Many people think of the wood products industry
as paper and lumber. And that is a large component. But what about paneling,
furniture, snowboards and guitars? What about log homes, window frames,
doors and pool cues?
The possibilities are endless. And the industry is enormous. It's also going
through massive changes.
Efforts for sustainable harvests are shrinking timber supplies.
Companies are having to do more with less. They are bringing in new technology.
They are becoming computerized. They are doing everything they can to stay
competitive.
And they need employees who are on the cutting edge.
Employees who understand the industry.
Employees who are good with wood.
WHAT IS THE WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY?
Wood products are, quite simply, products made from wood.
That's ALL products made from wood.
Anything from paper and lumber, to fine furniture and snowboards.
There's a lot you can do with wood.
And it's being done.
Now, most people divide this huge industry into two separate yet equally important groups.
PRIMARY and SECONDARY
PRIMARY refers to pulp mills*
(where they make paper) and sawmills (where they make lumber). These are
generally the first places logs are processed. Thus, the nickname "primary".
*editor's note. Because the wood products industry is so HUGE, this web site does not deal with the pulp and paper side of things. But pulp mills are a large component of this industry and you should be aware they exist.
SECONDARY refers to all the manufacturing
done after the wood leaves the sawmill. That means secondary manufacturers
are the companies that make specialized products out of wood. Everything
from beautiful guitars, to the spindles on your staircase, to the special
cut of wood needed to make a window frame and the dinner table you eat at
each night.
Now, there is a third group to throw into the mix.
The suppliers.
SUPPLIERS refers to companies that support the
primary and secondary manufacturers with specialized equipment and/or technical
expertise. Now, there is a big range here. Suppliers can be companies that
sell machinery, high-tech tooling or innovative software. Suppliers can
also be engineering consultants, public relations people and human resource
companies.
Many suppliers are profiled in this web site so that you can get a better idea of what they do. Because, like the primary and secondary industries, suppliers would love to get more skilled employees.
You may have heard the buzzword "Value-Added" before.
It's used a lot.
And many people like to create their own definitions.
Let's forget those.
Value-Added basically means lumber that has become more valuable because it has been manufactured, processed or selected.
(Hey psst...Want another definition? Value-Added:
Doing something to lumber that allows you sell it for more money.)
Now, there are some obvious examples.
For instance, all secondary manufacturing is Value-Added. That means everything from pianos, furniture, doors and picture frames. Because the wood has been converted into these higher value products, the manufacturing is considered Value-Added.
But there are less obvious examples in secondary manufacturing.
- Many companies now glue a thin piece of beautifully-clear wood veneer
over less than perfect boards. This creates an illusion of perfection (which
is good enough because people are buying them).
These companies are adding value to these boards and stretching our supply of perfect timber.
- The optimizing process is another example of adding value. Raw lumber
is "optimized" by cutting out defects and leaving shorter lengths
of beautifully clear board. When these shorter lengths are glued back together,
the new defect-free lumber is considered a higher value than the raw lumber
it started out as.
There is also Value-Added work being done in sawmills (primary).
Here's an example.
Lumber has a certain value. It's constant.
But when you pull a perfectly clear board, (free of knots and defects), from a production line and sell it to a company that needs that board for say musical instruments, that board now has a much higher value.
That is also adding value to the wood. Thus, we call it Value-Added.
Okay, okay, you get the concept of Value-Added.
But you probably have another question.
Why is everyone talking about it?
The answer: Because they have to.
We cut down too many trees in the past, and we're paying for that mistake. Our timber supply is limited. Companies have to do more with less. They are constantly looking at new market niches for Value-Added products.
Because the more money they can make with the wood they have, the better. That means that Value-Added industries need less wood to survive. And because all this work is being done with the wood, more people are employed per tree cut.
It's good for the environment and it's good for us.
The wood products industry is in the midst of a technological revolution. New computerized machines are eliminating the need for unskilled, menial labour.
And that means the jobs are changing
focus. The industry needs individuals who can program, operate and design
these high-tech machines.
