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Static wood chip prices in Australia

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Domino effect expected from static woodchip price

Posted Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:00pm AEDT; Updated Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:18pm AEDT

The industry has described the price as disappointing. (ABC News: David Hudspeth)

A timber industry analyst says the entire sector will be affected by Gunns' stagnant woodchip price.

The Tasmanian timber company has informed the Australian Stock Exchange it has been unable to negotiate an increase in its woodchip price with Japanese buyers this year.

Short on biomass?

EPCOR Power 's Williams Lake, BC facility has used cheap wood waste from the local mills for the last 15 years to generate power.

However, the 6 mills around Williams Lake have halted production, the power plant is now employing most of the logging truck drivers in the area to scouring the nearby roadsides for piles of logging waste to keep their thermal plant fed. However, the 6 mills around Williams Lake have halted production, the power plant is now employing most of the logging truck drivers in the area nearby to scouring the roadside for piles of logging waste to keep their thermal plant fed.

British Columbia's newly released action plan for forestry calls for more of the waste wood left behind after harvesting to be used for biofuel. British Columbia's newly released action plan for forestry calls for more of the waste wood left behind after harvesting to be used for biofuel.

Black liquor - P&P's redeemer?

Remember the other day when we heard that International Paper received $71.6 million from the IRS for burning an alternative fuel mix?

Well Domtar and AbitibiBowater want in too.

Domtar has retrofitted seven of its U.S. mills to produce the black liquor to qualify for the tax credit.

If approved, Domtar could see an estimated $225 million a year from the U.S. tax credit program.

The program was initially designed to encourage companies to add green energy like biodiesel to their fossil fuels to reduce America´s dependency of foreign energy.

For the forestry companies to qualify for the tax credit, they are actually adding diesel to the black liquor that they are already burning for steam generation. To qualify, at least 0.1% of taxable fuel such as diesel, gasoline or kerosene must be mixed with a qualified alternative fuel.

As a result of this tax credit, multi-national companies, like Domtar and AbitibiBowater, will likely increase production at their mills located in the U.S. at the detriment of their Canadian operations.

In addition to hurting the competitive position of Canadian producers, the incentive encourages producers to add even more pulp on the market even though an oversupply continues to deflate prices.

EU carbon trading failed

The free market has got us into this mess, and the free market will get us out of it.

This nonsensical idea is at the heart of all carbon trading measures, the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) included.

Timberland Valuation and the global economic crises

The issue in today’s post concerns why the transaction price of timberland has shown little or no decline in value but the stock price of the publicly traded companies that own timberland has declined dramatically. I will also look at what I think is happening in the timberland market today and how I see the market for timberland investment. But first, let’s set the stage.

Climate killer toilet paper

You can find the related articles >>here<< and >>here<<

Soft toilet paper is ruining the planet--huh?

Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and (I perceive) a long time enemy of the forest products industry, pronounced last week that using soft toilet paper is harmful to the planet's health.

On one hand, I am encouraged that we have cleaned up our act to the point that what we use to clean our behinds is all Hershkowitz apparently has left to complain about. On the other, thanks for hitting our fine industry when it's down, Allen.

Stimulus Plans to foil Climate Change Programs

Economic stimulus plans being rolled out across the world could commit countries to rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions, cancelling some of the green initiatives included within them, analysis has found.

Let's recycle toilet paper! Part 2

Toilet paper may not be the sexiest environmental issue, but it really is one of the most important considering the manufacturing of that product causes deforestation, which causes more global warming pollution than all the combined emissions of cars, trucks, buses, airplanes and ships in the ent

Let's recycle toilet paper! Part 1

There was some interesting debate going on. American "soft" toilet tissue seems to be a problem to some people in the US...

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by Dr. Radut