DHA® eNews - EU Pushes For Higher Quality Standards For Plywood
The North American market for cabinets continues to grow. The FDMC 300 - the 300 largest cabinet, furniture, millwork, fixture, and component producers - reported higher sales. Medium-sized companies saw some of the highest gains. Overall, the FDMC 300 grew 5.4% to more than $52 billion in sales in 2017.
U.S. imports of wood furniture grew to $1.69 billion in January, up 1% vs. January 2017. Imports from Indonesia and India grew as those from China and Malaysia slowed. China's furniture imports also grew; Chinese furniture products are predominantly low end.
Source: Fordaq, ITTO
The 97th Decorative Hardwoods Association® Spring Conference will be held at the beautiful Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. Experts will weigh in on market trends, fair trade, economic forecasts, and timber and forestry issues. Register now to take advantage of the many networking opportunities and to help us celebrate the achievements of Reggie Hubbard and Kris York.
Armstrong Flooring promoted 4 employees to vice president positions: Denise Bird (customer service), Lindsey Groft (human resources), Debra Lechner (marketing), and Mike Penny (commercial strategic accounts).
At PELICE in Atlanta, Decorative Hardwoods Association® president Kip Howlett discussed trends in international trade as a result of the successful AD/CVD case against Chinese hardwood plywood.
HPVA Laboratories® has awarded EPA TSCA Title VI certification to all of Columbia Forest Products' North American facilities. This week, the labs also certified Timber Products' Corinth plant and Commonwealth Plywood's plant in Whitehall.
The UK's Timber Trade Federation and Germany's GD Holz are moving forward with initiatives to improve plywood quality, performance, and legality in response to concerns that imports of primarily Chinese products do not meet key EU/UK legal compliance regulations.
Purwadi Soeprihanto, executive director of the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI), says that the trade dispute between China and the U.S. has benefitted the Indonesian timber sector.
China complained to the Australian government about the Australian minister for international development, who criticized China for the construction of "useless buildings" and "roads to nowhere." The minister believes that China saddled impoverished Pacific countries with debt they can't afford.
Phil Riebel talks with Deborah Corn on Podcasts from the Printerverse about how Two Sides is working to counter corporate greenwashing claims such as “go-green, go paperless,” and educate the public and corporations on the facts about paper, and its role in environmental sustainability. Phil also shares 3 simple facts you can use to respond to “save a tree” type greenwashing claims, and how you can help by joining the organization and sharing #PaperFacts through social media.
20 Amazing Wood Products and WoodWorking Projects You MUST See | FunPhotOK Channel 2018
Peter Pichler Architecture explores the potential of wood with cave-like installation during Milan design week. the future space pavilion is a symmetrical, 12-ton structure made of more than 1600 wood sticks that invites visitors in a playful experience of light and shadow.
The same house costs about $500,000 more to build in California than in Texas. In California, the process of getting approval to build a new home community can take years, development fees are high, and the state tightly restricts where homes can be built. As a result, there is one new home community under construction for every 10,000 people in Texas; in California, the figure is one for every 45,000 people. Home sale prices reflect these costs: The same house built in Texas sells for $300,000 and in California for $800,000.
Experts forecast an increase of 3% in total construction starts this year. This is lower than last year's 4% growth, but still comfortably positive.
In March, the Dodge Momentum Index climbed 6.1% as a result of the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul passed at the end of 2017. The index measures the number of planned commercial building projects and is a strong predictor of commercial construction spending.
Millennials are entering the housing market in increasing numbers, according to recent data from the Census Bureau. In 2017, millennials' homeownership rate reached 36%, the largest increase of all age groups.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says the annual pace of housing starts slowed in March compared with February.
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes edged down one point to a level of 69 in April on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) but remains on firm ground.
The count of unfilled jobs in the construction sector declined in February, but remains higher than a year ago.
Edmonton is a city of suburbs and cement connected by ribbons of trees tied together by the river valley. And officials want to find out if the city’s already lush tree canopy is expanding, and by how much.
Consumer sentiment slipped in early April, largely reversing the gains recorded in the prior two months. The small decline was widely shared by all age and income subgroups and across all regions of the country. Importantly, confidence still remains relatively high, despite the recent losses that were mainly due to concerns about the potential impact of Trump's trade policies on the domestic economy.
The Myanmar Forest Certification Committee will introduce independent third-party certification soon to support the EU's due diligence requirements for compliance with the EU Timber Regulation, to contribute to negotiations on VPA (the bilateral timber-trade agreement between the EU and Myanmar), and to ensure that MTLAS, the Myanmar timber legality assurance system, is robust enough to satisfy other export markets' requirements.
Source: ITTO
The Supreme Court of Columbia ruled that deforestation in the Amazon is hazardous to the health of future generations and ordered the government to take action. The plaintiffs, 25 youths, successfully argued that government inaction was detrimental to their future.
On April 11, Sierra Leone's new president ordered the suspension of all timber exports. The directive is part of the government's strategy to fight deforestation.