Daily News for November 09, 2022

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Today’s Takeaway

War is changing wood pellet market dynamics in Europe

The Tree Frog Forestry News
November 9, 2022
Category: Today's Takeaway

The war is driving EU pellet prices up, creating competition for small-diameter logs with pulp. In related news: Zelensky says Russia has destroyed 2 million hectares of Ukraine’s forests. In other Business news: Kalesnikoff Lumber wins business award; McDonald’s shifts to FSC/paper cutlery; and positive financial reports by Stella-Jones; Conifex; and James Hardie; but net-loss for GreenFirst.

In Forestry/Climate news: ENGO’s push White House for old-growth protection; Brazil’s new president vows to save the Amazon; a UBC Big Tree Registry update from the Kootenays; and what post-carbon design looks like in the UK. 

Finally, wood-based batteries for electric cars, and Mary Kay’s tree planting celebration.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Special Feature

War is Changing Wood Pellet Market Dynamics in Europe

By Håkan Ekström
Forests2Market Blog
November 9, 2022
Category: Special Feature
Region: International

Håkan Ekström

The international trade of wood pellets has increased yearly for over ten years thanks to growing demand in Europe and Asia. Although shipments in the first half of 2022 were practically unchanged from the same period in 2021, an anticipated increase in demand in Europe in the second half of the year is likely to make 2022 another record year of close to 30 million tons shipped worldwide. The most significant change is the rising demand in Asia, with Japan and South Korea. The UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium continue to be the major import markets… [but] Russia’s war in Ukraine has shaken up the European wood pellet market. Pre-war shipments from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine totaled about 3.5 million tons in 2021, about 30% of total imports to the continent or just over 10% of the total consumption.

One consequence is that prices for wood pellets and firewood have increased to unprecedented levels. In some markets, professional firewood companies and pellet producers pay more for small-diameter logs than pulpmill and panel manufacturers. The increase in energy wood coincides with pulpmills running at high operating rates to take advantage of record-high prices for market pulp. The tumultuous energy market in Europe brought wood pellet prices in the second and third quarters to levels never seen before. In Austria and Germany, residential prices were nearly three times as much as in August 2021. It is rare to see price jumps during summer, so this year’s increases are highly unusual… all because of the uncertainty of energy supply and pricing this coming winter.

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Business & Politics

Castlegar businesses recognized at annual awards ceremony

By Betsy Kline
Castlegar News
November 8, 2022
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Krystle Seed

The Castlegar business community came out in full force on Saturday to celebrate their accomplishments at the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce annual business awards dinner.  More than 200 people attended the ticketed event, which also served as a fundraiser for the chamber.  In his last official duty as mayor, Kirk Duff opened the event and introduced Mayor-elect Maria McFaddin. The pair jointly presented the Lifetime Achievement award, which is sponsored by the City of Castlegar.  That award went to Kalesnikoff Lumber.  The award is reserved for companies with at least 25 years in business, excellent customer relations and a history of contributions to the community both economically and socially.  Kalesnikoff has been a family-owned lumber company since it first launched in 1939.  “This business has grown a legacy of trust and integrity,” said Duff.  “They steward relationships and resources by valuing people first and never compromising on integrity.”

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Finance & Economics

Lumber Battles Bullish And Bearish Factors

By Andrew Hecht
Barchart
November 2, 2022
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

After falling to just above the $400 level, the lumber futures market has stabilized below $500, with bullish and bearish factors pulling lumber in opposite directions. The bearish case for lumber prices includes:

  • Rising interest rates have weighed on the demand for new homes and lumber over the past months
  • The highest price for lumber futures before 2018 was the 1993 $493.50 peak. At the $450 level, they remain close to the pre-2018 all-time peak.
  • The US central bank has stated it will battle inflation with a hawkish monetary policy path, which will continue to weigh on construction markets

The bullish factors that could lift lumber’s price:

  • We are coming into the offseason for construction during the winter months
  • US infrastructure rebuilding over the coming years will require lumber
  • The rapid rise in interest rates will likely cause the Fed to avoid rates… that inhibit economic growth
  • Lumber prices tend to react quickly to a changing economic environment

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Conifex reports positive Q3, 2022 results

By Conifex Timber Inc.
Globe Newswire
November 8, 2022
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER, BC — Conifex Timber reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.  EBITDA was $4.2 million for the quarter compared to EBITDA of $3.3 million in the third quarter of 2021.  Net income was $0.9 million for the quarter versus net loss of $0.9 million or $0.02 per share in the year-earlier quarter. …”While our power plant was not operational during the current quarter, our net earnings realized the benefit of a recovery of softwood lumber duties. …Our Mackenzie power plant did not operate for most of the current quarter as a result of damage discovered to the plant’s turbine during the course of scheduled annual maintenance work in July 2022. …We expect the property damage and business interruption will be covered by our insurance, subject to applicable deductibles and limits.”

