Forest Products Industry

Forestry technology company Kesla is renewing its operating model and management team as part of the systematic implementation of its growth strategy. The changes took effect on 17 March 2025 but will not impact the structure of Kesla’s financial reporting. Source: Timberbiz To achieve the goals set for the 2024–2028 strategic period, Kesla has identified three key themes: bold renewal, profitable growth, and succeeding together. The renewal of the operating model and management team ties these themes together. In the new organization, the previous business unit structure will be changed, and tractor equipment, logging equipment, truck and stationary cranes, and defence products will be referred to as product groups. Front line functions – sales, product management, marketing, and after sales services will be combined into a new Sales and Customer Care organization. A Sales and Customer Care Director will be appointed to lead this new organization, and the recruitment process is underway. Until the position is filled, CEO Pasi Nieminen will take on the role alongside his existing duties. The Kesla Defence product group, established in January 2025, will retain separate sales and product management functions due to the specific characteristics of the defense industry market. Tapio Pirinen will continue to lead sales for the product group and, as part of the organizational reform, will also take on responsibility for the company’s PMO (Project Management Office) functions. “At the core of our strategy is enhancing the customer experience. By reorganizing our frontline functions, we improve our customer processes and can offer better service and faster responses to market needs,” CEO Pasi Nieminen said. “Merging sales and after sales organizations allows us to allocate resources more evenly, flexibly, and efficiently across selected market areas to support growth. Strong product management, in turn, plays a key role in building a product strategy that aligns with our strategic objectives in key markets. All these actions support the most important goal of our strategy: profitable growth.” This transformation is a significant step in Kesla’s organizational development, following the earlier dismantling of business unit specific product development and production responsibilities. Product development, product management, digitalization, Kesla Defence, and PMO will now be included in the management team, as they are critical functions in achieving Kesla’s strategic goals. Jukka Sadinmäki will continue as Head of Product Development. Mika Tahvanainen, previously Business Line Director of Logging Equipment, has been appointed Director of Product Management and Digitalization. Ari Pirho-nen, formerly Business Line Director of Truck and Stationary Cranes, has been appointed Sales Director of Cranes for the Finnish market, which is a significant market for Kesla. The reorganization was carried out as a change negotiation process, but no staff reductions resulted from it.    

The Decorative Hardwoods Association (DHA) in the US says it appreciates the opportunity to provide public comment on the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) request for comments regarding unfair trade practices that are present throughout the world and are detrimental to United States wood product manufacturers. Source: Timberbiz DHA says its members have been the victims of unfair trade practices engaged in by countries throughout the world but particularly in Asia. These practices are ripe for review by USTR, the Department of Commerce, and President Trump’s American Manufacturing and Trade team. DHA members, particularly hardwood plywood manufacturers and engineered wood floor manufacturers, have in recent years successfully pursued antidumping and countervailing duty trade cases against Chinese manufacturers. While helpful, these cases are time-consuming and expensive and do not solve the problem. DHA says that too often, Chinese companies are quick to trans-ship through other Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, or Malaysia. “Our Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood successfully pursued a circumvention case against Vietnamese shipments of hardwood plywood made with Chinese inputs with a ruling in 2023,” Keith A. Christman President Decorative Hardwoods Association said in a statement. “This slowed high levels of imports from Vietnam for a bit over a year but imports are again surging, rising 52% in 2024 to nearly 615 million square feet. For comparison, US manufacturers have reduced production to only 676 million square feet in 2023 after years of competing with unfair imports from Asia. “US capacity utilization has been reduced to around 50%, and many good jobs in rural communities have been lost when mills have been closed. US trade laws have not been able to keep up and should be updated to better reflect the reality of the import competition faced by domestic manufacturers. To help solve this problem, we would encourage support for the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act.” A fundamental problem the DHA sees is that US manufacturers of hardwood plywood, hardwood veneer, and engineered wood floors are forced to compete against imports with prices below the cost of production. This wood raw material represents a major portion of total cost in the Us. Yet imports are often sold at prices that are at or below US manufacturer raw material cost as result of using unsustainably and illegally harvested wood. Wood from Russia is an excellent example of the problem. In 2024, the United States imported over US$62 million of birch plywood from Russia. However, these direct imports from Russia pale in comparison to the nearly US$200 million of birch plywood imported from Vietnam and the nearly US$160 million imported from Indonesia. Birch does not grow in Vietnam or Indonesia. These imports come in at low or no tariff rates despite-the-fact that they are made with Russian-origin birch. Russia is the source for nearly all the birch used in manufacturing birch plywood from China, Vietnam and Indonesia. For example, more than 90% of hardwood plywood imported from Vietnam is birch. Vietnam both directly imports logs from Russia and imports birch veneers from China produced from Russian logs. These Russian logs are harvested from state owned forests in unsustainable methods and at dumped prices according to DHA. All plywood made with Russian-origin wood and wood inputs, whether imported directly from Russia or from a third country after further processing, harms US manufacturers and supports the Russian war effort. Accordingly, DHA recommends that the administration consider banning Russian wood products and products from third countries made with Russian wood. In addition to banning all wood products made from Russian wood, USTR should consider increasing the tariff on wood products made with birch that often comes in at no tariff. For example, birch plywood imports from any country to the US are not subject to normal 8% duty applied to other wood species. This results in a loophole where, for example, an importer will claim a product is birch plywood when it has a birch back and a white oak face and it comes in duty free. Then it will be sold in the final market as much higher value white oak plywood that would normally face an 8% duty. This duty-free tariff on birch further encourages the use of Russian fibre in products coming into the US through third countries.

