Timber iQ August- September 2018 // Issue: 39 | Page 12

ASSOCIATIONS
The true value of our timber
With the promotion of locally grown and produced timber a cause
for concern, maybe we need to ask ourselves the question – are we
marketing our wood or are we just selling it?
By Sawmilling South Africa
"Increasing
wood's share of
the commercial
construction
market will require
our industry to
change the way we
present our wood
products to industry
and the public."
Residential construction consumes about 80% of the volume of structural wood products in South
Africa, while the commercial and industrial markets only utilise 20% of our wood products.
G
reat wood takes anywhere between 10 to 30 years
to grow and when well-managed, not only is its yield
sustainable in perpetuity, but it is one of the most
environmentally friendly products we can use to meet
human demand for construction material. However, I
seriously question whether we value it properly or not?
Commercial tree planting has all but stopped in South
Africa. There has been no expansion in long rotation
softwood planting for the past 25 years in the country. This
is surely not just all attributable to government’s ineptitude
towards forest expansion but must also have something to
do with the wood industry’s inability to market itself and its
products effectively.
The domestic market in South Africa represents a great
opportunity for sawn timber used in dwelling construction.
While currently residential construction, namely roof
trusses, consumes about 80% of the volume of structural
wood products in the country, the commercial and
industrial markets only utilise 20% of our wood products.
Increasing wood’s share of the commercial construction
market requires our industry to change the way we present
our wood products to industry and the public. The
commercial sector wants construction solutions like cross
laminated panels and roof trusses. This will require a
collaborative approach as we need to implement
standardised systems that provide confidence to the
commercial construction sector.
In simple terms, the commercial sector wants us to sell
them quality engineered solutions, not just packs of timber.
The system and the solution can often be more important
10 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2018 //
than price. Many people tell us that sawn timber is just a
commodity and so we must accept the price that we are
given – we must stop believing this.
Water is a great example of why this is wrong. It is a
commodity that has been in our lives for as long as wood.
The cost of a glass of water from the tap is free, or a
miniscule amount. Water sold in a plastic bottle at a
restaurant, however, which is often drawn from the same
source and sells for many times the price of petrol. The gap
in price is purely marketing.
If we can succeed in marketing wood for all its
environmental values, then we may be able to increase the
pressure on investment in new plantations and hopefully
convince the consumer that they are getting more value
for their buck.
Work currently being done by Sawmilling South Africa
aims to improve the sector skills development initiatives in
association with the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing
(FP&M) SETA SSA, which has been successful in getting the
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) to
register ‘Saw Doctoring’ as an official trade. This is
something that the industry has been striving to achieve
for years now.
The association has also successfully convinced the
Department of Environmental Affairs to review its
regulations in respect of emissions from wood drying kilns.
We have also made submissions to Parliament on two
important proposed bills – the National Minimum Wage
(NMW) Bill and the Expropriation of land Without
Compensation (EWC) Bill.