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Stella-Jones Delivers Positive Third Quarter Results

By Stella-Jones Inc.
Globe Newswire
November 9, 2022
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTREAL — Stella-Jones announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2022. …Sales for the third quarter of 2022 increased by 24% to $842 million, compared to sales of $679 million for the same period in 2021. Excluding the $17 million favourable impact of currency conversion and the contribution from the acquisitions of Cahaba Pressure Treated Forest Products and Cahaba Timber of $17 million, pressure-treated wood sales rose by $125 million, while sales of logs and lumber remained relatively stable. Pressure-treated wood sales attributable to infrastructure-related businesses, namely utility poles, railway ties and industrial products, grew by 15% and residential lumber sales increased by over 30% compared to the lower sales experienced in the same period last year. …“Stella-Jones delivered strong results this quarter, reflecting the robust growth of our infrastructure-related product sales and the normalization of residential lumber sales,” said CEO Éric Vachon.

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GreenFirst reports loss in Q3, 2022 results

By GreenFirst Forest Products Inc.
Business Wire
November 8, 2022
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TORONTO — GreenFirst Forest Products announced results for the third quarter of 2022. Highlights include: Third quarter net loss was $23.3 million, compared to net earnings of $30.7 million in the second quarter of 2022. This quarter marked the one-year point for the Company operating its acquired forest- products assets. Q3 Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $7.9 million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 of $54.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA before duties expensed was $5.1 million, compared to $76.6 million in Q2 2022. “In the third quarter, we saw the global lumber markets softening, which along with higher softwood lumber duties is reflected in our results,” said Rick Doman, CEO of GreenFirst. “We will continue to monitor the external challenges we currently face, and work towards cost reduction and operational improvement.”

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James Hardie Industries reports positive Q2, 2023 results

By James Hardie Industries plc
Business Wire
November 7, 2022
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, International

SYDNEY & CHICAGO — James Hardie Industries, producer of fiber cement and fiber gypsum building solutions, announced results for its Q2 fiscal year 2023, the three-month period ending 30 September 2022. North America Fiber Cement Segment Net Sales increased +18% to US$750.6 million and EBIT increased +17% to US$212.8 million, with an EBIT margin of 28.4%. …Global Adjusted EBIT increased +6% to US$218.5 million, with an Adjusted EBIT margin of 21.9%. Global Net Sales increased +10% on flat Global Volume, as all three regions continue to deliver on the global strategy of delivering value added solutions to our customers. …CEO Aaron Erter said, “The team’s performance is reflected in strong Price/Mix growth in all three regions, including North America Price/Mix growth of +14%, Asia Pacific Price/Mix growth of +11% and Europe Price/Mix growth of +12%.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

‘Revolutionary battery’ made from trees can power electric cars

By Anthony Cuthbertson
The Independent
November 5, 2022
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A new type of wood-based battery has the potential to significantly decrease the charge time of electric cars while dramatically improving their environmental sustainability, its creators claim.  The breakthrough centres on a material called lignin, an organic polymer that makes up roughly 30 per cent of all trees.  Researchers at Swedish-Finnish firm Stora Enso, Europe’s largest forestry company, discovered that lignin could be transformed from an unwanted by-product of its paper mill business into a bio-based alternative to graphite anodes found in lithium-ion batteries.   By turning lignin into a hard carbon, the researchers were able to create a low-cost, ultra-efficient anode that they describe as “a revolution” in battery technology.  “Cost wise we will be very competitive but it is the performance that is the most exciting,” Lauri Lehtonen, head of Lignode at Stora Enso, told The Independent.

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McDonald’s announces big change as it axes plastic cutlery

By Henry Saker-Clark
Coventry Telegraph
November 8, 2022
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

UK — McDonald’s is axing plastic cutlery in favour of paper-based spoons, knives and forks across England and Wales. The fast-food giant said it hopes the move will eliminate 858 metric tonnes of plastic each year. The new cutlery is made from renewable, FSC certified pressed-paper and is fully recyclable and compostable, McDonald’s said. It comes after the chain already switched across restaurants in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. McDonald’s said it will now gradually roll out the new cutlery across England and Wales. The move is part of the US-based firm’s sustainability strategy – Plan for Change. This includes a goal to achieve net zero emissions across its UK and Ireland business by 2040. McDonald’s also set a target to ensure all its packaging is made from renewable, recycled or certified sources and is fully recyclable and compostable by 2024.

