Forest Products Industry

Wesbeam has been named Big River Group’s Supplier of the Year for the second consecutive time, securing back-to-back wins in an award presented every two years. Source: Timberbiz The recognition reflects the strength of Wesbeam’s long-standing partnership with Big River Group and the consistent contribution of teams across both organisations. Winning the award again is a significant achievement and recognises the commitment required to deliver the fundamentals well, day after day. From manufacturing and distribution through to sales, engineering, customer service and marketing, the award reflects the collective efforts of the entire Wesbeam team. “Congratulations to Team Wesbeam on a well-deserved win,” said Helen Awali, Executive General Manager, Construction at Big River Group. “Thank you, Rachel, Peter, and the entire Wesbeam team for your kind words and for being such a valued part of our conference over the past few days. We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support, partnership, and commitment. It was fantastic to have you with us, and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship together.” Big River Group is one of Wesbeam’s most valued national customer partners, with the relationship built on collaboration, responsiveness and a shared commitment to supporting Australia’s building and construction industry. Wesbeam General Manager Sales & Marketing, Peter Board, said the award provided an important reminder of the value Wesbeam delivers to its customers every day. “While we know there are always opportunities to improve, this recognition reminds us not to lose sight of the many things our teams consistently do well,” Mr Board said. “Winning consecutive Supplier of the Year awards is an outstanding result. It takes a high level of commitment, consistency and execution across every part of our business. “Everyone who helps make, move, market, sell or support our products has played a part in achieving this result.” The award also reinforces Wesbeam’s commitment to being more than a product supplier. Through Australian manufacturing, national distribution, engineering expertise and close customer relationships, Wesbeam continues to work alongside Big River Group to help its branches and customers pursue new opportunities and achieve better project outcomes.  

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Efforts to decarbonise freight transport are being accelerated through a South Australian State Government supported project aimed at supporting South Australia’s forest industries to reach net zero targets. Source: Timberbiz The State Government is investing $200,000 towards the Decarbonising the Freight Task – Driving to Net Zero project, a joint South Australian Forest Products Association (SAFPA) and Tabeel Trading venture. The funding, provided under the South Australian Wood Fibre and Timber Industry Master Plan, supports the Government of South Australia’s vision of decarbonising forest freight to further reduce carbon emissions across one of the hardest-to-abate sectors – heavy freight transport. The State Government of South Australia is working side by side with industry to deliver solutions and drive success in this area by delivering low emission vehicles for the Green Triangle. Forestry is already the ultimate renewable and this is yet another step the industry is taking to decarbonise its footprints. The project will include new technologies aimed at reducing reliance on diesel, with the end goal to decarbonise forestry’s freight trucks through electrification, which will deliver substantial carbon savings. The project presents an opportunity to deliver real, measurable decarbonisation outcomes. Funding will support Stage 1 of the project by developing: an evidence-based decarbonisation roadmap for South Australia’s forest freight fleet detailed cost-benefit analysis of alternative freight technologies including the modelling of emission reductions a freight logistics and charging/refuelling infrastructure blueprint policy, regulatory and investment recommendations aligned to state and national climate targets and Master Plan priorities Subject to the findings from Stage 1 and the availability of vehicles and infrastructure, Stage 2 will see the project progress to a live demonstration phase to validate modelling results under operational forest freight conditions.   The Decarbonising the Freight Task project aligns with the Master Plan’s goal of developing a clean and green circular economy. The South Australian Wood Fibre and Timber Industry Master Plan, launched in February 2024, was developed by the Forest Industries Advisory Council of South Australia (FIAC-SA) as part of a State Government election commitment to provide a vision to further grow and develop South Australia’s $3 billion forest industry.

