Around 150 timber industry professionals gathered in Copenhagen last month for the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) Convention. The fact that delegates included not just American exporters and European importers but also architects and engineers, illustrated how embedded US hardwoods already are in the global timber industry – and how much potential there is for further growth.
The conference theme was “The future for American hardwoods” and presentations focused on new opportunities in the construction sector and on refreshed messages regarding the sustainability of the US hardwood resource.
To set the context, AHEC executive director Mike Snow provided an insight into the globalisation of the hardwood trade and the US industry’s position within that. The US domestic market had been on a rollercoaster in recent years he said and since “falling off a cliff” when the housing market collapsed in 2007/2008 it hadn’t really recovered to its pre-recession level. From the heady heights of 1999 when around 29.8 million m3 of hardwood lumber was produced the figures have headed down, to 26.7 million m3 in 2005, 16.3 million m3 in 2010 and 13.5 million m3 in 2009. In 2015 they had recovered some ground and hit 19.9 million m3.
“The domestic market compacted by about 70%,” said Mr Snow, adding that sectors such as _ ooring and furniture had taken big hits, from which he did not foresee any recovery. “Furniture production has by and large left the country. Now most is imported from China and Vietnam.”
Mr Snow also pointed out that there had been seismic changes in how US hardwoods are being used domestically and the ramifications that has had on prices.
“Housing starts matched hardwood prices pretty closely until recently but now there is a decoupling. Prices are now driven by overseas demand, rather than domestic housing.”
The US is the biggest exporter of hardwood lumber in the world, by some distance, earning over US$2bn in 2015, well in excess of its nearest rivals, Thailand and Malaysia which are some way off the US$1bn mark. Exports from European countries were less than US$0.5bn.
Overseas demand includes that from Europe, a region that “punches well above its weight” and where promotion of US hardwoods is still “extremely important”. However, Europe’s dominance as an export destination has been overtaken by China, which is now the US’s largest export market, accounting for one in every five boards of US lumber.
“You can’t discuss the global timber market without discussing China,” said Mr Snow. “It has a direct impact on whatever you do.
“In the first six months of this year exports to China were already ahead of the record set in 2014,” he added. “China now accounts for almost half of our hardwood exports and, to add perspective, if it wasn’t for China our exports would be lower than they were 10 years ago. China’s domestic demand and consumption is supporting our industry.”
Another South-east Asian market providing strong export opportunities is Vietnam, which had “come from nowhere to become very important for us”. This, Mr Snow noted, is very much a re-export destination, with US lumber going into Vietnam and being exported back to the US as furniture.
Exports to Europe increased by 11% to 187,600m3 during the first half of 2016 (against the same period in 2105) and increased in value by 7% to US$146m. These gains have been made despite the impact of unfavourable currency exchange rates.
“The pound is down 15%, as is the euro. The collapse of the Ukrainian currency makes imports of their ash cheaper. Some of our biggest competitors into Europe have a huge advantage over us because of currency,” said Mr Snow.
Another change in dynamics has been the emergence of the UK as the US hardwood sector’s biggest market sector within Europe. Trade volumes rose 19% to 52,300m3 and value rose 15% to US$40.9m.
The UK has taken the top slot long held by Italy but Mr Snow pointed out that available statistics covered the January-June 2016 period, when the UK economy was growing strongly. The impact of Brexit had yet to be experienced and accounted for.
Overall, he said, trends throughout Europe were pointing in the right direction and he made particular reference to improving construction markets, specifically in Spain and the UK.
The construction sector has new and exciting potential for US hardwoods as AHEC Europe’s Brogan Cox and Rocío Pérez-Íñigo and, later, Arup engineer Andrew Lawrence explained.
They described the process of creating AHEC Europe’s most ambitious installation project to date, The Smile. This timber pavilion, created for the London Design Festival [LDF] and situated outside the Chelsea College of Art featured some of the largest panels of tulipwood cross-laminated timber (CLT) ever manufactured. The structure was designed by Alison Brookes Architects and engineered by Arup.
The Smile measured 34m long, 3.5m high and 4.5m wide and cantilevered at either end. Effectively it was a hollow beam, curving up at both ends, which could be explored inside and out by the public and, crucially, by construction professionals.
The entire structure was made from 12 huge tulipwood panels, each up to 14m long and 4.5m wide. The manufacture of these panels – by Züblin Timber in Germany – demonstrated how the material could be used for commercial projects.
The project had robust marketing support through social media, TV and radio coverage, global design forum master classes, as well as more traditional printed literature and was a huge success.
“The physical size and ambition of the project captured the imagination of the national and international press,” said Ms Cox. “Everything we put out was amplified by these [media] outlets to their own followers. The quality of the coverage was perfect – a CNN headline ‘Stronger than concrete? This new material could define our age’ couldn’t have been better if we’d written it ourselves.”
She added that AHEC now wanted to “own the space around hardwood CLT and drive demand”.
Andrew Lawrence said that CLT had moved the argument for timber in construction on. He highlighted the growing acceptance of timber in multi-storey and even high-rise buildings and said that often it was the material of choice because of the speed of construction. “It is light and strong and it can be CNC machined to incredibly tight tolerances – down to 1mm – so it is ideal for prefabrication and then rapid assembly on site.”