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This is what post-carbon design looks like now

By David Thorpe
The Fifth Estate Australia
November 9, 2022
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

ENGLAND — Typical of most countries, 40 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions are derived from the construction industry – and 11 per cent of that comes from the manufacture of materials. If we’re serious about preventing ecological breakdown, we know we need to change the way we build and what we build with. …Enter Material Cultures, a non-profit organisation laying the foundations for a new, post carbon model of housing and architecture. And the Phoenix project – a 700-home sustainable development in Lewes, Sussex, England. It will be a negative carbon development constructed mainly from locally sourced, grown and made timber products. “This means working closely with engineers to understand how best to use structural timber – a material that is as strong as steel and concrete, but with a fraction of the embodied carbon. 

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Forestry

Finding the Kootenays’ biggest trees: Biologist mapping the region’s forest giants

By Bill Metcalfe
The Boundary Creek Times
November 9, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BRITISH COLUMBIA — One of Rosie Wejenberg’s many contracts as a biologist is to measure and verify big trees in the Kootenays for the UBC Big Tree Registry. …The list has about 600 trees on it, most them in the southwestern part of the province. The largest tree in the registry is known as the Cheewhat Giant, a western red cedar on the west coast of Vancouver Island. There are three trees in the immediate Nelson area on the list. …Inclusion on the UBC list does not come with any form of protection from logging. …Ira Sutherland, who runs the program at UBC and is chair of its Big Tree Committee, says it’s about public information and conservation. …When a tree is accepted into the ministry list of protected big trees, a one-hectare buffer must be left around the tree. …There are now 218 trees on the province’s protected list.

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Forestry council career fair at NVIT

By Marius Auer
Merritt Herald
November 9, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

With B.C. facing an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent, a number that has climbed steadily since the beginning of the pandemic, a number of organizations and businesses are actively working to recruit and employ a new workforce. The BC First Nations Forestry Council (BCFNFC) recently hosted a series of career fairs, including a stop at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology’s (NVIT) Merritt campus.  The BCFNFC is an advocacy organization that looks to increase First Nations participation in the forestry sector, and supports them in their efforts to increase First Nation’s role in the governance and stewardship of forest, lands, and natural resources.  …Attendees of the fair had access to a number of employment resources, educational programming and speakers, as well as a number of booths set up by prospective employers and organizations in the forestry industry.

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Indigenous training initiatives will prep trades workers

Northern Ontario Business
November 8, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The province is providing $1.5 million for three Thunder Bay projects that will train Indigenous people for skilled trades work. According to the province, more than 100 Indigenous people will be served by the hands-on training and apprenticeship programs, which will prepare them for work in forestry and mining. Of the funding, $876,286 will go to two programs run by the Anishinabek Employment and Training Services (AETS), in conjunction with the Carpenters Union Local 1669 and Confederation College. Through this program, 72 participants will learn general carpentry, as well as welding and electrical basics through classroom training and a 12-week paid work placement.

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Mary Kay Inc. Celebrates Planting More Than 1.2 Million Trees Across the Globe

By The Arbor Day Foundation and Mary Kay
Business Wire
November 8, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

DALLAS — As global leaders convene at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) this month, Mary Kay Inc., a global advocate for corporate sustainability and stewardship, announced the completion of a 69-acre reforestation project to revitalize Florida’s Econfina Creek Wildlife Management Area in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. To date, Mary Kay Inc. has planted more than 1.2 million trees with partners across the globe. Working alongside the Northwest Florida Water Management District, the Arbor Day Foundation and Mary Kay partnered to plant 43,000 longleaf pine that will help protect critical water resources in Bay County Florida. …Earlier this year, Mary Kay also released a report detailing its long-standing partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Together, Mary Kay Inc. and the Arbor Day Foundation have planted over 1.2 million trees across the globe, making a measurable impact on vital forest ecosystems.

