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Hampton Lumber to Build New Sawmill in South Carolina
Portland, OR – June 24, 2025 – Yesterday, Hampton Lumber announced plans to build a new, state-of-the-art sawmill in Allendale County, South Carolina. This facility will expand Hampton’s presence in the U.S. and support the company’s long-term vision to become North America’s
preferred source of wood solutions. The new mill will specialize in producing high-quality Southern Yellow Pine framing lumber. This will be the company’s first new sawmill on the East Coast and once fully operational, will provide 125-140 new jobs in the area.
“Hampton Lumber’s new operation in Allendale County will be a notable addition to our state’s forestry industry, while also providing opportunities for our people and contributing to the local economy,” said South Carolina Governor, Henry McMaster. “We are proud the company recognized South Carolina as the ideal home for its first East Coast mill and look forward to
supporting its success in our state.”
Hampton Lumber is committed to operating one of the most efficient dimension lumber mills ithe region. The facility will help meet the growing demand for housing materials while creating high-quality jobs and fostering long-term economic growth in the area.
“The enthusiastic, heartfelt support from the state and local community helped us come to the conclusion that this is the right location,” said Hampton Lumber CEO, Randy Schillinger. “We look forward to building partnerships in the area and supporting the communities of Allendale
County.”
Hampton Lumber brings over 80 years of experience in the sawmill business to this new venture. A fourth-generation, family-owned company, Hampton currently operates nine sawmills in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. The new mill will complement these existing
operations and help the company diversify its product offerings.
“Our deep roots in the Pacific Northwest have shaped our values of integrity, sustainability, and community engagement—principles that will guide how we operate in Allendale County,” said Schillinger.
Construction of the mill is expected to begin later this year, with operations slated to commence in early 2027.
“We’re excited to be part of the community,” Schillinger added. “The area is home to a healthy wood products industry and there is ample, high-quality timber available to support this new mill for years to come. We are exceedingly grateful to the state of South Carolina, and the county
and community partners who helped make this project possible.”
About Hampton Lumber
Hampton Lumber is a fourth-generation, family-owned company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. With over 80 years in the sawmill business, Hampton operates sawmills in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia and markets wood products all over the world. Hampton also
manages a wholesale and lumber export division and numerous reload, remanufacturing and advanced wood manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. through affiliates, Idaho Timber and RedBuilt. All of Hampton’s forestlands are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), an independent, non-profit organization that promotes sustainable forest management.
SFI certified forests play an important role in water conservation, wildlife habitat, and climate
solutions.
Contact: Kristin Rasmussen
Director of Public Affairs & Communications
KristinRasmussen@HamptonLumber.com
HAMPTON LUMBER
9600 SW Barnes Road, Suite 200 – Portland, Oregon 97225
Tel. 503-297-7691 | www.hamptonlumber.com
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Trump Administration to End Protections for 58 Million Acres of National Forests
Springer SAWBOX – Next installation right in the heart of Europe
Springers team is already in full production of the machines for the customer. Starting in July this year, the system will be fully pre-commissioned at our headquarters in Friesach. The tested system is scheduled for delivery to the customer site (south of Austria) at the end of 2025.
The system will be equipped with a Robotic Sorting Line for the fully automatic and combined sorting of green and dry sawn timber with robots. The system is designed for a cutting volume of appr. 15,000 cubic metres of logs per shift and year (30.000 in two shifts). Power consumption is less than 500 kWh (!) .
The Sawbox can process logs up to 100 cm in diameter. Main type of processed wood is spruce, pine and larch. The dry sorting module is equipped with a modern cross-cut saw, moisture measurement and high-end quality board-scanners.
This innovative sawmill needs just 1.500 square meters, is equipped with robots and can be operated by just one (!) single operator.
A very big thank you to our great partners for making this innovation possible says Manuel Manuel Seiß CFO / CDO bei SPRINGER Maschinenfabrik GmbH
To read previous Springer related posts click here.
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The Einari Vidgrén Foundation rewarded merited forestry professionals for the 20th time at the award ceremony held in Rientola in Vieremä on 3 June. The awards totalled EUR 180,000.P
The Einari Award, the Einari Vidgrén Foundation’s key recognition, was granted to forest machine contractor Simo Kuittinen. Through Koneurakointi S. Kuittinen Oy, a company he founded, Kuittinen has extensive practical expertise in various business areas, ranging from the use and servicing of machines to administrative work. In association activities, Kuittinen has acted as the chairman of the Federation of Machine Entrepreneurs and is an honorary member of the Association.
Simo Kuittinen and his company have influenced the development of the entire Finnish timber harvesting industry in many ways. Kuittinen has, among other things, contributed to the creation of the regional contracting model. When it comes to domestic logging, Kuittinen has passionately developed harvesting on islands.
