Posted on May 1st, 2008
The forestry industry in British Columbia has been hammered over the last 12 months from all sides. As Innovatek notes in this week’s Friday Offcuts, “mill closures, job layoffs (the West Coast’s largest forestry company, Western Forest Products, just announced that it’s shutting down most of it’s logging operations next week with 800 loggers affected by the move) and of course the mountain pine beetle has knocked the industry for a six. Selling lumber from infested forests into a market already hit hard by reduced demand because of the collapse of the US housing market has been tough.”
The mountain pine beetle has been the real killer though. According to new government statistics, about half of the marketable forest estate in BC (estimated to climb to a staggering 76% by 2015) has been ravaged by a nearly decade-long beetle infestation. The outbreak of mountain pine beetles has affected trees over an area of 13.5 Mha. As of last month, the insects had infested and killed about 710 million m3 of timber - up from 582 million m3 at the same time last year, according to a recent news release. (more…)
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Posted on April 29th, 2008
Skogsnolia - one of Sweden’s most important industry trade fairs - is strengthening its collaboration with the trade association, MaskinLeverantörerna Forestry Section, for the supply of mobile machines. (more…)
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