He added that tulipwood had an impressive strength to weight ratio and that it was easy to kiln dry, machine and transport and that it took screws particularly well (screws used on The Smile were 300-400mm long).
Tulipwood’s strength to weight credentials made it the ideal material for The Smile and the complexity of the engineering could prove to be a testimonial in future construction projects.
“Not only does The Smile have a double cantilever but the entrance door is placed at the centre where the stresses are highest,” said Mr Lawrence. “If you turned the structure vertically and added the weight of 60 visitors at one end, it’s equivalent to the core stabilizing a five-storey building. Nobody has ever built a core that slender in timber.
“The Smile wasn’t just an experimental project – it has real relevance to construction.”
To prove his point, the first commercial building to use hardwood CLT – a new Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Manchester – is under construction. Again, the CLT is made from American tulipwood.
Project architect Jasmine Sohi of dRMM Architects described the building as a “simple but powerful timber pavilion, floating on six legs above a garden”. Existing trees will be allowed to grow up inside the space and will be the first thing patients see when they enter the building.
Having worked with AHEC and tulipwood before on the 2013 Endless Stair project, dRMM is a member of the species’ “fan club”, said Ms Sohi. In fact Maggie’s Centre Oldham will be something of a homage to tulipwood as it has also been chosen for the cladding – this time thermally modified and in a bespoke tongue and groove fluted profile.
Looking ahead, dRMM is considering using tulipwood in a project to build a series of stacked, cantilevered studios for the Greenwich Enterprise Board. “Tulipwood may be the only timber strong enough,” said Ms Sohi.
Mr Lawrence and Ms Sohi agreed that timber has moved from a niche segment to a significant and permanent part of the construction market and that softwood CLT
production in Europe is expanding massively – perhaps by 50% per year. There is huge potential for hardwoods to penetrate this market but material suppliers must tailor their products to suit production methods. “If you want to feed this industry you have to aim for standard width stock, not random widths,” said Mr Lawrence.
Speaking in a panel discussion, Daniel Kreissig of Züblin Timber agreed. “Random width lumber doesn’t fit our production needs,” he said. “All CLT producers are set up to receive ripped-to-size lumber and don’t have the facilities on site to re-saw the lumber to the right size for them.” Andrew Lawrence also made the point that “no client will pay more for sustainability, but they will pay more for speed of construction”. However, there is no denying that the sustainability message is compelling, particularly when wider public perceptions are considered.
AHEC has a strong track record in collating data on sustainability, including in life cycle assessments (LCAs) and as Brogan Cox and Rocío Pérez-Íñigo pointed out during their presentation, LCA data connected to all the organisation’s marketing projects is widely disseminated. The Smile, for example, was flagged up as being better than carbon neutral at the point of delivery on site. Other speakers also picked up the theme of sustainability in American hardwood. Rupert Oliver of Forest Industries Intelligence outlined AHEC’s approach to communicating the environmental benefits of US hardwoods by providing access to reliable forest inventory data, environmental LCAs and regional risk assessments.
He premiered a new interactive map created by AHEC to show the detailed distribution of 20 American hardwood species across the US, as well as their individual rates of harvests and growth. This tool will be available to users in a matter of weeks and will be accessed via a revamped AHEC website (currently under construction).
Mr Oliver also “walked” delegates through the American Hardwood Environmental Profile (AHEP). This easy-to-use online tool allows US hardwood exporters to generate a comprehensive, consignment-specific shipping document with information on sustainability and the risk of illegality of the species contained in the shipment. This satisfies the due diligence requirements of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR).
Mr Oliver highlighted the fact that the Forestry Inventory Analysis programme showed the hardwood forest resource increased at a rate of 401,000ha per year between 2007-2012, while Dr Randolph Wynne of Virginia Tech demonstrated the state-of-the-art remote monitoring techniques, including satellite imaging and drone flights, both of which collected real-time data.
Al Goetzl of Seneca Creek Associates recapped on his organisation’s 2008 risk assessment based study into the lawful harvesting and sustainability of US hardwood exports. This study, which demonstrated low or negligible risk, was commissioned by AHEC, which has now requested a review.
This review will follow the same objective process as the original study but will factor in international developments since the last report – for example, the EUTR, Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and revisions to the US Lacey Act.
An obstacle for these various environmental credentials, said Mr Oliver, picking up on Andrew Lawrence’s point, was that sustainability was still not a driver of demand. And, as far as the European market was concerned, a robust environmental profile was not the same as an FSC or PEFC certificate which, thanks to the majority of US hardwood timberlands being in private (and largely family) ownership, were relatively uncommon.
As panelists in a group discussion pointed out, certification is still king in Europe.
“We’re impressed by the level of detail [in the Seneca Creek study] and it’s ironic that we, as the most sustainable sector, have to come up with this documentation,” said Jakob Rygg Klaumann from the Danish Timber Trade Federation. “However, we need to be better to compete with other materials.
“We are facing public procurement regulations like the EUTR and Seneca Creek offers us all it can but in Denmark sustainability equates to certification. So it’s a real problem if you don’t have certification.”
Mike Worrell from the UK Timber Trade Federation agreed. “The principles of the original Seneca Creek study are still very relevant, it’s just that the dialogue has changed. Some banks – and HSBC is the first – will only lend to companies with FSC or PEFC certification. Even FLEGT doesn’t satisfy it.”
