Commerce's final results of the seventh softwood lumber review put the all-others countervailing duty at 14.11%, which with the 10.64% anti-dumping rate and the 10% Section 232 tariff leaves Canadian lumber facing ~35% total at the U.S. border — down from the ~45% combined rate announced in Aug. 2025. The BC Lumber Trade Council called the measures "unjustified and punitive"; rates take effect on Federal Register publication (Canadian Press / Lethbridge Herald, GWMI)
A USMCA binational panel on Oct. 8 affirmed in part and remanded in part Commerce's 2017–18 softwood lumber CVD review (USA-CDA-2020-10.12-01); the notice was published Oct. 14 (Federal Register)
Ottawa will put up to C$50M toward an C$86M Strategic Innovation Centre in Digital Forestry in New Brunswick — a digital twin of the province's forests for harvest, reforestation and wildfire simulation plus centralized log-truck dispatching. Backers estimate ~C$25M/yr in industry cost savings; Minister Hodgson said a national forestry strategy with "billions" in funding comes in the next federal budget (CP24)
Rep. Bruce Westerman unveiled the Strong American Wood Act at Anthony Timberlands' Malvern, Ark. sawmill: a $9B homebuyer fund from softwood-lumber duties tied to U.S. wood use, Buy-American wood procurement, a mass-timber tax credit, tariff relief on imported mill equipment with no U.S. equivalent, and an RFS redefinition of woody biomass. Introduction expected in 1–2 weeks (KATV)
N.H. distributor Coastal Forest Products has sued U.S. Customs at the Court of International Trade over a finding that western red cedar resawn and kiln-dried at Hermpac in Auckland was Canadian lumber transshipped to evade softwood duties; entries are being assessed at the B.C. producer rate and the government has until mid-November to file the record (Wood Central)
Update: John Deere Forestry has opened talks on temporary layoffs of up to 90 days for 367 workers at its Joensuu, Finland cut-to-length factory as its order book shrinks; Deere forecasts global forestry equipment sales down 10% this fiscal year. Ponsse reports Q3 next Tuesday (Wood Central)
James Jones & Sons has started a £21M expansion at its Mosstodloch sawmill in Moray, Scotland, adding two processing lines to raise output and the share of higher-value products (GWMI)
UPM's plywood business, preparing to list independently as WISA Group, is targeting sales above €550M by 2030 (from €409M in 2025) and is eyeing European acquisitions (GWMI)
Paper & Pulp Mills
European pulp prices held flat in September for both NBSK and BHK; suppliers' increase attempts had not stuck and producers are now pushing for Q4 price rises (EUWID)
Co-generation & Mill Energy
Pacolet Milliken has acquired Georgia Renewable Power's two woody-biomass power plants in Franklin and Madison counties, Ga. (116 MW combined, long-term PPAs with Georgia Power), with Manulife financing; with Piedmont Green Power (55 MW) it now runs three Georgia biomass plants. Terms undisclosed (Bioenergy Insight)
Domtar's Nekoosa, Wis. mill, which can self-generate all its electricity, completed 13 energy projects in 2024–25 (new refiner, compressed-air upgrades) saving 3.8M kWh and 1.7M therms a year, earning a Focus on Energy 2026 award; nine more projects are done and ten in the pipeline, plus a planned pulp-mill energy audit (Paper Advance)
Industry Technology Vendors
SPEC Toolbox — Released v3.0 of its free mass-timber design platform (Oct. 14) with "SPEC Intelligence," an AI layer that flags the failing clause and proposes the smallest fix (screw connections first) across certified products from 40+ suppliers; 1,000+ North American engineers use it and it is WoodWorks' first software partner (Wood Central)
Uzelac Industries — The Wisconsin rotary-dryer maker (biomass/pellet feedstock drying) has founder Michael Uzelac returning as CEO, Milena Ivetic named president and Jordan Fults VP of engineering (Bioenergy Insight)
