Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. As 2022 comes to a close, it’s been a year where Covid-19 and disrupted supply chains have been replaced by a return to ‘normal’ operations, but with high global inflation and shifting timber demand. Here are the top 5 read stories from WoodTECH News this year: As you can see above, the most popular …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. Last month we highlighted one of the world’s most advanced sawmills, a Finland-based mill that runs everything out of a single control room. Manufacturers around the globe are investing heavily in automation, with new numbers showing the use of robotics has more than doubled in the past five years. There are now 3.5 million …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. The timber industry is continuing to evolve as new technologies are being integrated into the sector. Metsa Fibre has just announced that one of the most advanced sawmills in the world has officially started operating. Based in Rauma, Finland, this sawmill is controlled from a single control room and makes use of machine vision, self-learning …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. Red Stag, which operates New Zealand’s largest sawmill and holds investments in forestry, cross laminated timber and glulam operations, has been prominent in recent wood processing announcements. TimberLab, the company behind many of the iconic large-scale glulam and laminated veneer lumber projects, both in this region and internationally, has been purchased by Red Stag …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. Fifty issues so far – and still going strong. Thanks for your contributions and suggestions for stories, results from recent research or trials, tips and links to breaking news over the years. It’s appreciated. Keep them coming. One of our regular readers, Graeme Moore, recently sent us a useful resource that he’d compiled to …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. On behalf of the Forestry Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) and WoodTECH we are delighted to welcome our inaugural WoodTECH Brand Partners; HewSaw, Camco, Fagus GreCon, TimTechChem, Wellons, USNR, Arxada, Holtec, FWPA, Braford Industries and Key Knife Pacific. The Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) and WoodTECH are pleased to be partnered with leading wood technology …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. First up, is the news that there unfortunately will be no outing for our WoodTECH community in 2022.  The WoodTECH 2022 sawmilling event after two years of postponements because of Covid travel and meeting restrictions was set down to run in Rotorua, New Zealand on 18-19 October 2022 and live streamed into Australian mills.  …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. When taking a look at new stories across New Zealand and Australia, it is hard not to see that staffing and timber shortages are dominating the headlines. Post-covid, or more correctly, living with covid, has seen a massive increase in timber demand worldwide. There’s also a lack of available workers to meet this demand. …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. After a couple of years of disruption and travel restrictions, WoodTECH 2022 will be back in person for New Zealand in October of this year. While Australia will still have to wait another year, borders will be open and we encourage those keen to make the trip across the Tasman or arrange for on-site …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. Biofuel announcements on both sides of the Tasman continue to pop up – almost daily now. Better utilisation of forest residues has moved from highlighting opportunities in harvesting, transporting and drying some of these residues from logging operations to now major investments in new heat plant by industrial-scale operations. In this month’s issue we …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. This is the first issue of 2022 and how things have changed since we last corresponded. Omicron has been an unwelcome game-changer in Australia. While the worst may be over, the big issue for business has been chronic worker shortages in key industries across the country. Companies reported that 20% to 50% of workers …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. As 2021 comes to a close, it’s been a year where Covid-19 has once again dominated the headlines, disrupted supply chains and threatened business as usual. However, it has also been a boom for many within the forestry industry, as increased domestic construction and reopening of international trade has seen timber in high demand. …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. We start this month with new research on how the millennial generation (the largest generation now in our workforce) views the timber industry. The US-based study highlights a generally negative perception of the industry which is significantly impacting on how we’re able to attract new skills into our operations. The key takeaway here is …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. As we mentioned back in July, WoodTECH 2021 was pushed back to 2022 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and the ‘post-Covid’ building boom. We can now outline plans for the revamped WoodTECH 2022 event. It will be hosted 18-19 May 2022 in Rotorua New Zealand and streamed live online. This means that, for our …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. The latest Covid-19 outbreaks in Australia and New Zealand