Kuittinen grew up working in the forest after helping his father already as a 12-year-old boy. From the age of 15, he started operating a forest machine full-time, and his career in forestry began in 1974 only at the age of 18. The Einari Vidgrén Foundation awards Simo Kuittinen for over 50 years of entrepreneurship in forest work.
In addition to the Einari Award, awards were given in five different categories:
lifetime achievement awards, special recognition awards, Global CTL, operator awards, and student scholarships.
Lifetime achievement awards
Lifetime achievement awards were given to two long-term forestry professionals.
Jorma Piilola from Parkano started as a tractor contractor and shifted to full-time forest machine contracting in 1974. Entrepreneurship that has continued uninterrupted for more than 50 years still continues at the age of 76. Piilola’s work has always been of a high quality, which has been recognised for the last four years in succession with the Metsähallitus quality award. During his long entrepreneurial career, Piilola has also guided and trained several people who have entered the forest machine industry, and many who learned from him are still working in the sector.
Jussi Kumpula has had a uniquely long career in Metsähallitus since the late 1980s. Kumpula has successfully led Metsähallitus’ operations and wood deliveries in challenging conditions since 2011. He has been able to take biodiversity and environmental challenges into account in his work as part of the development of timber harvesting and forest management. In his role, Kumpula has succeeded in acting in good spirit with various actors in the forest sector.
“The two long careers have seen many changes and upheavals in the industry. Both of the awardees have worked meritoriously in a challenging operating environment, and we wanted to show our appreciation for their high-quality work,” says Juha Vidgren.
Special recognition awards
The foundation issues annual special recognition awards to people involved in mechanised harvesting research and development, industry education development, and those who have increased awareness of and recognition for the industry. This year’s awards were given to nine associations and individuals.
“We wanted to reward associations and people that raise awareness of the forest industry and rural professions among children and young people. We also wanted to highlight the role of women as forestry specialists,” says Juha Vidgren.
Rural Professions Association
4H Finland
Mikko Riikilä, journalist, Metsälehti
Joonas Hyypiä, Foreman, Luukolmio Oy
Forestry Museum of Lapland
Wahlers forest machinery training for women, Germany
Trees for Tomorrow, Wisconsin, USA
Teacher Urho Hakkarainen, Savo Vocational College
Teacher Pekka Hulkkonen, Etelä-Savon Koulutus Oy
Global CTL
For promoting the international Cut-To-Length method, the Foundation gave three awards:
Finnharvest, Kuopio
Snowske Higher Vocational School of Forestry, Ukraine
University of Idaho
“The Foundation wanted to reward those who work to promote the CTL method in various ways. Finnharvest has been able to demonstrate the scalability of the CTL method globally in Swedish, German and US market as well as its financial profitability and efficiency. It’s also a pleasure to see that CTL training has increased across the world, and the benefits of the method are learned already at a young age. In particular, I would raise the need of the Ukrainian Forest Machinery School to invest in training in a particularly challenging situation,” says Juha Vidgren.
Einari Operator’s Awards
The award criteria for operator awards include customer-driven, high-quality work, an unrelenting attitude when it comes to the quality of work, and good cooperation and communication with forest owners and other stakeholders. Einari had a clear idea for the award criteria: those operators whose quality of work is high and have a good attitude with good customer service skills have earned their awards. This year, the Einari Vidgrén Foundation gave 38 Einari Operator’s awards for high-quality work.
Tero Kinnunen and Sami Laulainen – Metsäkonepalvelu Oy
Antti Suonttajärvi and Jouni Ketola – Moto Team Tauriainen Oy
Teijo Lehto and Sauli Junnila – Metsäkone Pirinen Oy
Jari Liuska and Marko Kärkkäinen – Koneurakointi S. Kuittinen Oy
Ari Jurvainen and Teemu Matilainen – Veljekset Hokkanen Oy
Petri Kuokkanen and Asser Kuittinen – Motoajo
Mikael Kälkäjä and Mikko Viuhkola – Konetyö Viuhkola ja Kautto Oy
Aleksi Tenninlä and Hannu Tennilä – A&L Harju Oy
Jouni Nyman and Jarkko Meriläinen – Honkaperä Forest Oy
Jari Nenonen and Janne Nenonen – Metsä-Multia Oy
Eetu Lihavainen and Mika Pekkinen – Metsäkoneurakointi Toropainen Oy
Ari Kallio and Joonas Uusitalo – M. Uusitalo Oy
Juho Kasanen and Jari Reinikainen – Koneteko Pitkänen Oy
Juha Hiltunen and Pertti Rytkönen – Metsäkuljetus Hyväriset Oy
Jussi Myllyvirta and Olli Poikolainen – Varis Forest Oy
Harri Häkkinen and Pekka Kauppinen – Keski-Suomen MetsäKymppi Oy
Pavel Melentjev and Paul Räisänen – Motourakointi J. Pikkarainen Oy
Markus Mustiala and Mika Kokkola – Jameko Oy
Mikko Pennanen and Seppo Tiainen – Veljekset Mustonen Oy
Einari Scholarships
Student scholarships are awarded to forest industry students who have performed well in their studies. The Foundation gave student scholarships to 39 forest industry students. The scholarships were given to the students at the end of the term.