For example, in sawmills raw logs are being scanned by "optimizing" computers. The computers figure out the best way to cut the logs so as to get the most lumber possible. That means less waste and more profits.
Secondary manufacturers are using computerized machines to mould and shape wood. They are also into robotics. They can program a machine to carve an intricate pattern into a piece of wood. This allows a variety of beautiful work to be mass produced with the entry of a computer program.
These are exciting times...
"What we're talking about is technology, and it is just as sophisticated, if not more so, than the aerospace industry... You can work with a metal like aluminum or steel and you can predict what it will do at certain temperatures because it always reacts the same way. Wood is not predictable. It has different grains, different moisture contents, different densities."
-Dr. Tom Maness, Wood Science Professor, University of British Columbia
"Going into the 21st Century, the wood industry is taking advantage of the power of the computer to compensate for the fact that wood is not just a static material - it's a dynamic material...Very high tech issues are being faced in the secondary wood industry right now. We are trying to use digital technology to overcome the variability of the wood material itself."
-Ian Harvey, Manager of Education and Training Programs, BCWOOD Specialties Group
"Everything that is in the secondary wood manufacturing system is run by computers, fluid power and programmable logic controllers. Those programmable logic controllers are controlled by PCs - like the ones you are using in the high school. You need to understand how that process is controlled. It makes a big difference if you can make efficiencies in that process - make things work faster and better."
-Howard Mayer, Assistant Dean, Applied Industrial Technology, University College of the Cariboo
"Technology itself will continue taking away those menial tasks, but that technology is not a stagnant item. It continues to develop all the time. And that's because of the people who come into the industry and re-develop the technology, re-think the technology and re-engineer it."
-David Laurence, Senior Consultant, Forest People International Search Ltd.
"You put computerized equipment on the shop floor. You can hire $5 per hour type of people to work this equipment, but you're not going to get what you want out of it. It is very sophisticated equipment. You have to have someone with enough smarts to turn on a computer, open the software, set parameters, and through the course of running the machine, recognize if there is a problem."
-Bret Hopper, General Manager Machine Division, GreCon
"The company that's going to get the edge is the company that has the individual who can use that technology better than the guy across the street. Because the guy across the street or around the world has that same technology. It's a matter of having an individual who can use it more effectively."
-Mike Patton, Furniture Design and Product Development Instructor, Catawba Valley Community College, North Carolina
INDUSTRY QUICK FACTS
ENVIRONMENTAL
Producing a tonne of wood requires 126 times less energy than producing a tonne of aluminum. It requires 24 times less energy than a tonne of steel, 14 times less than a tonne of glass and five times less than a tonne of cement.
Source: Forest Alliance of British Columbia
Wood is a renewable resource.
Source: Many
In response to fibre supply issues, many forest companies are now forming strategic alliances or subsidiaries to take advantage of the productivity gains that can be realized by farming fast growing species such as poplar and eucalyptus trees on plantations in North and South America. The amount of fibre obtained from these sources is expected to grow dramatically in the next 10 years.
Source: Price Waterhouse, North American Forest Products Survey (1996 edition, survey of 1995 results).
Of the 418 million hectares of forested land in Canada, a little more than half is considered capable of producing commercial timber. About 119 million hectares are currently managed for timber production. A further 156 million hectares, found mostly in northern Canada and composed of muskeg, small trees and shrubs, are "open" forests likely to be left in their natural state. About 6 per cent of forest land is protected from harvesting by law and an additional 6 per cent by public policy.
Source: Industry Canada, Sector Competitiveness Frameworks, Forest
Products Part 1 - Overview and Prospects.
HUMAN RESOURCES (NEEDS)
There is an immediate need for 2,000 wood processing specialists in Canada, and a long-term need for 3,500. The need in the United States is probably eight times that.
Source: Gary Kress of Industry Canada
In British Columbia alone, there is a job demand for between 125 and 400 graduates a year.
