Expo Richmond 2016 Educational Session

Taking Advantage of Current Trends, Market Opportunities and Improvements May 12, 2016. Hyatt Place. 4401 S. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23231 8:00-9:00am . The Housing Market, its impact on the Wood Products Industry, and opportunities- Urs Buehlmann This session will focus on the current state of the housing market and discuss its future. The U.S. … Continue reading “Expo Richmond 2016 Educational Session”

Taking Advantage of Current Trends, Market Opportunities and Improvements

May 12, 2016. Hyatt Place. 4401 S. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23231

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8:00-9:00am . The Housing Market, its impact on the Wood Products Industry, and opportunities- Urs Buehlmann

This session will focus on the current state of the housing market and discuss its future. The U.S. private construction market generates, with roughly $750 billion per year, approximately 5% of U.S. GDP and if housing services are included it accounts for about 18 percent of U.S. GDP. An estimated $360 billion is spent on residential construction, four-fifths (on a Dollar basis) on single-family homes (700,000 units/year) and one-fifth on multi-family homes (350,000 units/year). The residential building market is of outmost importance to the U.S. wood industry, with an estimated 70 percent of softwood and more than 50 percent of the appearance hardwood harvest going to this market.

9:00am–10:00 am. Building Bigger : New Market Opportunities in Massive Timber– Dan Hindman

Massive timber is a new class of wooden building materials including cross laminated timber and nail laminated timber. Current production in the United States is limited, but growth and interest in the engineering and architecture community continues to grow. This presentation will discuss what massive timber is and what market opportunities for softwood and hardwood lumber are available

10:00 am:10-15 am. Break

10:15 am-11:15 am. Hardwood Exports: Current State and Opportunities – Mike Snow

11:15 am-12:00 pm. The Pallet Story – Hardwood and Softwood Use, Recovery/Repair/Recycling, and Greenness Opportunities – Phil Araman

This session will cover information on wood material use and pallet production and will focus on ways to minimize production waste from pallet cants and parts while producing better pallets. Pallet recovery, repair, and recycling techniques and numbers will be discussed. Ways to to be certified by an international environmental group for recycled pallets will be covered.

12:00 pm-1:00 pm. Lunch break. On your own.

1:00 pm- 3:00 pm – Identifying and measuring waste in your supply chain- Henry Quesada

Measuring waste in your manufacturing process is a critical activity to increase production efficiencies and customer satisfaction levels. However, little has been developed to adopt lean management tools to the entire supply chain. In this presentation we will explain how to use value-stream mapping, a key tool in lean management, to quantify and analyze waste in your supply chain in wood products industries.

3:30 pm- 3:45 pm. Break

3:45 pm- 5:00 pm. Meeting Your Customer’s Needs: Improving Your Lumber Drying Quality – Brian Bond

Regardless of your position in the value chain, logger, sawmill, drying facility or secondary producer, many aspects of wood quality and customer satisfaction are related to the drying process. This session will focus on achieving the best final moisture content, proper moisture content spread, prevention of warp, stain, and other drying quality issues.

Registration: The investment is $70 for the morning or the afternoon sessions. If you register for both sessions the investment is $100. Coffee breaks are available. For registration please follow this link: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/reg/vfpa/

Venue: Hyatt Place. 4401 Laburnum Avenue. Richmond, VA, 23231. Phone number is (804) 549-44865
Contact information: If you have any questions regarding this event, please email Mrs. Angela Riegel at ariegel@vt.edu or call at (540) 231-7107

Non-discrimination Statement

Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, genetic information, marital, family, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

ADA Statement

If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Henry Quesada at 540-2310978/TDD* during business hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to discuss accommodations 5 days prior to the event. *TDD number is 800-828-1120

Sponsor by:

Virginia Forest Products Association (VFPA)

SBIO Newsletter. Volume 3, Number 1.

Extension highlights The wood products industry in Virginia is a critical contributor to the economy of the state, an industry represented by more than 1,000 primary and secondary industries and over $25 billion in economic impact. The Department of Sustainable Biomaterials (SBIO) at Virginia Tech is one of the leading U.S. academic programs in the … Continue reading “SBIO Newsletter. Volume 3, Number 1.”

Extension highlights

The wood products industry in Virginia is a critical contributor to the economy of the state, an industry represented by more than 1,000 primary and secondary industries and over $25 billion in economic impact.

The Department of Sustainable Biomaterials (SBIO) at Virginia Tech is one of the leading U.S. academic programs in the field of renewable materials with a focus on cellulosic materials such as wood products. Besides research and teaching efforts, SBIO has an important role in dissemination of new knowledge in the area of renewable materials through SBIO’s three extension specialists.

Click here to download the most recent SBIO newsletter.

