52 | FORESTRY PermaPine Evolving to meet demand T from page 50 PermaPine product truck delivery. “We’re very conscious of managing our risk and ensuring we support a diverse range of customer profiles and sectors.” Each week PermaPine processes around 100 truck and trailer loads of logs. Square piles for building houses on has grown to 10% of sales, roundwood is 50%, poles are 30% with timber and battens making up the remaining 10%. “The bulk of our finished product is used domestically, with five percent exported to our key markets in the Pacific Islands where the products are used in construction and for power poles. “Much of our product is structural and so it needs to perform well, it needs to be strong and it needs to be durable — they’re the key requirements for all our products. Aligning ourselves to suppliers of timber and logs who have good quality feedstock allows us to produce good quality finished products.” PermaPine is also about reducing environmental impact, which Ian says is about sourcing locally. “So much of your environmental impact is created during transportation around the country. We greatly encourage our log suppliers to think locally and supply the local domestic market. We think there are opportunities to work with our log suppliers to tailor log supply to meet our needs and in the process increase domestic volume and add value for us both.” For PermaPine, reducing the environmental impact began at home with a $5.5 million investment in a wood biomass boiler system. “We use a lot of energy to dry the wood and all of that energy comes from burning the residue from the production of finished product — peel, sawdust and wooden off cuts. We’ve transitioned from burning coal to burning wet wood from the residue of our processing operations. This eliminates transporting these residues off-site. So you get a double benefit — it’s a circular process.” Since Covid first appeared in New Zealand shores, PermaPine has suffered two lockdowns, costing it seven weeks lost production, during which rural New Zealand continued to operate. “Demand for finished products has been very high and it’s been a challenge to meet demand in a timely manner. It’s imperative we keep our plant running with good uptime if we are to meet the commitments we’re making to our customers. “There are delays in supply of plant and equipment and we have responded by trying to carry more spares and consumables, because when there’s a breakdown in your plant you just can’t get replacement parts quickly. We’ve tried to adapt to an environment where supply chains are much longer.” TOTAL HYDRAULIC SOLUTIONS // DIAGNOSTICS, INSTALLATION & REPAIR Tel: 07 3436460 | enquiries@thsolutions.co.nz | 65ViewRoad,Mangakakahi, Rotorua Total Hydraulic Solutions Ltd are specialists in custominstallation of hydraulic&electrical systems for the forestry and timber industry. We proudly support PermaPine’s focus onwaste reduction&preventativemaintenance.
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