August 2010

SHANGHAI, Aug. 9, 2010 (RISI) - Expansion (in almost all paper grades), is the word that can be heard most in talks among industry CEOs and executives during recent events that I attended organized by suppliers or industry associations in the pulp and paper industry. The Chinese market seems to have recovered from the earlier economic downturn and players are gearing up for new growth after a pause due to the world financial crisis.

One of the major clouds hanging over British Columbia’s economy and forest products industry is uncertainty about the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

To date, the pine beetle has killed an estimated 50% of the province’s mature lodgepole pine.

In a recent economic analysis that focused on the pine beetle epidemic, Central 1 economist Bryan Yu noted that over the past 90 years there have been four or five major mountain pine beetle infestations.

The many wildfires in Russia which are currently raging, in particular in the Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ryazan regions, follow an unprecedented heat wave with temperatures reaching past 38C.

Last year, there seemed to be an unwritten rule in enviro-circles: whenever two or more enviro-folks were gathered together in a place of meeting, talk must turn to biochar.