Etelä-Savon Koulutus Oy, Pieksämäki – Veikko Takkinen and Samu Savolainen
Yrkesakademin i Österbotten – Benjamin Sten and Emil Lall
South Savo Vocational College, ESEDU, Salosaari, Mikkeli – Jami Niemelä and Sami Saima
Oulu Vocational College, Taivalkoski – Petrus Soronen and Ilari Nissi
Educational Consortium OSAO, Muhos – Johannes Itälahti and Jaako Ala-Aho
Tampere Vocational College Tredu, Kuru – Teemu Vesamäki and Jesse Savolainen
TTS Työtehoseura – Tiia Pessi and Joni Salonen
Länsirannikon Koulutus Oy WinNova – Roope Rastio and Aleksi Vuorinen
Riveria, Valtimo – Iivari Kärki and Saija Sumiloff
Gradia Jämsä – Jose-Lucas Vasama and Esa Simonen
Seinäjoki Joint Municipal Authority for Education Sedu, Ähtäri – Anssi Krohonen and Roni Sihtola
Federation of Education in Central Ostrobothnia – Eeli Huhtala and Ville Pastel
Lapland Vocational College REDU, Rovaniemi – Atte Montonen and Essi Kostamovaara
Vocational Education Institute of Northern Central Finland, Uurainen – Sami Lupsakko and Veeti Manninen
Häme Vocational Institute EVO – Jose Kangas and Vilho Toukovalkama
Savo Vocational College – Lauri Tuomainen and Iisakki Niemelä
Saimaa Vocational College, Ruokolahti – Lassi Partanen and Pia Ranta
Keski-Uusimaa Joint Municipal Authority for Education / KEUDA – Venny Koskelainen and Vili Markkanen
Samiedu Vocational College – Kalle Pietarinen and Aleksi Sallinen
Livia College (Peimari education municipality association) – Jussi Selenius
Vieremä, 3 June 2025
Einari Vidgrén Foundation
Juha Vidgren, Chair
Further information: Juha Vidgren, +358 40 518 6286, juha.vidgren@ponsse.com
Founded in 2005 by Einari Vidgrén, founder of Ponsse Plc, the foundation aims to increase the appreciation of work in the mechanical logging sector and work in the forest sector in accordance with responsible and sustainable development. The Foundation wants to develop the awareness of entrepreneurship related to mechanical harvesting and increase the attractiveness of mechanical harvesting as an employer, especially among young people.
To read previous Ponsse posts click here.
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The post The Einari Vidgrén Foundation rewarded merited forestry professionals for the 20th time at the award ceremony held in Rientola in Vieremä on 3 June. The awards totalled EUR 180,000.P appeared first on International Forest Industries.
Does a River Have Legal Rights?
NEW! Delta Motion RMC200 Motion Controller Communication Modules
ECAT – EtherCAT MainDevice with Redundancy Port
The ECAT module provides EtherCAT MainDevice functionality, allowing control of electric motor drives and communication with other EtherCAT subordinate devices such as sensors and actuators. With two RJ-45 ports,
the ECAT module supports cable redundancy.
The RMC200 supports position, velocity, pressure, force and torque control, and single and dual-loop axes via EtherCAT.
Axes may be defined with output and feedback in any combination of EtherCAT data or directly connected sensors
or actuators. The RMC200 EtherCAT supports CANopen over EtherCAT (CoE) CiA402 drive profiles and CiA408 valve profiles.
Ports 2 ports:
ECAT1: Main port
ECAT2: Redundancy port
Supported
Topologies Linear, ring and star
Hardware
Interface IEEE 802.3 for 100BASE-T (twisted pair)
Data Rate 100 Mbps
Duplex Full Duplex
Features Auto-negotiation, Auto-crossover (MDI/MDI-X)
Connectors RJ-45 (2)
Cable CAT5, CAT5e or CAT6, UTP or STP
Cycle Times250 µs minimum
Distributed Clock Subordinate devices that support
DC on the network are synchronized
with the motion loop of the
RMC200
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