New Zealand timber company Carter Holt Harvey is talking to end users around the world about the possibility of using heat-treated wood for joinery purposes.
The company’s ideas factory Fibre-gen has experimented with heat-treatment technology as part of an industry-wide search for ways to add value to pine plantations. It has been suggested that with the right design, technology and product devlopment formula, wood from those forests could fetch up to NZ$6,000/m3 instead of NZ$100/m3 as a log.
Design company Locusresearch has used the wood to design furniture which can be freely transferred between indoor and outdoor areas, taking advantage of the waterproof properties of heat-treated timber.
The company said furniture which is not chemically treated or made from tropical hardwood represents a major improvement.