highlights a major difference in how both countries lockdown. While Australian wood producers are deemed an essential service and continue to operate, virtually all businesses across New Zealand were forced to close while on level 4 restrictions. There will always be a debate on how …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. The big news to start this month is the sale of Boral Timber and their nine NSW sawmills and half share of the Highland Pine sawmill at Oberon to Allied Natural Wood Enterprises (Pentarch Group). While this sees Boral exit the timber business, it’s a major investment for the Pentarch Group that significantly expands …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. The big news this month for the WoodTECH community is the rescheduling of this year’s major sawmilling event to May 2022. While we had hoped to run it this August, the impacts from Covid-19 were making it increasingly harder to run. Mills were disappointed that in many instances, they would be unable to get …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. It seems Covid-19 is not done with Australia yet, with a significant outbreak sending Victoria into a hard 7-day lockdown and border restrictions with neighbouring states. While this will be felt throughout the State, the local forestry industry has largely avoided the economic hit other sectors have received. There is also a global construction …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. We’re pleased to announce the new programme for our upcoming event, WoodTECH 2021. Due to lingering issues around Covid-19 travel, we will only be hosting this event in New Zealand this year. WoodTECH 2021 runs in Rotorua, New Zealand on 3-4 August 2021. For those unable to travel from Australia and the wider international …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. Last month we mentioned that the programme for WoodTECH 2021 was in development. Every two years, this technology event focuses on sawmilling and saws. It’s one that we’re really excited about and one that will be quite different to past events. While WoodTECH is well known for bringing down 20 to 30 international equipment …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. The design of the WoodTECH 2021 programme aimed at sawmillers, saw doctors and wood producers in both New Zealand and Australia is already underway. As detailed in last month’s issue, for the first time it’s being run at the same time this year – in both countries. Further details will follow in the next …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. As the first issue of the year goes out, we’re reminded that COVID-19 still has a big part to play in 2021. At the time of publication, Perth has just entered a 5-day lockdown, as mutated strains of the virus create headaches for the teams attempting to stop the spread. New Zealand has just …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. December is finally here and what a year it’s been. COVID-19, the biggest pandemic in 100 years, has seen countries shutdown, borders closed and economies severely impacted. It’s also reinforced the importance of family, our colleagues and our connections throughout the sector. With vaccines now on the horizon, it will be interesting to see …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. In this month’s issue, we start with a new world record for CLT panels. Using TS3 technology, the Austrian timber building includes a huge 650m2 cross-laminated timber panel. The future for large timber constructions is growing rapidly, with an 18 storey timber building opening in Norway and the world’s first all timber football stadium …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. In this month’s issue, we highlight a number of significant changes that have occurred in just four weeks for Australasian wood processing and manufacturing companies. The positive here is that the good news re investment in new plant and operations has outweighed the negative. It’s been a while since we’ve said that in 2020. …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. A lot can change in a month. At the time of our last issue, New Zealand celebrated being 100 days COVID-19 free and, on the other side of the Tasman, Melbourne reported their highest ever daily total in their second wave. While New Zealand seems to have contained the worst of their second wave …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. First off, we’re delighted with the turnout this year for the WoodTECH 2020 event. The on-line six-part webinar series finished just a couple of weeks ago. Over 250 of you registered for the wood manufacturing and dry-mill series. Considering the number of mills across Australia and New Zealand, and the webinars being run (timing …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. A lot can change in a month. While the reopening of New Zealand and most of Australia has been successful, COVID-19 is still a real threat. Victoria is currently facing a second wave that has resulted in a number of Melbourne suburbs in lockdown and the temporary closing of the Victoria/NSW border. It’s not …

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News. It’s welcome relief that both New Zealand and Australian COVID-19 lockdowns are easing and businesses, that weren’t already operating, are now opening up again. This will be a slow recovery though, with domestic and international trade still uncertain at this stage.   Next month we will be running WoodTECH 2020, as a series of innovative webinars covering a …