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.

New Zealand Forest Managers (NZFM) has resumed its New Zealand pine log exports to India in the first half of 2025. This marks the first time NZFM has exported pine logs to India since the 2019/20 period. Source: Timberbiz “This is the beginning of a renewed focus on the Indian market,” Jonathan Cameron, NZFM Chairman said. Historically, NZFM has exported between 40,000 to 50,000 JAS m3 of logs per annum to India, with the last shipment occurring in January 2020. As part of its own diversification strategy, NZFM aims to expand its customer base beyond its current markets in South Korea, Japan, and China. “India represents a significant opportunity for growth, leveraging New Zealand’s reputation for high-quality timber” Mr Cameron said. Working with industry and partners, the company plans to introduce New Zealand pine logs to a variety of high-value applications in India, including interior products, structural timber, and building supplies, much beyond their traditional use in industrial packaging and construction products. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon highlighted NZFM’s efforts as a reflection of New Zealand’s broader export strategy. “It’s companies like NZFM that are driving growth in export value by promoting innovative, higher-value use cases for New Zealand’s high-quality logs. This aligns with our goal to double the value of exports and showcase the premium quality of what New Zealand offers,” Mr Luxon said. NZFM is highly supportive of the Letter of Intent on Forestry Cooperation signed by Ministers on the Prime Minister’s Trade Delegation to India and is keen to collaborate and cooperate with government officials, industry, and our counterparts in India on the areas outlined in the Letter. Mr Cameron indicated that “particular areas of interest are exchange of knowledge, processes and innovation as well as exploring the adaptation and application of cutting-edge technologies we have seen on the Prime Ministers Trade Mission to India into our New Zealand forestry industry”. NZFM is a 100% Māori-owned professional forestry management company based in Tūrangi and Taupō in New Zealand’s central North Island. Established in 1989, the company manages over 100,000 hectares of client land, including 80,000 hectares of productive forests. NZFM provides comprehensive forestry services, including land management, forest development, protection, environmental stewardship, investment, harvesting, and global sales and marketing throughout the Asia-Pacific region. NZFM’s clients include Māori trusts and incorporations, the New Zealand Government, local councils, Timber Investment Management Organisations, and private entities.

  Chief Fire Officer Chris Hardman of Forest Fire Management Victoria said in an open letter that as summer fades and autumn begins, we take a moment to reflect on the challenges of extreme heat, bushfires and storms over the past months have tested communities across the state, reinforcing the importance of preparedness, swift response and resilience. Source: Timberbiz Mr Hardman said: We feel for the communities affected by these events, and I thank our crews, contractors, incident management personnel and partner agencies for the work they do to keep Victoria safer. While the seasons may be changing, our focus remains the same, making sure resources are where they’re needed, learning from recent events and strengthening our strategies for the future. “The seasonal outlook shows a higher chance of warmer maximum temperatures into early autumn which may delay the start of planned burning in some parts of the state. It also raises opportunities for planned burning targeting areas that are not usually available under autumn conditions. We manage Victoria’s bushfire risk in a holistic way, including but not exclusively – through planned burning. Large intense bushfires are a significant threatening process to the natural environment. Victoria’s home to some of the world’s most spectacular natural places, fire risk management needs to be balanced alongside land management to be effective. Reducing the risk and impacts of bushfires requires a multi-facetted approach; there are no magic bullets. Victoria’s approach includes having the right road network for accessibility, strategic fuel breaks, fuel management through planned burning and mechanical fuel treatment and advanced approaches to suppression through well-trained people and highly specialised plant, equipment and aviation. Victorian firefighters and fire managers are world class. We rely on the latest, wide-ranging and global body of research and work with other jurisdictions, but we apply our experience and knowledge to Victorian conditions. Planned burning is part of our long-term strategy. It’s not just about a single burn, or single year, but an ongoing process aimed at creating a strategic network of fuel-reduced areas on public land. This network helps to slow the spread of fire and helps firefighters to reduce threats to communities, critical infrastructure and the environment. Autumn typically provides our crews more opportunities to conduct planned burns, as the weather is more stable, and fire behaviour tends to be manageable and predictable. As soon as favourable weather and forest conditions arrive, we’ll be making sure all available resources are delivering planned burning, with a strong focus on priority areas like Midlands, Yarra Ranges, Murrindindi, Ovens, Otways and Latrobe Valley. There may be some forest and road closures in place during and after planned burning. Visit the Planned Burns Victoria website before you travel to make sure your trip isn’t affected. If you live in or are visiting an area where planned burning is taking place, there’s a good chance you’ll see FFMVic firefighters preparing locations or delivering planned burns. They’ll be the ones in our distinctive green firefighting uniforms.

