The number of softwood logs leaving the Port of Portland has escalated to record highs due to the downturn in the domestic housing timber market. Source: The Border Watch
Fuelled by a lack of demand in Australia, the number of softwood logs being exported at the deep-sea bulk facility could sustain another large-scale sawmill in Mount Gambier.
OneFortyOne Plantations chief executive Linda Sewell revealed the rise in log exports at a Grant District Council meeting this week.
It is understood the number of logs leaving Portland will reach record levels this financial year.
According to the Port of Portland, up to one million tonnes of logs were expected to flow through the facility this financial year – a dramatic threefold rise in recent years.
Port chief financial officer Greg Tremewen said the facility was predicting a massive jump in the export of logs.
“The logs are heading for the construction industry in China,” Tremewen said.
While softwood chips exports were not expected to rise, he said the big growth area were logs.
“We have seen nowhere near these levels in the past,” said Tremewen, who could not pinpoint the exact origin of the logs.
Meanwhile, Sewell told elected members the timber investment company – which took over the ownership of the South East timber estate – was committed to the domestic market, which was one of the conditions in the government sale contract.
Arguing it was not the company’s desire to export large numbers of logs, she said an outlet was needed for surplus product.
She said the company wanted to build a profitable export business for excess supply while the domestic market was suppressed.
“It is not our desire to export … it is very costly to export logs,” Sewell said.
But she said leftover logs needed to be exported to make the sector as profitable as possible.
However, Sewell said the rise in exports was not linked to the forward sale of harvesting rights.
“That has nothing to do with the sale and everything to do with the market … ForestrySA were going down that path,” she said.
While the number of logs could support another large-scale sawmill in Mount Gambier, she said it was unlikely a new sawmill would set up operations in
the region given the market conditions.
“But in terms of scale, there is that resource available,” she said.
Sewell said there had been significant changes in the domestic market in the past two to three years, particularly the amount of imported timber coming in from Europe.
But she said the company wanted to encourage new medium term investment into the region.
