2017 International Forest Industries Magazines October November 2017 | Page 8
LOGGING & BIOMASS NEWS
NZ Log jam: too many trees, not enough trucks
The New Zealand forestry industry
is facing a frightening amount of
work in the next few years, as it
struggles to attract staff, a forestry
management company says. PF
Olsen business development
manager Scott Downs said the
shortage was the biggest challenge
faced by the industry and unlikely
to improve in the near future
reports Radionz NZ.
The amount of forest available
for harvest is rapidly increasing as
the surge of plantings in the 1990s
are now maturing. The volume
harvested could potentially rise by
15 million tonnes to just under 40
million a year by 2023. That was
going to be a major problem, Mr
Downs said.
“It is almost scary how much
wood is coming on in New Zealand.
All this wood [planted in the 1990s]
is maturing now and the fact is we
won’t be able to harvest all that
wood or cart all that wood.”
The industry often suffered from
a sometimes-unearned reputation
that workers struggled for good
pay and good conditions, he said.
“But we’re certainly seeing some
very good pay rates for people in
the industry and we’re not very
good at getting that message out
to the community.”
Meanwhile, a shortage of
logging truck drivers was also
playing a part in the industry’s
challenge. Simon Reid, who owns S
J Reid and nine trucks, is based at
Maungatapere on the outskirts of
Whangarei. Attracting drivers was a
huge problem because of the anti-
social hours, he said.
He believed truck driving
needed to be put on the
government’s critical shortage
list, but was doubtful that would
happen. “The government isn’t
interested in helping us. They don’t
see it as being a critical problem in
the bigger picture of the economy.
Everything you see in a shop is
actually freight and it relies on a
truck to get it to the point where
it then becomes a retail item,” he
said.
Vecoplan introduces new all-rounder VecoBELT
With high operational reliability
and flexible application
possibilities, conveyor belts are
indispensable for the transport
of bulk goods in industry today.
Transportation lines and material
streams are important aspects of
every production plant. They need
to be cost-effective, efficient and
above all reliable in continuous
operation. A true all-rounder
in transport systems for bulk
materials is the VecoBelt pipe
conveyor from Vecoplan.
The VecoBelt is ideal for
conveying bulk materials over long
distances either horizontally or on
a slight incline. The components
transport all kinds of bulk materials
such as wood chips, refuse-derived
fuels, meat and bone meal or wood
shavings. The forward-moving
VecoBelt conveyor runs inside a
tube and not on rollers like with
normal conveyor belts. The belt
runs on cushion of air. Low friction
losses and quiet operation are
therefore guaranteed. The fully
enclosed system is particularly
suited to the safe transportation of
dust-laden materials.
In recent years, Vecoplan
has made some optimisations
to the components and further
developed the technology of the
VecoBelt series (500/800 and 1000
belt width). The return belt now
also runs in an enclosed housing,
supported by a return air duct. This
gives customers 100% certainty
that no material can fall or trickle
down, for example in the area of
the return rollers.
Another new addition is that
Vecoplan equips the VecoBelt
with two scrapers at every drive
station. The pre-head scraper
and hard metal scraper can be
adjusted from the outside, and
tensioning the scraper with the
ratchet is quick and easy to do. The
pre-head scraper is flexible, yet
stable enough to remove impurities
on the belt. The hard metal scraper
prevents substances such as resin
from sticking to the belt.
A further technical improvement
has been added to the weight
tensioning stations. Additional
scrapers on the drive stations
have been added here too to
prevent impurities from adhering
to the belt. For customers, these
measures mean fewer maintenance
costs, fewer downtimes and
less material carry-over on their
conveyor line.
Vecoplan also offers customers
an optional bunker attachment
filter. At material transition points,
where material is passed to the
next conveyor and loaded into this,
a radial blower has been installed
to extract air containing dust.
To date, these conveyor
components have built
transportation lines worldwide
covering a total length of more than
10 kilometres. The longest stretch is
430 m long and is driven by two 30
kW geared motors.
The VecoBelt conveys bulk
materials over a distance of up to
450 meters and with a capacity of
up to 1260m3/h at 2.5 m/s. The
conveyor belt is quick and easy to
assemble and it can span inclines
up to 20 degrees. The individual
support struts can be spaced up
to 75 metres apart. The power
consumption of the VecoBelt is only
about half that of similar conveyor
belts.
Roseburg Resources acquires investment-
grade timberland in southeastern U.S.
Roseburg Resources Co. has
acquired approximately 158,000
acres of investment-grade
timberland in the southeastern
United States from Forest
Investment Associates (FIA),
a timberland investment
management organization.
The timberland is located
around Roanoke Rapids, largely
within the coastal region of
North Carolina and southeastern
Virginia, and has a strong history of
professional management.
6 International Forest Industries | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2017
“The property is an accretive
addition to Roseburg’s Western-
based timberland portfolio, with
close proximity to broad, stable
markets,” Roseburg Senior Vice
President of Resources Scott Folk
said. “With an attractive age class
distribution and above-average
site productivity, the property
represents significant long-term
value for the company, as Roseburg
seeks to diversify and grow its
timber holdings.”