TP_March20_bkj.qxp_Layout 1 2/25/20 2:01 PM Page 6
NEWSFEED ENDOWMENT PICKS PETE MADDEN U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announced that Pete Madden has joined the staff as President. “Our Board and staff are excited to share with our partners and collaborators that Pete will be coming aboard,” says Endowment President and CEO Carlton Owen. “This decision is the culmination of more than two years of thoughtful and deliberate succession planning to ensure that the Endowment continues to advance its dual mission of keeping working forests as forests and advancing familywage jobs in forest-rich, rural communities.” Madden joins the Endowment with more than 30 years of experience in the forest sector. He has held roles in land management, procurement, supply chain and logistics, and renewable energy within wellknown and respected industry players including Westvaco, Georgia-Pacific and Plum Creek. Most recently, he led Drax Biomass, Inc. as President and CEO. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marlboro College in Vermont and both a Master of Science in Forestry and an M.B.A. from the University of New Hampshire. Endowment Board Chairman Mark Emmerson, who is Chairman of California-based Sierra Pacific Industries, notes, “We are fortunate to have had consistent, stable, and visionary leadership since the Endowment’s creation in 2006 and are happy to report that Carlton Owen will continue as CEO for an extended period.” “I have watched the Endowment emerge as one of the most progressive and impactful players in the greater forest sector bridging academia, conservation, government at all levels, and in6
■
MARCH 2020
■
dustry,” Madden says. Madden will work out of the Endowment’s headquarters and plans to relocate his family to Greenville, SC. The Endowment was established in September 2006 at the request of the governments of the U.S. and Canada in accordance with terms of the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement.
ENDLESS PURCHASES UK’S BSW GROUP BSW Group, the UK’s largest integrated forestry and sawmilling business, has been acquired by private equity firm Endless LLP as part of a multi-level growth plan for the company. The market-leading sawmiller, which employs more than 1,200 and turns over £350 million annually, has previously expanded the business and integrated its supply chain through acquisitions such as Tilhill Forestry, Alvic Plastics and, more recently, Maelor Forest Nurseries. Endless’ purchase of BSW provides the capital to support BSW’s ambitious future growth plans through further expansion of its market position. Founded in 1848 in Berwickshire, BSW is the largest sawmilling group in the UK and within the top 20 timber producers in Europe. BSW Group has five main operating divisions: tree nurseries, forestry, sawmilling, timber manufacturing and energy. The group has seven sawmills in the UK: in Newbridge-onWye, Southampton, Carlisle, Dalbeattie, Petersmuir, Fort William and Boat of Garten, and one in Riga, Latvia. The headquarters remain in Earlston, Berwickshire, where the business originated. BSW manufactures and supplies a wide range of quality, FSC-certified sawn prod-
ucts for an array of industries, including fencing, landscaping, cladding, construction, DIY, decking, and packaging. This covers everything from C16 construction timber to innovative products such as composite decking and acoustic fence panels. The company also offers fencing components – such as posts, rails, and boards, in addition to sleepers, purlins, beams, baulks and large sections (up to 8m long). Byproducts such as sawdust, shavings, chips and bark are also supplied into pulp and paper, chipboard, horticultural and energy generation sectors.
BRAZIL, CHINA UNDER THE GUN U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the initiation of new AD and CVD investigations to determine whether wood moldings and millwork products from Brazil and China are being dumped in the United States, and to determine if producers in China are receiving unfair subsidies. These AD and CVD investigations were initiated based on petitions filed by the Coalition of American Millwork Producers, whose members are Bright Wood Corp. (Madras, Ore.), Cascade Wood Products, Inc. (White City, Ore.), Endura Products, Inc. (Colfax, NC), Sierra Pacific Industries (Red Bluff, Calif.), Sunset Moulding (Live Oak, Calif.), Woodgrain Millwork, Inc. (Fruitland, ID), and Yuba River Moulding (Yuba City, Calif). In the AD investigations, Commerce will determine whether imports of wood moldings and millwork products from Brazil and China are being dumped in the U.S. market at less than fair value. In the CVD investigation, Commerce will determine whether Chinese producers of
wood moldings and millwork products are receiving unfair government subsidies. Commerce is initiating an investigation into 37 alleged Chinese subsidy programs, which include preferential lending programs, export credit programs, tax programs, indirect tax programs, grant programs, and the provision of inputs at less than adequate remuneration. If Commerce makes affirmative findings in these investigations, and if the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) determines that dumped and/or unfairly subsidized U.S. imports of wood moldings and millwork products from Brazil and/or China materially injure, or threaten material injury to, the U.S. industry, Commerce will impose duties on those imports in the amount of dumping and/or unfair subsidization found to exist. In 2018, imports of wood moldings and millwork products from Brazil and China were valued at an estimated $291.8 million and $208.4 million, respectively.
FOREST INDUSTRY SUPPORTERS RALLY A large group of forestry supporters, including a convoy of logging trucks from Vancouver Island, gathered at the BC legislature in Victoria in February to deliver an 8,000signature petition that asks for the province to support a working forest. The petition, organized by the BC Forestry Alliance and titled “Saving the working forest for all generations,” was addressed to BC Premier John Horgan, asking the government to bring into legislation, “The working forest, defined and dedicated to the purpose of harvesting and economic activities.” The group was met by BC forests minister Doug Donaldson. “I appreciate the
TIMBER PROCESSING
CLICK HERE IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY OPTED IN!
