Update: AV Group now says its Atholville, N.B. dissolving-pulp mill (210 Unifor members) faces "the same external challenges" as Nackawic and is examining options to keep it from a similar fate; Natural Resources Minister John Herron cited deferred maintenance and insufficient year-over-year investment at the mills and said his department is reviewing the Nackawic idling to help Atholville, while a multi-department provincial response plan is being assembled (CBC, GNB)
Stora Enso appointed CFO Niclas Rosenlew Deputy CEO, effective immediately, while he keeps the CFO role; he joined the company in January 2025 and will deputize for President and CEO Hans Sohlström (Papnews)
Forestry & Timber
Homann Holzwerkstoffe posted a €29.4M H1 2026 net loss (vs €2.7M) on flat revenue of €194.4M and will idle its new Pagiriai, Lithuania MDF/HDF plant for 12–21 months after persistent start-up losses, targeting €5–6M lower H2 losses; it cited weak furniture demand and cost increases of over 50% on some chemicals, timber, energy and transport, and has postponed capex (investing outflow €8.6M vs €16.7M) (Fordaq)
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities ($5M) and Northern Border Regional Commission ($500K) awarded $5.5M under a five-year Accelerating Wood Fiber Markets initiative to build buyers and processing capacity for small-diameter timber, slash and low-grade logs: Sustainable Northwest/Intertribal Timber Council $1.7M, Northern Forest Center $1.5M (ME/NH/NY/VT), Forest Landowners Foundation $1.3M (Southeast), Siskiyou EDC $500K (biochar/composites) and Montana Cooperative Development Center $500K (Fordaq)
Setra is racing to process spruce and pine felled by Storm Johannes before warm-weather blue stain degrades the sapwood, with GWMI noting the challenge is timing rather than recovery logistics; the storm downed nearly 11M m³ in central Sweden (Global Wood Markets Info, GWMI – storm damage)
France's sawmill market is splitting: softwood mills report firmer domestic business and higher prices for several construction lumber products, while hardwood mills face weak demand across traditional end markets, with high sawlog costs and short order books still constraining both (Global Wood Markets Info)
Endor Development's proposed 15-storey, 57.9 m mass-timber office at 57–71 Stephenson St, Cremorne (Melbourne), with AECOM as structural engineer, would exceed Australia's 25 m deemed-to-satisfy fire limit for timber and rely on a sprinkler/self-extinction performance solution; the Victorian Planning Minister will decide under the Development Facilitation Program (Wood Central)
Co-generation at Mills
Ontario's Forest Biomass Program granted $2.4M to Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper to plan boiler and chemical-plant upgrades that would lift daily kraft output ~11%, add ~130,000 t/yr of forest-biomass demand, cut bleaching-chemical use ~30% and reduce natural gas use by more than 5M m³/yr; the same $2.5M package funds AUX Energy's biomass-powered generator in Fort Frances ($92,500) and a Weyerhaeuser line-upgrade study ($32,650), protecting ~700 direct jobs (Wireservice, Lesprom)
Wood Pellets
Germany's DEPI pellet benchmark jumped 6.2% month-on-month to €454.21/t in September (6 t delivery), up 35.6% from €335.04/t a year earlier, as reduced sawmill cutting tightened residual-wood supply; regional prices ranged from €451.07 (central) to €457.80 (south), and pellets still cost ~48% less than heating oil and ~20% less than natural gas (Fordaq)
Ontario also awarded $1.1M to five Indigenous-led bioeconomy projects, including $250K toward Webequie First Nation's planned 25 MW biomass power plant, $250K for Constance Lake First Nation's biofuel energy system and $158,750 for Kasabonika Lake's wood-energy and sawmill program, targeting 100,000+ t/yr of new biomass demand (Wireservice)
Industry Technology Vendors
Deeplai / Forest Growers Research — NZ's Forest Growers Research and Polish AI firm Deeplai demonstrated a world-first Log ID prototype that gives each harvested log a permanent, phone-scannable digital identity without tags, labels or connectivity; funded by the Forest Growers Levy Trust and MPI, Deeplai now leads commercial development of the Dcode system in New Zealand (Friday Offcuts, FGR)
Comact — Launched Comact Cutting Solutions, uniting Smith Sawmill Service, Oleson Saw Technology, Checkmate Precision Cutting Tools and BLADE (circular saws, bandsaws, knives, guides) under one group that is also the exclusive U.S. dealer for ISELI filing-room machinery; the brands keep their names and customer relationships (Lesprom, Friday Offcuts)
Peterson Sawmills — Founder Carl James Peterson, inventor of the first commercial portable swingblade sawmill (1988), died Sept. 11 (Friday Offcuts)
