House Natural Resources chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) have introduced the bipartisan Strong American Wood Act (H.R. 10906): it would require domestic timber in federal buildings, redirect duties collected on Canadian softwood into revolving loan funds for homes built with U.S. wood, end Buy American waivers for products available as domestic forest products, designate pulp, paper, hardwood and softwood supply chains as critical to national security, remove tariffs on mill machinery with no U.S. maker, extend the carbon storage credit to biochar and ease woody biomass into transport fuels, and set a statutory U.S. response to the EUDR; Westerman's office counts 277 sawmill and wood-business closures since 2021 and the bill has been referred to nine committees (Wood Central)
An Oct. 23 White House proclamation amends the list of Canadian goods subject to the additional 50% Section 338 duty, effective Oct. 30: seven thin hardwood-faced plywood subheadings (4412.33/4412.34) come off the list, while nine Chapter 44 lines including thin MDF and fibreboard (4411.12/4411.92), wooden packing boxes (4415.10.30) and certain flooring and wood articles are added; the duty stacks on Section 232 and applies regardless of USMCA origin (Fordaq)
Formal repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule (~44M acres) is now expected in early 2027, with national environmental groups promising to sue once it is final; Oregon loggers and Starfire Lumber's Sean Smith say record diesel, equipment inflation, log-truck labor shortages and litigation are bigger constraints than access, and industry experts project only a 5–10% lift in federal timber sales from the repeal — seven Oregon mills have closed since 2024 and federal timber sales are down ~90% since the 1990s (NPR via WJCT)
Google's Finnish subsidiary cleared 1.3 ha of flying-squirrel habitat at its Hamina data centre without a permit in 2018–19 and asked regulators to keep the felling map secret, while more than 500 ha were cleared at the Muhos and Kajaani data-centre sites before environmental assessments were finished; Stora Enso, UPM and Metsä Group confirmed receiving wood from the northern sites, PEFC Finland is investigating, and Metsä says it neither carried out nor commissioned the harvesting, took ~5,000 m³ from Kajaani and ~50 m³ from Muhos via a supplier that breached its contract, has halted deliveries and will remove any disputed volume from its certified figures (Wood Central, Timberbiz)
Sweden's sawmill downturn is diverging: Holmen's sawmill loss narrowed to SEK 23M (from 91M) for a third straight quarterly improvement as log prices fell, while Södra's sawmills lost SEK 256M (from 103M) and SEK 786M over nine months as the June member wood-price cut has yet to reach the mills; Stora Enso is reviewing its Central European sawmills and building-solutions business with a sale possible, and Swedish Forest Agency Q2 sawlog prices fell to SEK 1,059/m³ for spruce (1,158) and 855 for pine (975) (Wood Central)
Lower North American lumber prices are not prompting restocking: buyers are purchasing only for immediate needs as the construction season slows, mills are offering more concessions, weakness is spreading into pallet and crate stock, and freight is absorbing part of the mill-level savings; separately, German sawmills see their outlook worsening even as confidence returns elsewhere in Europe (GWMI, GWMI)
Barlinek is permanently ceasing production at its Vinnytsia, Ukraine flooring plant (800+ workers) about 15 months after a July 2025 Russian drone strike set it on fire, saying it cannot ensure employee safety; sister company Cersanit's Zviahel ceramics plant (~1,000 jobs) is also halting after September and October strikes (Wood Central)
New Zealand's government will fund Gisborne District Council to fast-track Tairāwhiti harvest consents over 12 weeks (~600 ha awaiting decisions), direct the remaining NZ$16.4M of woody-debris funding to removal, mitigation and land-use transition, and refocus the Tairāwhiti Transition Advisory Group; the Forest Owners Association welcomed the package (Timberbiz)
Wodonga-based log haulier Greenfreight (founded 1973; branches in Myrtleford, Tumut, Tumbarumba, Mount Gambier, Morwell and Colac) is placing its three logging entities into liquidation after HVP Plantations ended its Northern Region contract, with redundancy notices issued to drivers last week; it sold most of its linehaul business in September citing fuel costs and the January bushfires (Timberbiz)
Victoria's proposed engineered-wood hub The Precinct at Portland — stage one >A$200M, structural components for 20,000 homes a year on a single shift — drew 120+ investors and officials to a Melbourne symposium, added Timberlink Australia as an industry partner alongside Australian Bluegum Plantations, OneFortyOne, Raute and WTIBeam, and named Tim Woods its first chief executive; Australian production meets just 26.5% of local LVL/glulam demand (Wood Central, Timberbiz)
Mexico has dismantled more than 123 clandestine sawmills and detained 116 people for illegal logging, Defence Secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said; an estimated 70% of Mexican timber is of illegal origin, Chihuahua's illegal trade is worth ~US$172M/yr (roughly equal to the legal trade) with half of San Juanito's 20 sawmills thought to be cartel-controlled, and a three-day PROFEPA sweep across 28 states closed 25 sites and seized 400 m³ (Wood Central)
Indonesian forestry officers and the Navy seized 23 containers of chainsaw-cut merbau (est. IDR 5.5B) at Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port shipped from Nabire, Central Papua, after raiding mill CV Palu Perdana over missing legality documents and suspected scanned signatures on transport papers; a criminal investigation into the shippers and receivers is open (Wood Central)
Update: Australian Timber Importers Federation's Simon Dorries, responding to the Terrafolia supply-ceiling analysis, says steel holds close to half the framing market in some new capital-city developments and LVL is "probably our best tool (maybe our only tool)" against it, with LVL studs and plates now imported to substitute for MGP10/MGP12 pine and E14 LVL for F17 hardwood; ATIF director Robert Cairns warns cheap LVL from small importers may be non-compliant or wrongly stamped (Wood Central)
Paper & Pulp Mills
UPM filed its Nasdaq Helsinki listing application for WISA Group, the plywood company being spun out in a partial demerger approved by shareholders Aug. 31; registration is expected around Oct. 31 with trading from on or about Nov. 2 (ticker WISA), and each UPM share receives one WISA share (Fordaq)
Update: Mercer International told EUWID it anticipates its capital restructuring "will not involve Mercer's operating subsidiaries," its first response to reports of a possible Chapter 11 filing (EUWID)
AmerCareRoyal (ACR), backed by Oridian Capital Partners, has acquired Ultra Green Packaging of Mound, Minn., a maker of molded-fiber pizza trays, sushi trays and bakeware plus rPET lids, expanding its PrimeWare grocery and retail line; it is ACR's twelfth add-on since Oridian's investment, terms undisclosed (PULPAPERnews)
Industry Technology Vendors
MiTek — Opened its expanded Dandenong South, Melbourne site, more than doubling its footprint to 15,000+ m² with a new customer Experience Centre covering its design/engineering software, automation equipment and in-house manufacturing; Posi-Strut capacity doubles and pressing capacity rises by more than a third, with a new purpose-built Auckland facility also part of the Asia-Pacific build-out (Timberbiz)
Tigercat — Released the 610H compact grapple skidder, built on the 610H cable and 620H grapple platforms for lower-volume and selective-felling contractors: FPT N6.7 engine at 151 kW (202 hp), hydrostatic driveline, 1.39 m² grapple, 620H-sized axles and a simplified cab with a fixed 30° seat in place of the 220° Turnaround seat, at a reduced capital cost (Timberbiz)
