Engineered Wood Journal: Industry Watch Spring 1999

1999 Panel Production Likely to Mirror 1998

North American structural wood panel production is expected to total 38.25 billion square feet (3/8" basis) this year, just one percent less than the record 38.6 billion feet produced in 1998, according to APA's most recent forecast.

The slight decline is based on the expectation that U.S. housing starts will drop about six percent this year. Single and multifamily starts totaled about 1.6 million last year.

The forecast is for net new industry production capacity to total approximately 2 billion square feet during the period 1998-2002, and for the production-capacity ratio to begin declining from the 92 percent reached last year.

An updated APA forecast is in development and will be published in APA's annual Regional Production & Market Outlook in May.

Enviro Group Gains Corporate Support

Twenty-seven U.S. corporations, including several Fortune 500 companies, have agreed at the urging of the Coastal Rainforest Coalition to stop using products produced from "old growth" forests. The list includes such familiar corporate names as 3M, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, and Nike.

"The commitments made by these companies," said Coalition Executive Director Michael Marx, "prove that corporate America can be a force for saving the world's last ancient forests. Their leadership should inspire other companies who are resisting going old growth-free, like Home Depot, HomeBase and The Los Angeles Times."

Inspired by British Columbia environmental groups, the Coalition includes the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, and the Rainforest Action Network. It has taken special aim at the forest products industry in British Columbia.

The group says it is talking to more than 250 other businesses in an attempt to gain additional commitments.

Suppliers Lead as Product Info Source

Building product suppliers are the leading source of engineered wood product information for West Coast builders, according to a survey conducted for APA by David Fell, a recent Oregon State University Ph.D. graduate now employed with Forintek Canada Corporation.

On a scale of one (least important) to seven (most important), building product suppliers received an average rating of 4.99 as a source of information. Other sources, in descending order of importance, were trade magazines (4.43), talking to other builders (4.36), manufacturer literature (3.68), visiting other building sites (3.49), association literature (2.83), trade shows (2.61), manufacturer representatives (2.24), training seminars (1.84), and the Internet (1.30).

The survey also sought to segment builders based on their tendency to adopt new products earlier or later relative to other builders, and to measure the rate of continued use of various products following their initial use. The complete survey results will be published later this year by APA.

WPPC Expands Mandate, Changes Name

The Wood Products Promotion Council, the coalition of wood products industry associations formed in 1982 to undertake promotional projects of mutual interest to their respective members, has broadened its mandate and changed its name to the Wood Products Council.

Under the organization's revised charter, the alliance plans to undertake joint activities related to technical support, education, building codes, and market research. One such activity is establishment of an industry product support help desk to serve as a single, authoritative information clearinghouse for all North American structural wood products.

WPC's primary members are APA - The Engineered Wood Association, Canadian Wood Council, and Southern Pine Council.

International Building Code in Final Comment Stage

The final draft of a new International Building Code (IBC) that will consolidate and supplant the existing U.S. major model building codes has entered a final cycle of public comment and committee action enroute to a targeted publication date of April 2000.

The new code will merge the Uniform Building Code, which is widely used west of the Mississippi; the National Building Code, prevalent in the Northeast; and the Standard Building Code, followed in the Southeast. Development of IBC has proceeded under the direction of an International Code Council comprised of representatives from the three existing model code agencies.

How soon might local jurisdictions adopt the code once it is promulgated? Some states and local jurisdictions will likely adopt it immediately, while others will probably wait until their regular three- or four-year code adoption cycles expire, and still others might wait even longer, surmises APA Senior Engineer Ed Keith. Keith has represented APA member interests during the code's various developmental stages.

APA has sponsored more than 200 proposed changes to preliminary drafts of the new code's structural design and material chapters. More than 90 percent of those proposals have been adopted by the Structures Committee and are included in the final draft, Keith said.

Deceptively Labeled Plywood Entering UK APA and the UK National Panel Products Association have alerted the UK timber trade to imported Korean plywood bearing misleading grade marks.

The labels being challenged include references to "CDX," inferring conformance to U.S. Product Standard PS 1 veneer grade and bond durability designations, and "Rated Sheathing," an APA proprietary tradename. Evidence of deceptively labeled plywood from other countries also is being investigated and monitored.

The increase in falsely labeled plywood in the UK and elsewhere in Europe coincides with rising volumes of Asian, East European and South American materials now being sold through the European distribution system. That rise is attributed to the Asian financial crisis and the imperative it has placed on some foreign industries to seek stronger markets with stabler currencies.

Also See From Engineered Wood Journal Spring 1999:

Two Front Challenge

Fire Prevention

Workplace Motivation

Engineered Wood Systems

Stepping into the Same River Twice

Housing Outlook: Good, But No Repeat