Major Players
STELLA JONES
SONOCO
AMERITIES
KOPPERS
AMERICAN WOOD FIBER
QUICK STATS: |
DIVERSE WOOD OUTPUT BUSINESS A diverse segment, it includes wood flour, household products and everything in between, including: reels, railroad ties and the millions of pallets that the 600-member National Wood Pallet & Crate Assn. produce, repair and distribute. The 1.2 billion pallets used in the U.S. on any given day are collected, sorted, and repaired by 5,000 white wood pallet companies. A growing segment is wood pellets, which utilize sawdust and other wood waste to heat and power plants. Europe, converting from coal to eco-friendly wood, bought 1.7644 million metric tons of pellets from the U.S., the No. 1 supplier; Canada supplied 1.346 million. Pellet makers compete with panel producers for fiber, often driving up prices.DATA Household products (racks, picture frames, kitchen utensils, etc.) total $3.15 billion. Housing and economic growth drive not only the usage of household products, they also impact wooden cable reels and utility poles. The 261 U.S. utilities that own over 42 million poles report purchasing 252,000 poles of various species per year.
|
PRODUCT LINES: Household Products & Utensils Railway Crossties, Utility Poles Wood Pallets, Reels, Crates Biofuel/Wood Pellets Wood Handles Treated Wood |
Sources: Railway Tie Assn., Composite Panel Assn., North American Wood Pole Council, North American Wood Fiber Review, IBISWorld |
Southern pine represents 70% of lumber treated with waterborne preservatives; 94% of roundwood. |
American Wood Fiber, for example, shipped 7.5B lbs of wood pellet fuel and 1B lbs of wood flour. |
$36 MM: The value of 900,000 reels that Sonoco recycles on an annual basis. |
Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.