Source: Wilf Torunski (in charge of a 1993 Industry Canada study), now a Program Director with WoodLINKS
An extensive survey (1979) of Wood Science and Technology programs in the U.S. and Canada, showed a demand to supply ratio of graduates of 2.3:1.
Source: Society of Wood Science and Technology (Madison, Wisconsin), citing Barnes, H.M., 1979.
A 1991 survey showed placement of Wood Science and Technology graduates over the five years preceding 1988 to be near 100 per cent.
Source: Society of Wood Science and Technology (Madison, Wisconsin), citing Bowyer, J.L., 1991.
Only about 200 individuals enter the U.S. and Canadian work force each year with Wood Science and Technology degrees.
Source: Society of Wood Science and Technology (Madison, Wisconsin), citing Bowyer, J.L., 1991.
Direct employment in 1995 by the Canadian forest industry as a whole was 247,000, up slightly from the 1994 total of 243,000. In the United States, total direct forest industry employment in 1995 was 1,455,700 (1,424,000 in 1994).
Source: Price Waterhouse, North American Forest Products Survey (1996 edition, survey of 1995 results).
Price Waterhouse conducted a 1995 survey of 30 of the largest U.S. publicly traded forest products companies and 30 publicly owned Canadian forest products companies.
They found out how much CEOs were paid.
The average annual compensation of the Canadian CEOs in the survey was $652,000 compared to $494,000 in 1994. The highest paid Canadian CEO made $1,647,000.
The average annual compensation of the U.S. CEOs was $1.4 million compared to $1.1 million in 1994. The highest paid U.S. CEO made $3,672,000.
Source: Price Waterhouse, North American Forest Products Survey (1996 edition, survey of 1995 results).
ABOUT THE INDUSTRY
North America
The North American forest products industry has a considerable impact on both the Canadian and American economies. Forest product sales in Canada were a record $54.0 billion(Can.) in 1995, compared to $44.3 billion in 1994. This represented 13.9 per cent of the total value of 1995 manufacturing shipments. In comparison, the U.S. forest industry had sales of $267.3 billion(U.S.) in 1995, representing 7.4 per cent of total American manufacturing shipments.
Source: Price Waterhouse, North American Forest Products Survey (1996 edition, survey of 1995 results).
Canada exports more manufactured forest products than any other country. In 1994, Canada exported 19.3 per cent of total world exports. The U.S. accounted for 12.3 per cent.
Source: Council of Forest Industries FACT BOOK, taken from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
Canada is the world's largest exporter of softwood lumber. In 1994, Canada accounted for 49.2 per cent of the world's total export volume of 91.1 million cubic metres. (B.C. alone makes up 32 per cent of the world total.) In that same year, the U.S. exported 5.4 per cent.
Source: Council of Forest Industries FACT BOOK, taken from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
The annual tonnage of wood processed in the United States is greater than the tonnage of steel, cement, plastics, aluminum, and all other metals combined.
Source: Society of Wood Science and Technology (Madison, Wisconsin)
In 1994, Canada's Balance of Trade (exports minus imports ) for the forest industry was $29.6 billion. This surpassed vehicles and parts, agriculture, fish and crude materials combined.
In 1994, close to 1 million jobs depended on the Canadian Forest Sector. Of this number, there were approximately 243,000 employed directly.
In 1995, International Paper is listed as the largest public forest products company in the world with sales of $19.797 billion. They also had the largest net earnings of $1.153 billion.
The largest Canadian forest products company, ranked in 26th position, is MacMillan Bloedel with sales of $3.837 billion and net earnings of $204 million. Four companies from Finland and two from Sweden outranked the largest Canadian company.
Source: Price Waterhouse. The Forest Industry in Canada, 1995.
British Columbia
In 1993, the Forest sector recently employed 19,500 workers in the Metro Vancouver region. This represents 2.4 percent of the region's workforce.
The total number of jobs supported by the forest industry in the same region is estimated at 133,000 or 16.3% of the region's work force. This represents 52% of the industry total.
The Forest Industry in the metro Vancouver region produced 44% of all forest products contribution to the GDP.
