firm Payapps. Over time, this leads to job fragmentation, inefficient contract approaches and disputes over claims. Yet, construction companies that meet these challenges head-on by remaining agile, adapting faster and manage to reduce their cost base will see …

Whakatāne’s packaging mill, one of the town’s biggest employers, may yet be saved from imminent closure. The mill’s Swiss owner SIG has announced that a consortium led by Dr Dermot Smurfit, a European investor with long experience in paper packaging, is in talks with it to buy the mill. “A successful sale may result in the continued operation of WML. …

In any business, we tend to speculate as to what changes will occur or what new technology will come along. Throughout 2020, I began to notice a change in sawing taking place – more filers are sawing with circle saws. And it appears that trend will continue in 2021. New mills are not installing many bandsaws and a lot of …

Seventy-five jobs are at risk in a small South Australian town if the local sawmill does not find a new supply of logs. The Morgan Sawmill at Jamestown, in mid-north SA, is a family business that has been recently reliant on processing timber from the Adelaide Hills. But it failed to secure a contract with ForestrySA after a tender process …

Two years ago – over two weeks – the FIEA WoodTECH technology series achieved a record turnout of local sawmilling companies. Over 350 delegates from all major sawmilling companies in addition to leading tech providers from throughout Australasia, North America and Europe converged on Melbourne, Australia and Rotorua, New Zealand. Two years later, after huge disruptions worldwide, WoodTECH 2021 will …

Norske Skog, the owner of the Tasman newsprint mill in Kawerau, has begun talks with staff over the mill’s future, following a lengthy review. Unionists have been expressing concern for some months about the mill’s viability, given the declining world demand for newsprint. A spokesman for Norske Skog, David Quin, said the mill had about 160 staff, and they were …

Segezha Group President Mikhail Shamolin visited Sokol in Vologda Oblast to oversee the grand opening of Segezha Group’s cross-laminated timber (CLT) plant. The plant is the first industrial-scale production facility to manufacture the innovative building construction material. The factory is located at Sokol Woodworking Plant (S-DOK JSC), a leading producer of laminated wooden structures in Russia. Segezha Group has invested …

In a proof-of-concept collaboration between TWI Ltd and the University of Cambridge and enabled by the Construction Innovation Hub, researchers have developed a sustainable process to rapidly join timber elements using linear friction welding. Two years into the project they have been able to join pieces of wood in two to three seconds by rubbing them together at high speeds, …