Opportunities for the forest products industries

Abstract

The concept of sustainable harvests is not new to lumber and paper companies—they have been concerned about it and been practicing it for decades, long before it became the headline in a newspaper article. After decades of static products and markets, the industry is offered an opportunity to add products in a new business sector—fuels and chemicals. Although paper companies have a long association with the naval stores chemical business, this new market will see larger volumes and more numerous product opportunities. As with all new markets, this will create turbulence and there will be winners and losers, but the real change is that now there can be true winners. Companies must have two capabilities to be among the winners. Every major forest products industry already has mastered the first—they know where the wood is and how to get it. Forest products companies can integrate procurement into their quality needs and product value streams. Competitors from outside the forest products industry have not mastered this—yet. The second capability is commercial experience with thermal or biochemical conversion of biomass into chemical products. This is a fair competition. No one has a product, no one has a process, and everyone has the opportunity to start at the same time. The industry must use the integration of forest biomass technologies to maximize its strategic advantage and, more importantly, minimize competition for the higher value timber. This paper discusses potential forest biomass markets for fuels and higher value chemicals.

Citation

Rudie, Alan W. 2011. Opportunities for the forest products industries. In: Shelly, John R. ed. Woody biomass utilization: conference proceedings. 2009 August 4-5. Starkville, MS. Madison, WI: Forest Products Society: 3-16: ISBN: 9781892529602: 1892529602