The government is quite rightly focused on materially improving New Zealand's economic performance. Part of the Business Growth Agenda is to move export earnings from 30% to 40% of GDP by 2025. It is now widely recognised that such an ambitious target will not be achieved without material improvements in earnings from our primary, land-based industries.
READ MOREPF Olsen has recently appointed Brendan Horrell as the branch manager in Nelson.
READ MOREStrong export and domestic demand has underpinned harvesting programmes as we head into more difficult winter harvesting conditions in New Zealand.
READ MOREPrices for NZUs have fluctuated between the $1.65 and $2.00 mark in May/ early June and are currently trading at around $1.80 per NZU. The cheaper imported ERUs, which can be used for surrender purposes until 2015, have ascended sharply from a low of $0.13 in May to $0.25 per ERU this week.
READ MOREOn 10th June 2013 we had the opportunity to profile the FFR programme to improve the productivity and safety of harvesting on steep terrain to a gathering of politicians, officials and business people at the Beehive.
READ MOREMany forest managers and contractors have had a strong focus on accident reduction over the past 15 years with considerable progress made on reducing serious injuries relative to production.
READ MOREAustralia's Federal Government this week announced funding of $500,000 to assist in the development of an Australian forest management certification standard for Forest Stewardship Council certification.
READ MOREOver the last two years FFR has funded research into the use of remote sensing technology for forest operations monitoring.
READ MOREPF Olsen has owned a containerised forest nursery producing Radiata pine tree stocks, located at Waiuku in the Franklin District, since 1996. During the last five years PF Olsen has invested a significant amount of capital into the nursery to improve tree stock quality, increase total production and lower production costs
READ MOREContinued strong demand from China and the strengthening New Zealand and USA housing markets are the main positive features affecting the log market in New Zealand at present. Countering this is the strengthening NZ$ and weak demand from Australia and Europe.
READ MORENZUs have hovered around the $2 mark in April, currently around $1.90. ERUs dropped from $0.15 to $0.13 on the back of weakening European carbon prices. Demand for NZUs is weak with emitters concentrating on the purchase of cheap UN offsets for 2013 and 2014.
READ MOREHuman kind has used wood for fuel for as long as fire was discovered. Even in recent times, there have been estimates that of all the wood used in the world, 50% is used as fuel, often in small, low-tech communities to stay warm and cook food.
READ MOREFor those with an interest in forestry matters and especially in data and information about forestry, you may be interested in this online questionnaire.
READ MOREChina is going through an infrastructure and housing build at a pace that is unprecedented in the history of mankind. Although concrete is the primary construction material this development also generates massive demand for wood.
READ MOREWith the slide in recent years of the FOB price for blue gum woodchips from Australian ports from over US$200/tonne to below US$165/tonne, there are serious questions being asked about whether the hardwood plantation estate can be sustained in more marginal areas which are further from port.
READ MOREPeter Clark and Peter Weblin travelled to China in mid March to visit log purchasers, ports and log processing facilities. We were impressed with the highly efficient way logs are received and handled in China and the developing focus on value-added higher end uses. Rather than bore readers with waffly text, we present below some interesting photos taken along the way, with some, hopefully, interesting snippits of information.
READ MOREHarvesting levels continued at a high level in March/early April with (largely) favourable weather and markets. Demand remained strong for all log grades apart from pulp/chip logs in some regions, particularly Southland/Otago.
READ MOREFuture Forests Research Limited (FFR) is developing a proposal for an extension to the current Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) research and development programme "Innovative Harvesting Solutions".
READ MOREOver the last few years Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has been undertaking significant reviews of many of its policies.
READ MORENZUs lifted from the low of $1.50 in February and traded in the $1.90 to $2.10 range in March. Currently the price is around $2.10. The lift in prices has been brought about by tight supply and emitters on the hunt for volume while NZUs are cheap. ERUs traded in the $0.15 to $0.18 range during March, currently at $0.15.
READ MORE