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Tribe and partners light up a forest to restore landscape in California

By Carly Nairn
Mongabay
November 8, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

ORLEANS, California—An elemental smell wafts through the Klamath mountains in early autumn—woodsmoke. Despite the U.S. Forest Service’s intermittent bans on lighting fires in the forest, the Karuk Tribe is maintaining its cultural practice of intermittent burns to conserve their traditional lands in northern California.  With the Tribe’s oversight, a partnership with the Forest Service and other stakeholders introduced the Somes Bar Restoration Project in 2018. Using traditional fire techniques, it targets 2,254 hectares (5,570 acres) of land. Although the project is multilayered and partners hold different priorities, all agree that the project is an ongoing, if slow-moving, success to safeguard the rich biodiversity of hardwoods, conifers, deciduous oaks and an almost endless variety of alpine plant life in the Klamath mountains.  And their restoration tool: fire.

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Russian war destroyed 2M hectares of forests in Ukraine in less than six months

Ukrinform.net
November 9, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Volodymyr Zelensky

The war started by Russia destroyed two million hectares of forests in Ukraine in less than six months and caused an energy crisis. President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in his address to the 27th UN Conference on Climate Change. “The Russian war destroyed 5 million acres of forests in Ukraine in less than six months! Not every country in the world has such an area of forests that were burned in Ukraine by Russian shelling,” Zelensky said. The war has caused an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people at least a little. The Russian war brought an acute food crisis to the world, which hit worst those countries suffering from the existing manifestations of climate change. …The President noted that no one can stay aside of the problems of environment and climate change.

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Brazil’s New President Vows to Save Amazon Forests

By Richard Schiffman
Scientific American
November 9, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Environmentalists are calling Brazil’s presidential election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, a big win for the Amazon rain forest. The ecosystem suffered record high levels of deforestation after the nation’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office nearly four years ago.  Brazil contains more than half of Amazonia, a region whose fate is crucial to slowing climate change.  …How much can the new president accomplish after he enters office in January? Scientific American spoke with Paulo de Bessa Antunes, an environmental law professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a former federal prosecutor in Brazil.   In the conversation, Bessa Antunes decried the lawlessness of the Bolsonaro years but said that Brazil has excellent environmental regulations and plenty of highly motivated people in its agencies who are ready to help Lula achieve his goals. 

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Queensland company fined for unlawful logging in Wet Tropics World Heritage Area

By Christopher Testa
ABC News, Australia
November 7, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A Queensland logging company has been fined $10,000 for clearing more than two dozen trees in protected world heritage rainforest without permission.  Townsville-based family business, Qld Logging Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to unlawfully destroying forest products in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.  The company felled 28 trees and cleared vegetation to make tracks on Aboriginal freehold land at Shiptons Flat, about 40 kilometres south of Cooktown.  “It is an area that contains a significant number of unique species not found elsewhere in Australia, despite making up a very small proportion of the Australian landmass,” prosecutor Rachael Taylor told the Cairns Magistrates Court.  Defence lawyer Bebe Mellick told the court some Aboriginal traditional owners had asked the company to fell the wood so it could be turned into building materials and used to construct homes for elders to inhabit on country.

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NSW government accused of reopening ‘koala wars’ with new forestry bill

By Lisa Cox and Tamsin Rose
The Guardian
November 9, 2022
Category: Forestry

The Perrottet government has been accused of reopening the “koala wars” by proposing legislation that would strip New South Wales councils of their powers to regulate native forestry operations on private land.  The agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, introduced a bill on Wednesday that critics said would water down the regulation of forestry in the state.  Sitting independent MPs and candidate hopefuls alike jumped on the proposal, accusing the Liberal party of bowing to pressure from the Nationals, flagging they would campaign on the issue ahead of the March state poll.  Under environmental planning laws, councils have the power to require landowners to obtain a development approval if they wish to undertake logging on their properties.  Saunders’ proposal would remove that power from councils, which the independent upper house MP Justin Field said would open up more industrial native forest logging on private land, including in koala habitat.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Government failing to protect US forests most critical to fighting climate change, activists say

by Saul Elbein
The Hill
November 8, 2022
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Environmental groups are calling on the White House to take more concrete steps to shield the nation’s most important forests — the vast majority of which are on federal lands, and most of which have no formal protection.  “It’s the large trees — the oldest trees in the forest — that are our best carbon reservoirs,” forest scientist Dominick DellaSala of advocacy group Wild Heritage told reporters on Tuesday.   About 35 percent of U.S. forestland is composed of these forests, principally on federal land, according to a study DellaSala co-authored in September, published in Frontiers.  Yet only a quarter of those most valuable forests are under explicit protection, the authors found — and if logged over the next decade, would result in a significant uptick in U.S. emissions.   …“We are grateful for Biden roadmap from yesterday about natural climate solutions, but need national rulemaking to codify protection,” DellaSalla said.

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