In the Northwest, at the Port of Port Angeles in Washington, a 554-foot bulk cargo ship is ready for loading. The ship will carry logs—the equivalent of 2 million board feet of lumber—to Korea and China. At the Port of Astoria in Oregon, the port commission has started lease negotiations with Westerlund Log Handlers for 12-15 acres of land for 10 years. Westerlund intends to export logs to China.
An increasing number of Pacific coast port authorities are investigating potential opportunities for increasing wood exports. Some, like Port Angeles and Astoria, are reclaiming the past and hoping to export logs just as they did decades ago. Others are looking to export wood pellets to new energy markets. Since domestic demand for wood products is likely to remain anemic for the next five years, there is hope in these communities that exporting wood to Asia will create jobs and support local economies.
In Canada and increasingly in the Northwest, all eyes appear to be on China. In China, the economy is still growing. Despite the fact that the developing nation has depleted most of its forest resources, wood frame construction is beginning to find new life there. Recent changes in building codes in places like Shanghai are more favorable for wood. The post-earthquake need for new construction has also increased demand for logs and lumber. Canada has been taking advantage of this turn in the Chinese market, and it looks like the U.S. is now preparing to do the same.
Further south, in Sacramento, interest is not in logs or lumber, but in wood pellets. In December, the Sacramento-Yolo Port Commission approved a permit for Enligna US to develop a wood pellet manufacturing facility at the Port of West Sacramento. By the end of 2010, Enligna expects to begin production of up to 170,000 tons of wood pellets annually. The company says it will export to Asia, Canada and Europe.
On the East Coast, pellets are also driving business to the ports. RWE Innogy, a German utility company, announced plans for a 750,000 ton per year pellet mill in Waycross, Georgia recently. In less than a year, the company plans to start shipping pellets just over 100 miles to the Port of Savannah, where they will beging their journal to a co-fired electricity plant in the Netherlands. The city of Savannah sees this as the first in a line of pellet operations that will follow suit.
Suz-Anne Kinney
Forest2Market: July 14, 2023