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As part of its broader strategic focus, Opal has undertaken a detailed review of its bag manufacturing operations in Thomastown, Victoria. Following this assessment Opal has made the decision to sell its bag business. Source: Timberbiz The sale will be to an Australian entity owned by Thomastown International, an affiliate of The Magan Group, a US family office exclusively focused on investing in corporate divestitures. Opal says this sale is consistent with its strategic focus on its core integrated recycling, paper and packaging products and services. The acquisition is expected to complete by 1 September 2026, subject to the fulfilment of the sale conditions. Opal and the buyer will work closely with bag customers and suppliers to support a seamless transition once the sale is complete. It’s not expected that there will be any interruptions to production during the transition period. “This decision was made following careful consideration and supports Opal’s continued focus on its core integrated recycling, paper and packaging products and services,” Simon Nozu, Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer Opal said.

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Some much better news this month across both China and India markets. Both are stable in sales prices with a reduction in shipping costs and a favourable US$/KIWI$ FOREX seeing prices at wharf NZ recovering back up to close to where they were in May. Both markets hold a ‘tread with caution’ warning, and it is certainly time to be happy with our lot and not push on price or volume. Weather events and the market generally, has seen a lower harvest rate in NZ and that is certainly needed to give both markets a breather. It is extremely disappointing to see one exporter pushing volume into India without sales contracts and LCs in place. Those logs are now sitting in bond in Kandla with more on the way. This may yet have a debilitating impact on log prices in what otherwise remains a fragile market at present. The India Free Trade Agreement is the hot topic at present with NZ Forestry said to be a big winner. I thought readers might be interested to learn more about this increasingly important market for NZ. There is the usual plethora of misinformation about the opportunities in India. I can assure readers realising any opportunities will not be a cake walk. One of the largest challenges lies in developing strategic long-term relationships with India companies. The strategic fundamentals include honesty, integrity and a strong desire to see everyone make a profit. In my view, these need to be the three guiding principles. If I look at the history of the NZ log trade with India to date, I see many examples where the 3 guiding principles on both sides have been sadly lacking. The one thing to know about dealing with the India trade is there are many who want a slice of the action. There are even more who give little or no regard for everyone being sustainably profitable. Thus, any trade with India, must be approached with great caution and a great deal of research and investigation to ensure the people you are dealing with hold tight to, and believe in, the 3 guiding principles. The majority of NZ Log trade to date has been via the Port of Kandla. At present and reflecting recent increases in the log trade, this port receives 9 – 10 vessels per month of softwood logs, each on average carrying about 40,000 cubic metres of logs. There are typically 3 from Australia, 3 from Uruguay and 3 – 4 from NZ. There is also some ongoing deliveries of logs in containers to other ports, but this comprises a very small volume by comparison. Kandla is at the top NW side of India about 130km from the Pakistan border. The city has a population of about 400,000, very close to the same size as Christchurch. The difference is, the population of Christchurch is a reliable number ascertained by Census. The lack of a reliable Census in India means any attempt at population numbers is pretty much a guess. The Port of Lyttleton can berth 6 to 7 large vessels at any one time. The Port of Kandla has 31 berths with 7 of those just dedicated to oil tankers. There is one berth where log vessels have priority with 3 other berths available depending on first at anchor, first unloaded basis. At the Port of Lyttleton, the average load rate is about 5,000 m3 per day (24 hours continuous). The discharge rate in Kandla is about 3000 m3 but is very much an average. Ships discharging small Australia or Uruguay logs can be much slower. Hence, if there is 360,000 m3 of logs in a month discharging at 3,000m3 per day, ships sitting at anchor waiting to discharge are common. The total 5 berths committed to breakbulk cargos include on-going discharge of the likes of Coal, grains and fertilizers. Sitting at anchor usually results in demurrage, which is a penalty charge on the charterer of the vessel imposed by the ship owner for unloading delays and therefore loss of earning potential. Some shipments have seen charterers pay in excess of US$1mil for demurrage. Herein lies one of the largest challenges facing Kiwi companies wanting to expand log sales to India. More about this market in future reports. As always, please remember the thoroughly important message. It remains fundamentally important, the only way forward for climate, country and the planet, is to get out there and plant more trees! Allan Laurie, Managing Director, Laurie Forestry.          

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