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.”