A major study after the devastating 2019-20 wildfires in Victoria and New South Wales found that prescribed burning dramatically reduced the intensity of the fires, according to a bushfire expert. Source: Phillip Hopkins, Latrobe Valley Express Dr Tony Bartlett, a winner of the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM), said after 2019-20, a major study was undertaken to test the effectiveness of prescribed (fuel reduction) burning at a landscape scale in terms of reducing the severity of the wildfire in a wide range of forest ecosystems. Dr Bartlett was part of a three-person panel that investigated the impact of the wildfires on Victoria’s Regional Forest Agreements, The major study examined 307 prescribed burns greater than 200 hectares that had been conducted in the previous five years, and which were within the footprint of the 2019-20 wildfires. “It found that about half (48%) of these prescribed burns resulted in significantly reduced wildfire severity,” said Dr Bartlett, writing in the Commonwealth Forest Association newsletter. “It also found that the more recent prescribed burns had a more positive impact on reducing fire severity, with 66% of one-year-old burns having a positive impact compared to 42% of five-year-old burns.” Dr Bartlett said Australian academics Professor David Lindenmayer and Associate Professor Philip Zylstra had made claims about the impact of prescribed burning on forest flammability. “None of the claims … are supported by evidence from long-term monitoring of replicated trials where prescribed burning has been conducted,” he said. The academics in articles reproduced in the CFA newsletter argued that prescribed burning and logging made Australian native forests more flammable. They said prescribed burning should be confined to areas close to high-value assets and that when fire is excluded for more than 40 years, the native forests do not burn at high intensity because the vertical connectivity of the forest structure is reduced through natural ecological processes In contrast, Dr Bartlett said the late Associate Professor Kevin Tolhurst studied the effects of repeated low-intensity prescribed fire in mixed species eucalypt forest in south-east Australia using repeated trials (including no-burning sites) for almost 40 years. “He found there was no loss of species but the impact on understorey plant species varied according to the nature of different species,” Dr Bartlett said. “My own observations at these research sites in October 2024 indicated there was significantly less understorey vegetation in the repeatedly burnt sites than in the unburnt control sites – which contradicts the Lindenmayer-Zylstra view that prescribed burning in eucalypt forests promotes dense flammable understorey vegetation.” Dr Bartlett said the academics’ propositions ignored the evidence of comprehensive fire research done by the CSIRO and state government land management agencies, as well as the lessons from numerous inquiries after major wild-fires over the past 80 years. “Moreover, the notion that fire can be excluded from most Australian forests for more than 40 years is fanciful, given the increased frequency and extent of wildfires over the past 20 years under challenging climate conditions,” he said. “Importantly, there are numerous journal articles that either challenge their re-search findings or present evidence that indicates their findings are incorrect.” Dr Bartlett said the academics’ claim that timber harvesting causes the native forest to be more flammable was undermined by evidence. Wildfire, including the rate of spread and fire intensity, depended on three main factors: the quantity and structure of fuel in the vegetation; the prevailing weather – wind and humidity; and the topography of the location of the fire. Thus the severity of the wildfire was the result of interacting factors, “not a single factor such as whether or not timber harvesting has been undertaken in that location”. Dr Bartlett cited several wildfire examples: In NSW, the 2019-20 burnt about 4.1million hectares of forest, including 2.23m ha of national park and 0.76m ha of State forest. Timber harvesting had made up about 0.21m ha of State forest over the previous 35 years. Official NSW data showed about 53% and 50% burnt at high and extreme severity in both tenures. At the landscape level, they concluded that fire severity was much the same regardless of tenure. Fire in 2019-20 burnt over 855,00 ha (79%), 37% extreme severity, of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, but timber harvesting had no impact in the wilderness area. Areas of prescribed burning five years before had 26% burnt at high or extreme severity. In Eastern Victoria, 2019-20 wildfires burnt 1.5m ha – 89% public forest that included 486,000ha of national park and 403,000ha of State forest. Victorian data showed that 48% of national park and 49% of timber harvest areas burnt at high severity. “It is clear that the presence or absence of timber harvesting made little difference to the extent of high severity bushfire. Dr Bartlett said the academics last year published a review of selected global literature on the role that disturbance (fire, timber harvesting or clearing) can play in forest flammability. Much of this relied on their previously published articles. “They did not quote any of the extensive literature that showed a re-duction in fire severity in areas where prescribed burning had been conducted,” he said. Concluding, Dr Bartlett said clearly the greatest risk to Australian native forests is the increased frequency of landscape-scale wildfires burning at high intensity. This would “ultimately change the composition and structure of our forest systems”. “The lived experience evidence clearly shows that timber harvesting is not in-creasing the risk of native forests being burnt at high severity,” he said. “Far from being a cause of increased high severity fire, prescribed burning reduces fire severity in many forest areas where it has been undertaken.”