Australasia's home for timber news and information

Autonomous vehicles to enhance safety at sawmills

With the help of Semcon, two of Sweden’s largest companies in the forest industry sector, Holmen and Södra, are to examine how self-driving vehicles can improve the work environment and enhance safety at sawmills and other industrial sites. This type of vehicle has great potential for
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China’s biggest property company facing collapse

As the crisis facing the world’s most indebted real estate company rages on, many experts have remained cautiously optimistic that the nightmare was under control. But there are now growing fears that Evergrande’s potential collapse won’t be able to be contained as easily as many init
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Smarter excavators from John Deere

The 470G LC Excavator is the latest model to join the John Deere excavator line-up that includes a full range of grade management solutions. Newly enhanced with the factory-installed 3D SmartGrade system, the SmartGrade470G LC delivers increased productivity and accuracy on the job. S
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Timber tub handmade with Huon Pine

Deep within Tasmania’s lush forests rests the prince of all Tasmanian timbers – Huon Pine. A conifer, Huon Pine is renowned for its exceptional durability, workability and beauty. In 2021, craftsman Emanuel ‘Manny’ Oppliger of Wood + Water, was commissioned to use this timber to make
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Forestry growth good for Tasman council bottom line

Higher-than-expected harvest volumes and solid log prices led to a forestry surplus of NZ$4.1 million excluding distributions for Tasman District Council in 2020-21, driving up the overall activity surplus to NZ$12.5m. Source: Stuff NZ However, council finance group manager Mike Drumm
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Plantation insurance difficult to come by

Plantation trees are valuable and become more so over their lifetime, there are however, a number of challenges facing the plantation insurance market at the moment with the majority of underwriters advising they are no longer offering this type of insurance. Source: Timberbiz There i
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Sugar Pine Walk a thousand times better

More than a thousand pine seedlings have started their decades-long journey to replace the iconic Sugar Pine Walk in Bago State Forest, which was sadly lost in the 2020 Black Summer bushfires.  Source: Timberbiz The former site was planted in 1928 as a range of different exotic specie
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Largest vessel ever calls in to New Zealand to load logs

A deal has been finalised that will see the largest vessel to ever call at New Zealand for the loading of logs. The deal is between South Pacific Shipping (SPS) and Oldendorff Carriers and was brokered by Braemar ACM’s Bruce McFarlane. Source: Timberbiz Braemar also negotiated the dea
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Surfing the Housing Pipeline report

The Frame & Truss Manufacturers Association (FTMA) together with Tim Woods of IndustryEdge have put together a briefing on measuring the demand-supply gap in housing. Sources: FTMA, IndustryEdge, Timberbiz This six-page overview discusses: Australian dwelling approvals by type Ann
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Major capability gap in housing says Master Builders’ report

Australia faces a major sovereign capability gap in the production of timber house frames by 2035, according to a landmark new report by Master Builders Australia and the Australian Forest Products Association titled Australia’s Timber Framing Cliff. Source: Timberbiz The report furth
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