Japan Airlines (JAL), Airbus, Nippon Paper Industries, Sumitomo Corporation, and Green Earth Institute (GEI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the realization of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using bioethanol derived from domestic wood. Source: Timberbiz In February 2023 Nippon Paper, Sumitomo Corporation, and GEI launched the “MORISORA Project.” In February 2025 an agreement was signed to establish a joint venture to manufacture and sell bioethanol made from wood biomass. JAL and Airbus have now joined the project and will promote the use and expansion of domestic SAF by collaborating with businesses involved in the supply and demand of SAF. The five companies will work to enable a low-carbon society by reducing greenhouse gas emissions during raw material procurement and production, and by producing and selling domestic wood-based bioethanol that has a low LCA and is compliant with CORSIA. This will be achieved through the developing society’s circular economy of “cutting, using, planting, and growing” trees, regional revitalization including job creation, and the utilization of domestic SAF. JAL aims to promote domestically produced SAF and has set a goal of replacing 10% of all onboard fuel with SAF by 2030. By connecting the SAF suppliers with stakeholders involved in production, JAL will advance the construction of a supply chain. Airbus will support the work to obtain the CORSIA certification for the domestic woody biomass of this project and contribute to the industry target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The five companies will mutually leverage their strengths to produce and pro-mote domestic SAF made from bioethanol using domestic wood, aiming to create a decarbonized society and revitalize local communities through re-source circulation and work towards a sustainable future.

A newly published ABARES Insights report has emphasised concerns around non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and their sharp increase in recent years. Source: Timberbiz The report, Non-tariff barriers: a multi-billion dollar burden, sheds light on the costs created for Australian agricultural exporters from non-tariff measures across the world. Executive Director of ABARES, Dr Jared Greenville, said the report’s findings highlight the need for strong and sustained effort by government to combat the growth of NTBs to minimise their impact on trade. “The Insights report shows the rising burden associated with NTBs” Dr Greenville said. “We are seeing the use of NTBs rise as tariffs fall, causing concern that one form of trade distortion is being replaced by another. “NTBs impose higher costs for Australian agricultural exporters as they can restrict products entering a country due to licensing requirements and product labelling re-quirements, amongst others. “While the average tariff on agricultural goods has dropped globally from 26% to 12% since 1995, we have seen a consistent and steep increase in NTBs growth across the world since 2014.” While some non-tariff measures may increase trade, findings from the report indicate that at a product level, NTBs cause the equivalent reduction in trade as a 19% tariff on average. New modelling in the report shows that the removal of NTBs could result in $4 billion in annual benefits for the Australian agricultural industry, but efforts to address NTBs must be specific and targeted. “The rise in NTBs unfortunately reduces opportunities for businesses looking to participate in international markets,” Mr Greenville said. “Better market access is important to Australian agriculture and the jobs its supports. It also supports efforts to diversify our export markets for our agricultural products.”  

Sumitomo Forestry is pleased to announce that two of its facilities/products have received iF Design Awards in 2025. The joint mass-timber office development, “T3 Collingwood” in Melbourne, Australia received the top honour, the Gold Award. Source: Timberbiz The interior design idea, “Kids’ Base (around the centre of the house),” conceptualized by Sumitomo Forestry received the Design Award. This is the first time that Sumitomo Forestry Group has received this award. The Gold Award for T3 Collingwood was won by recipients Hines (a US developer), Sumitomo Forestry, NTT Urban Development Corporation and Jackson Clements Burrows Architects (Australian architecture firm). T3 is a mass-timber office building in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Comprising 15 floors above ground and two basement floors, it is designed as a hybrid structure with the basement to sixth floors made of reinforced concrete, and the seventh to 15th floors made of timber. It is the tallest mass-timber office building to be completed in Australia. Cross-laminated timber made from Australian Radiata Pine is used for the floor slab, and GLT (glued laminated timber) from Victoria, is used for beams and pillars with an exposed finish. The building received the highest Gold rating for its exceptional office design, openness that draws in an abundance of natural lighting, quality and longevity of the building. The German “iF International Forum Design” has been presenting awards to outstanding industrial designs from around the world since 1954. There are nine award disciplines: Product, Packaging, Communication, Service Design, Architecture, Interior Architecture, Professional Concept, User Experience (UX), and User Interface (UI). This year, there were 10,651 entries from 66 countries and regions, which were evaluated by 131 design experts from around the world with 75 entries (0.7% of all entries) selected for the highest award. Along with the Red Dot Design Award (Germany) and the iDEA Award (US), the iF Design Award is said to be one of the world’s three most prestigious design awards.  

After an extensive interview and selection process the Governing Council of the Victorian Forest Products Association (VFPA) has appointed Richard Mulcahy as the inaugural Independent Chair of the association. Source: Timberbiz Mr Mulcahy has had a long involvement in politics and served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer, as well as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in the ACT. He was also Principal Personal Assistant to a former Victorian Premier.  He has held CEO positions in a number of industry bodies. Mr Mulcahy will take up his role on 1 April 2025. This is an important step in strengthening VFPA’s strategic direction and the association looks forward to Mr Mulcahy’s leadership in advancing the industry’s interests. VFPA’s current Chair, Rob Hescock, will continue in his role on the VFPA Governing Council.