Asians queue for low-grade wood

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

CHRISTCHURCH - Booming Asian demand for low-quality packaging timber is creating more jobs in sawmilling.

Shands Road Sawmills, a privately owned South Island wood processor, is in the final stages of building another mill on an 8ha site at Christchurch.

The facility will create about 20 jobs in the short-term and process about 80 cu m of wood each day.

Its owners say it has the potential to become the largest sawmilling operation in the country by 2010.

"We turn away orders every day from places like Japan, China and Thailand," said managing director Bryan McCorkindale.

"We already export about 70 per cent of what we produce and we haven't been able to satisfy demand for a long time."

Established in 1968, Shands Road employs 119 at its Christchurch sawmill and owns a small forestry block in Kaitaia.

The company processes about 20,000 cu m of low-quality logs a year into packaging-grade lumber for domestic and Asian markets, along with pallets, bins and other wood-based packaging products.

Mr McCorkindale said the new sawmill would produce similar products derived from low-quality logs.

Construction of the new mill coincides with the rising forestry harvest, which is expected to produce an extra 19 million cu m of radiata pine by 2020.

US forestry manufacturer Brightwood plans to build a $30 million sawmill in the South Island this year to supply growing markets in the United States.