According to the Forest Alliance, if government spending followed the provincial pattern, forest industry activity in 1993 contributed:
In 1995, British Columbia manufacturers produced goods valued at $33.4 billion.
Did you know that the BC Forest Industry produced 52% of this amount?
In 1995, British Columbia exported $26.9 billion in merchandise.
Did you know that 60% of this amount came from the Forest Industry?
In 1995, approximately 106,000 persons from BC were directly employed by the industry.
Did you know that of this amount, over 14,000 persons were employed by the secondary wood sector with sales estimated at $1.94 billion. Source. Directory of Secondary Manufacturing of Wood Products in British Columbia. Natural Resources Canada. Dr. Bill Wilson.
In 1995, an additional 159,000 persons were indirectly employed in this sector.
Did you know that the BC forest industry employs approximately 15% of the entire BC workforce?
BC sawmills produced 56% of all softwood lumber manufactured in Canada.
Did you know that 81% of all plywood made in Canada comes from BC?
Fact: Canada has about 15% of the world's growing stock of softwood. BC has 7%.
Fact: Canada has 20% of the world's market share in forest products exports. BC has 9%.
Canada accounts for 51% of all softwood lumber exports in the world. BC ships 33% of the world's total.
-Source MOF Forest Products Facts
In 1993, BC exported fewer logs than Asia, Europe, United States and Sweden.
In 1994, United States were BC Forest Industry's largest customer. Over 50% of our sales went to this country. Japan bought more forest products goods than the rest of Canada.
Source: COFI 1994 Data.
Added value manufacturers employee 1.2 jobs/cubic meters of fiber consumed in central and northern BC plants. The sawmill sector in this region is one of the most efficient in their world and employ .31 jobs per cubic meter.
Source: Impacts of the Value Added Sector in Northern British Columbia. Carson, Simmons and Taylor.
The BC Forest Industry played a significant role, with other Canadian
industries, in establishing Canada's first and only Centre for Advanced
Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In addition,
the BC industry also played a key role in establishing the Value-Added Skills
Centre in Abbotsford BC. Forest Renewal BC assisted in the funding of both
leading-edge facilities.
COMPANY DIRECTORY
Yup. This is the place to get info on specific companies.
What kind of info?
Well, if you browse around you'll find descriptions of product lines and production processes. You'll also get an overview of each company, a description of their work force and a report on their current/future personnel needs. There is an added bonus here. You get to meet some of their employees and get the inside scoop on what their jobs are really like.
Definitely something to check out.
Here are your choices. Take your pick.
| Canadian companies | prime/sec/supplier |
| Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. Ltd. | primary |
| Pope & Talbot | primary |
| Lignum Ltd. | primary |
| Northwood Pulp and Timber Ltd. | primary |
| Canadian Forest Products Ltd. | primary |
| Daishowa-Marubeni | primary |
| Canpar | secondary |
| Canwood Furniture Factory Inc. | secondary |
| Milestone | secondary |
| Weldwood of Canada Ltd. | secondary |
| C&C Wood Products Ltd. | secondary |
| Canadian Woodworks Ltd. | secondary |
| Pellet Flame Inc. | secondary |
| BW Creative Wood Industries Ltd. | secondary |
| SnowCap Lumber Ltd. | secondary |
| Straight Line Designs | secondary |
| Loewen Windows | secondary |
| Kitchen Craft of Canada Ltd. | secondary |
| Palliser Furniture Ltd. | secondary |
| Forest People International Search Ltd. | supplier |
| Thin Kerf Technologies Inc. | supplier |
| J. Novacek | supplier |
| US Companies | |
| Kay & Sons Woodworks Ltd. | secondary |
| Charles D. Roberts Company | secondary |
| Stiles Machinery Inc. | supplier |
| Leitz Tooling Systems Inc. | supplier |
| Ima-European | supplier |
| Newman Machine Company Inc. | supplier |
*If you don't have a clue what is meant by Primary/Secondary/Suppliers, you should probably check out WHAT IS THE WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY?
That's one helpful web page.