The constant flow of B.C. logs to overseas sawmills is hurting local custom cutters and lumber remanufacturers who rely on the fibre.
They are finding it hard to source what keeps them in business, said Tom Sundher, president of Surrey-based Coast Clear Wood Ltd.
Sundher said while Surrey is growing in many ways, its sawmilling sector is not.
“If we don’t find a solution for cutting these logs here, then we’re going to have more sawmills shut down and more services cut back and more remanufacturers go out of business.”
The shortage of logs is a continual headache for B.C. sawmills, said Hanif Karmally, vice-president of Teal Jones Group.
“The logs that are available domestically have shrunk dramatically over the last decade.”
Teal Jones runs a sawmill in Surrey and has some forest harvesting tenure. But Karmally said companies that operate sawmills without having access to their own logs are particularly at risk.
“If you look at the folks who run high-speed sawmills – there’s a few folks left – what is the future of the domestic sawmilling industry?”
Sundher is hoping a meeting he had with B.C. Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations minister Steve Thomson in November will yield some results.
He said the ministry could assist small forest companies like his by ensuring there is a competitive and transparent domestic access to export logs and that timber sales focus on the domestic marketplace.
“We have the global customer base, the skills and the manufacturing capacity to double our sales, but log availability is hampering us,” he said. “With more fibre, we have the opportunity to increase employment, increase Crown revenues and ensure the success of our company and others like us.”
Fully harvesting the annual allowable cut (AAC) would also help increase the log supply, Karmally said. His company is working with BC Timber Sales, a provincial organization that manages 20% of the AAC on Crown land, to increase logging.
Karmally also believes more work could be done to increase the rate of harvesting from tenure the provincial government has allocated to First Nations in recent years.
Last year close to five million cubic metres of logs were exported out of B.C., Sundher said, and another five million to six million cubic metres were left in the ground for a number of reasons, including the provincial government rejecting low bids.
The government has to figure out a way to make those logs flow into the domestic marketplace.
“To have a healthy industry, you have to have small businesses successful too.”
Sundher added that he was encouraged by the support from the B.C. government’s Forest Innovation Investment Ltd. (FII) market development agency in India, where his company is making inroads.
Coast Clear Wood exported $10 million worth of products in 2012, including more than $2.5 million in India, where its products are used for windows and doors, doorjambs and furniture.
He said FII has a staff of five in India promoting B.C. wood products.
“That’s a good thing,” said Sundher. “Also the federal government is working on a free trade agreement with India, which includes lumber, and had eight meetings so far.”
“We appreciate Coast Clear Wood’s need to have a readily available supply of logs,” said ministry of forests spokesman Brennan Clarke. “With regard to log exports, the government’s preference is for all logs to remain in B.C. to be manufactured into other products. That’s why all logs are offered for domestic sale first – to allow any B.C. company to bid on logs.”
Clarke said more than 90% of the logs harvested from Crown land are manufactured in B.C.
“When there isn’t a domestic buyer, logs are exported, often at premium prices, which in turn allows more logs to be harvested to meet both domestic and international market demands.”
However, Sundher said the solution is not for him to go and bid on timber sales.
“I’m not a logger. My business is sawing the logs and purchasing the logs on the open market,” he said, adding that blocking log exports is also not a solution because it would damage his relationship with logging and large forestry companies that bid on the logs.
Clarke confirmed the ministry is working with Coast Clear Wood to address its concerns. •
With files from Jen St. Denis
