Building timber orders treble but there’s not enough trees to meet demand

WA’s biggest timber manufacturer fears it could slip further behind meeting its surge in orders — fuelled by the building boom — because of the dire shortage of plantation trees. Patrrick Warrand, managing director of Wespine at Bunbury, said he was concerned the shortage could ultimately slow the building sector’s recovery from a lengthy slump. Mr Warrand said his company’s orders had almost trebled in the last year, but its production had increased by only 15 per cent — the main constraint being availability of logs. “We are going as flat out as we can, including putting on weekend shifts,” he said. “Production has increased by 10-15 per cent, but we are limited by availability of trees.” Mr Warrand said the Forrest Products Commission had approved additional supply during the current fiscal year, which was catch up from unused logs from previous years. Wespine had made a request to the FPC to supply additional logs in the 2021-22 year, but Mr Warrand was uncertain whether this would be approved. “We have a long term contract with the Government. They are meeting all their requirements but can’t take too much more without disrupting future supply,” Mr Warrand said. Mr Warrand’s comments follow yesterday’s warning from Brickworks — Australia’s biggest brickmaker — that Australia’s timber shortage was adding to labour and skills challenges. Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge told investors in a trading update materials such as timber in housing trusses was an issue in some areas, with the resultant delays likely to flatten and extend the duration of the existing pipeline of work. Mr Warrand said as well as the increase in local demand, imports had dried up because of strong demand from the US. The building boom in the US had led to four fold increases in the US timber price, so what Australia and other countries generally import was mostly being diverted to that market. “The Government stimulus has been fantastic but it has all come in a rush,” Mr Warrand said. “There’s only so much plantation available in WA. One of the things we are hoping will come out of this is that people realise we need to continue to invest in plantation growth, so WA can be self sufficient longer term.” A challenge facing WA’s $617 million softwood plantation industry was the decline of WA plantings to 83,500ha, from a peak of 94,000ha in 2004. Most (78,000ha) is managed by the FPC, with the rest privately managed. The estate is forecast to shrink to about 45,000ha by 2040 without expansion, which is too small to support the industry which employs 2000 people. The declining estate prompted the State Government in August to ask the private sector for proposals to expand the pine plantation by 50,000ha over 10 years.