NEWS

Recent information and news that affect our industry include:

• China's global investments plunge
• Congress prepares a new relief package
• Some light COVID-19 humor to lift our moods

For more coronavirus stories, regulatory updates, and the latest event changes and cancelations, see the DHA coronavirus news and resources pages.

Photo © Tia Dufour

The U.S. imported 21% more hardwood plywood in May. Imports from Malaysia quadrupled vs. April, reaching the highest volume in a decade. Imports from Indonesia jumped, increasing 47% year-to-date vs. one year ago.

Since 2015, Vietnam has approved investments from 11 countries in 53 plywood projects, for a total of $243 million of foreign investment in plywood manufacturing. The largest outside investments occurred in 2016.

So far this year, Vietnam has exported forest products worth more than $5.3 billion, an increase of 2.7% vs. one year ago. The Vietnam Administration of Forestry predicts that total exports of forest products this year will reach approximately $12 billion.

Decoupling is overdue, as China suppresses foreign competition and infringes on intellectual property, argues Dr. Derek Scissors. He states that decoupling will result in higher prices, lower returns on investment, and lost sales, but that this is dwarfed by the costs of continued predatory economic actions by China and the empowerment of China's Communist Party.

Economist Diana Choyleva makes the case that due to growing disillusionment with China and the changing cost equation, there is an opportunity now to bring manufacturing back from China.

In the first three quarters of 2019, the flow of wood from Europe into China increased by 534%, some of which was Vaia-related damaged wood from Italy. Germany led with exports of 2 million cubic meters - compared to only 41,000 cubic meters during the same period in 2018. In 2019, U.S. exports of hardwood logs to China fell by 12% to $135 million while total U.S. exports of hardwoods (lumber, logs, and veneer) sank by 52%.

Decorative Hardwoods Association will slide our annual in-person meetings forward; the venues remain the same. The new dates are May 23-25, 2021 for the 100th anniversary celebration and meeting at the Sonesta Resort at Hilton Head, SC. We'll kick off DHA's next century at The Palmer House in Chicago May 15-17, 2022.

This fall, DHA will host three virtual meetings with presentations on international trade, DHA's public policy initiatives, and new outreach to our markets. Each division and committee will lead video conference calls over Zoom.

DHA elected David Williams of Great Lakes Veneer as Vice Chairman, joining Mark Avery, Timber Products, Chairman, and Jeremy Manthei, Manthei Veneer, as Immediate Past Chairman. New board members are John Tappan, Columbia Forest Products, Blaine Burroughs, AHF Industries, and Eric Larsen, Rockshield Engineered Wood Products. See the full board chart at decorativehardwoods.org.

Roseburg announced the addition of Michel Painchaud as the business manager for Canada and Doug Asano to a sales position focused on the company's sales transformation process.

Capital Testing (formerly HPVA Laboratories®) now offers Type I glue bond evaluation per the ANSI/HPVA HP-1 standard. Performed in-house on an 11,000-pound capacity Instron Universal Testing Machine, the lab uses dry shear and cyclic boil shear tests to determine if hardwood plywood will perform to standard in situations where water resistance is critical. For more information, visit the Capital Testing website or contact experts@capitaltesting.org.

Natural Resources Canada is accepting proposals for two programs created to help the hard-hit forest industry recover. NRC intends to invest nearly $83 million to help forest companies bridge the gap between new product development and commercialization. Another $13 million has been earmarked for the Indigenous Forestry Initiative.

The June AHEC report on Southeast Asia & Greater China shows that U.S. exports of hardwood lumber, hardwood logs, and hardwood veneer to Malaysia increased in the first four months of 2020 vs. one year ago. But, U.S. exports of most products to other Southeast Asian countries and China decreased during that time.

In a U.S. forest in the Appalachians, a full 25% of tree loss was caused by foreign pests and disease. Scientists have documented at least 450 foreign insects and pathogens that have found their way to North America and feed on trees. More than a dozen of these deadly pests have been extraordinarily destructive, killing entire tree species – or even whole genera.

A Swedish forest biotech firm is developing technology for the automated production of forest plants based on somatic embryogenesis, where one seed is used to create a large number of plants. This will make it possible to produce more plants with the most desirable characteristics faster and more efficiently.

Source: SweTree Technologies, Unibap (Video)