December 27, 2019 As a “part 2” discussion on robots in the wood products industry, I’d like to dive in to how robots have long been helpful in labor-intensive positions dealing with higher-value products; in our case, this applies to patching for visual grade veneer products....
December 20, 2019 Fear of robots taking over the world began long before the Terminator movies brought human subjugation by Skynet to the screen. Even as children we have long read stories of John Henry fighting off the cold indifference of industrial progress with his powerful...
September 23, 2019 The flood of inferior South American wood products is not only a serious problem for builders and the public who rely on quality construction materials, it is also detrimental to domestic producers who comply with stringent quality and performance standards while imported panels...
July 1, 2019 The commodity plywood markets have shown a bit more strength in the past two weeks. Back to back weeks of over-production sales has been encouraging, after a mostly dismal first half of the year, both in volume and price. A few weeks ago,...
June 28, 2019 The June 27, 2019 “Timber Unity” rally against HB2020 at Oregon’s Capitol was an astonishing, spontaneous event. The Senate President had declared the Carbon Cap and Trade bill dead, so I assumed that would negate the need for a large rally. Boy, was...
October 29, 2018 This last summer, as many of you were driving through the Willamette Valley on your way to summer vacations, you may have noticed that there are significant numbers of standing dead trees along the roads and scattered through our forests. Many have noticed...
July 16, 2018 The APA has just issued Product Advisory SP-1185 title,“Imported Plywood Panels from Brazil Evaluated for Conformance to US Product Standard PS 1-09 Requirements.” Testing conducted by the APA indicates that Brazilian plywood panels stamped as structural panels meeting PS 1-09, DO NOT MEET...
July 9, 2018 High Demand Predicts a Strong Buying Season We are now into the summer building season. The strong buying season for wood products typically doesn't start until July and runs until October when winter weather begins to dampen short-term expectations. This year has been a...
April 2, 2018 The 2018 International Mass Timber Conferencebrought industry professionals from across the globe to Portland, Oregon recently to share their expertise and showcase the latest developments in timber products. Representatives from Freres Lumber Co.attended the conference and provided an update on our new Mass...
January 23, 2018 Forest management is an important discussion that is long overdue. Rob Freres, Executive Vice President of Freres Lumber Company adds his comment to the on-going discussion affecting current legislative actions. It was an eventful fall in Washington on federal forest issues with new developments...