2013-2014 Annual Center Report

Center Members and Friends: This year marks the 35th anniversary as an independent department in the College of Natural Resources and Environment that focuses on the efficient management and utilization of our natural resources. Established in 1979 as the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products with 4 faculty, our department has grown to 16 … Continue reading “2013-2014 Annual Center Report”

Center Members and Friends:

DSCF7461 — Bob Smith and Henry Quesada, Director and Associate Director of the Center for Forest Products Business

This year marks the 35th anniversary as an independent department in the College of Natural Resources and Environment that focuses on the efficient management and utilization of our natural resources. Established in 1979 as the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products with 4 faculty, our department has grown to 16 faculty and over 130 undergraduate and graduate students. In 2012 we changed our name to the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials to better reflect our faculty’s expertise and to broaden our appeal to a changing student population. In the past 35 years, the Commonwealth has moved from primarily a rural population to an ever expanding urban population. It is estimated that over 75% of our citizens and students now live in urban areas. Historically, a large portion of our departments’ students came from rural areas where they were regularly exposed to our natural resources and the importance of the forest products industry to Virginia. This is not necessarily true with today’s incoming students. We know that the forest products industry is the leader in the sustainable management of our natural resources. Our new name is meant to reflect that to our incoming students, and attract them to the great careers that this industry holds for them.

2014 also marks the establishment of two separate degree programs in the department. The Sustainable Biomaterials degree (which reflects our past Wood Science option) remains to focus on teaching the fundamentals of the processing, manufacturing, drying and marketing of wood and other biomaterials. These includes lumber manufacturing, secondary processing, wood based composites and other natural resource based chemical industries, wood engineering, domestic and international marketing of forest products and business management as it applies to our forest products industry. The second degree is in Packaging Systems and Design. Packaging and pallets remain the largest use of wood fiber in the country and this program is one of only six offered in the U.S. This program emphasizes the importance the sustainable use of packaging materials, how packaging can enhance product performance and markets, and how new uses of wood fiber can be used to replace petroleum based plastics. Our undergraduate program currently has over 90 students, with 15-20 graduating each spring. Nearly all students find jobs in manufacturing, quality control, research, marketing or sales.

Your center has had a good year. Our faculty accomplishments are listed later in this report. The Center is in its 22nd year thanks to your continued support. We awarded over $20,000 of scholarships in the fall of 2013 and will award nearly that amount again in fall of 2014. We remain one of the largest forest products program in the United States. We have updated our website to provide more information, so please visit us at http://www.cfpb.vt.edu I thank you for your continued support of our center. If there is anything I can do, please feel free to contact me at 540-231-7679 or rsmith4@vt.edu

To access the full report please follow this link.

Fall 2013 Center’s Update

To access the Fall 2013 Center’s Newsletter, please follow this link.

Dr. Henry Quesada travels to China as part of a marketing research project

From June 30 to July 7, 2013 Dr. Henry Quesada, assistant professor at the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech, traveled to China to attend the 2013 International Furniture Fair in Chengdu. The trip is part of the research project “Analysis of Factors Impacting the International Value Chain of Hardwood Products: A Comparison between Asia and Western Europe” funded by the U.S Department of Agriculture. The goal of the project is to examine value chains in mature markets for American hardwoods. In many of these markets there is a high demand for low-valued added products such as hardwood logs and only a small portion of higher value-added products such as kiln-dried lumber, dimension lumber, veneer, and furniture is imported fro the U.S. The research specifically is looking into cultural, technical, logistics, and economic aspects that drive importers to prefer low value-added rather than high-valued added products.

Chengdu is located about 1,100 miles west of Shanghai and it is considered the most important city in Western China with a total population of 14 million people (fourth largest city in China). The city has developed into a friendly and welcoming investing destination for international companies. Already an important furniture cluster, local producers are focusing more on the production of solid wooden furniture for the local market given the increasing economic power of the middle class in China. The biggest problem for local furniture producers continues to be the lack of local supply of high quality hardwoods, hence; producers have turned their eyes to American hardwoods as a reliable source of raw materials.

During his trip to Chengdu, China, Dr. Quesada had the opportunity to interview local furniture manufacturers and lumber brokers and ask fundamental questions related to the importation of American hardwoods and other species from other countries. Current importers of American hardwood products indicated that the most important factor when selecting a new supplier from the U.S. is consistent quality and second factor is the price. Other important aspects that Chinese importers consider when buying from American hardwoods suppliers are packaging, availability of species, and customer support. Most importers also indicated that more information about American hardwoods is needed, as local furniture producers know little about American species properties, dimensions, and grading systems.

If you would like to learn more about international marketing opportunities for Appalachian hardwood producers, please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu