A Boatload of logs

[JVK]

I've been taking a lumber grading course in Port Alberni and took these shots as a possible interest story. Raw log export is one of the things keeping our forest industry alive in BC. These log ships are 600' long and carry 30,000 cubic meters of second growth Fir and Hemlock. They are the perfect bandmill size, at 27 to 41' and no defect. Around 1300 bundles at 23 cu meters each = over 7 million bf. Add this to Bibbys log inventory and Mary would be busy for years!

Main customers are China, Japan and Korea. This ship is bound for Japan. Most of these logs come from private forest land, but more and more is from public forest. Most everyone has an opinion on this subject up here.

  

  

 

[Ianab]

Common sight around NZ as well. A lot of Radiata pine logs exported to the same markets.

Ian

[thecfarm]

Interesting. That is some load of logs.

[haywire woodlot]

there was a feature on the news about one of the northern bands (Tsimshian?) and their prosperous partnership in China. Footage of their representive over there, included a shot of huge open sided building that had a least a half dozen small bandsaw mills going full tilt, with the lumber going away on roll cases and logs coming in on old fork lifts. While export wood is not impressive in terms of size, the uniformity of the logs certainly is. They are loading all over the coast right now, the old deep sea dock in gold river is being used for outload, and there is almost always a ship loading up in Quotsino too, these days.

[wdtik]

  A local timber co is buying logs locally here for export.  A logger
who did some some work for me explained that the chineese
used to buy wood from russia but the russians put a 20% tarrif on wood
fiber exports...The said timber co has put up large billboards advertising
"dead trees wanted"  paying "top dollar"  A local newspaper story about
the rail loading site in Helena quoted that the dead Ppine was being cut
up for scaffolding for use in china.. 6 million acres of dead trees in this area
and very dry summer forcast.. almost no rain for 4 months now.....could be
an interesting summer... CBD

[rmack]

Raw log export is one of the things keeping our forest industry alive in BC.

interesting statement, given that those exports have cost us an estimated 30,000 jobs.

iirc, at last count there were 82 new, large scale, sawmills in china cutting timber that used to be milled here.

is 'keeping our forest industry alive' something that will only be successful once there are no sawmills left in BC?

[JVK]

Maybe you could tell me what I should have said. I didn't create log ships. This is just a real life thing going on right now. Good or bad, it is happening. My guess is if a sawmill can buy these logs, market the lumber and make a profit, they would be in business. These countries pay a premium for the logs. Their labour costs are much lower than ours, so it must make good business sense to them. Most of these logs are sawn into concrete form wood and pallet wood.

[DGK]

At one time in British Columbia, in order for a company to harvest timber from crown land under a tree farm licence, the forest products company had to either have a sawmill or pulp mill in the local area of harvest. It is a shame that the government changed the policies and started allowing more and more of the raw log exports at the expense of the local communities. There would have been so much more benefit to the people whom live near and in theory own the land (Crown Land i.e. owned by all Canadians) if they did not allow the exports. I believe that it was the forest products companies that merged together to become very powerful, lobbied the government to make the changes. The BC forest workers were well unionized and companies like Weyerhaeuser did not like that.

[JVK]

You are right. Things are changing. I've lived on the Alberni Inlet for 35 years and back then, the lumber ships were lined up for loading along with paper barges full of newsprint rolls for San Fransico. Today its log ships and tomorrow? Who knows.

The way its affected me personally is when I take my shopping cart thru the dryland sort, I am directed to the logs with sweep and other defects. "Sorry, those nice straight ones are for export".

[DGK]

You are right. Things are changing. I've lived on the Alberni Inlet for 35 years and back then, the lumber ships were lined up for loading along with paper barges full of newsprint rolls for San Fransico. Today its log ships and tomorrow? Who knows.

JVK, with the way the government is managing our country, today it is a Canadian falling the trees, tomorrow, it may be a foreigner issued with a temporary work visa who is willing to work for minimum wage falling trees in the Alberni Inlet. Allegedly, we have a shortage of skilled workers in this country. The irony of the situation is that it is usually the lowest paying companies that have a problem finding the skilled workers. :-)

[WDH]

Like it or not, wood is a world economy.

[LeeB]

A world commodity it may be, but it could be exported as a processed product, like it is in many other countries.

[WDH]

Most of it is in the form of wood pulp.  The volume of logs exported pales in comparison to wood pulp.

[DGK]

Like it or not, wood is a world economy.

WDH, you guessed it right - I do not like it. Canada is basically becoming a third-world country. Our government has allowed the sale of our raw resources and resource based industries to foreign owned companies. The Canadian people have their backyards logged and mined with very little benefit other than short term employment and a few business' benefitting from service and supply. The secondary manufacturing is not here. The government gets their royalties and the politicians get their perks. The people are left with the pollution and mess afterwards. There are never large enough bonds to secure cleaning up the properties afterwards so it falls on the taxpayer. The taxpayer is the same poor bastard that got some short term employment out of the deal whom now pays his 50% combined tax rate to pay for cleaning up the mess, paying unemployment insurance premiums to benefit all the other unemployed workers cause there is no work once the raw resources are exported. The government then has the audacity to say that there are not enough skilled workers to mine the resources fast enough while market prices are high so lets allow some foreign workers in who will work for less and keep the inflation pressures down. Canada does not want any inflation or a high dollar - bad for our foreign multi-national companies exporting the resources.

[rmack]

WDH, you guessed it right - I do not like it. Canada is basically becoming a third-world country. Our government has allowed the sale of our raw resources and resource based industries to foreign owned companies. The Canadian people have their backyards logged and mined with very little benefit other than short term employment and a few business's benefiting from service and supply.

Agreed, but that 'world economy' is just mediaspeak for the ongoing conversion to global corporate communism.

It's no surprise the Chinese have such a leg up on everyone else... they understand that unbridled capitlalism evolves/matures into communism... and since they already have totalitarian government, they have an enormous advantage over the, at this point, quasi-democratized world.

in order to compete in the loser's game that is the race to the bottom, our impotent governments are moving toward the totalitarian model as fast as they can... and we Canadians are watching our pensions, EI, Health Care... indeed our entire democratic system being dismantled in front of our noses. There is quickly becoming no such thing as a 'non-essential' service. Every form of employment is becoming a mandatory service... no strikes, no quits, no pogey... meanwhile, the concept of 'guaranteed right to profit' is becoming enshrined in our political and legal systems, trumping every form of human right. we are becoming a victim society at the hands of criminals who blatantly rig elections and then defy us to try seek justice.

yes, we are living in very interesting times.

[markd]

I'm glad I live in the woods and have my sawmill!

[colinofthewoods]

Hey JVK-  Any idea if the barge dumps the logs like the smaller ones that run around the coast ,  or do they have to crane them off ?

Also if your up for it ,  which grading class did you take ?  What did it entail , length ect.

thanks

[haywire woodlot]

Hey, Colin. The logships that we see around here these days are mostly bulk carriers converted for this purpose with steel stanchions welded on deck to secure their deck load. The ships hold is filled first, then the hatches are secured and the rest of the load is secured on deck, from side to side, so that catwalks must be built on top of the load to allow access fore and aft. The bundles are loaded with wire straps, not grapples as on the log barges. It's a very labour intensive process require lots of longshoremen, on the logs and letting go aboard as well. The ships cranes are operated by local longshoremen also. In contrast the log barge is loaded on deck only, by two deckhands in dozerboats and four loader operators on four hour shifts, until the load is complete, about 20/25 thousand meters in eighteen hours. I've got some logbarging pics in my album too.

[JVK]

Hi Colin,
The grading class was a fourteen session twice a week for eight weeks. Big hassle for me because of where I live, but well worth the effort in my opinion. It is put on by the Canadian Mill Services Association to learn the standard grading rules for Canadian lumber. It doesn't make me a lumber grader. It shows I took the course and then more education is needed to become a professional grader. It's a subject that interests me as probably most sawmillers on this site, so when I heard it was offered, I signed up.
We own a city lot in Port Alberni and I would like to cut all the framing lumber as well as the siding etc. The grading class was helpfull in many ways for me.

[colinofthewoods]

Good pics haywire,  that looks like the kind of barge that would pick up wood from some of the camps I worked in.   I used to love watching them unload.  I worked in the log plant at the pulp mill in Port Alice for a short time ,    it is quite a sight watching the whole thing come off so quick.

I am suprised at the length of the class JVK,   I guess there is more to grading than I thought.  Are you going to get your graders ticket eventually ?

[cowtipper]

quick and fast way to unload

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9hLGrXFYRo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCgkpnkVrwQ&feature=related

[colinofthewoods]

Cool videos,

Someone told me that the logs don't actually slide off the barge but the barge spits out from under the logs.  It kind of looks like that is how it happened in the first video.

[shelbycharger400]

markd

better watch out...if china had its way.... they would come and pilfer our resources... cut everything down..ship it out... then leave us with nothing..    its what they already did to their own country.

[Brucer]

Well, not exactly. China recently banned logging in it's largest forest preserve, which is 150,000 square miles in size. This is further to their goal of increasing the size of their forests by 100 million acres.

In other words, "Let's buy all that cheap overseas wood while we let our own forests mature."

[Ianab]

It's not so much they are pilfering the logs, they are paying at least the market rate in the source country. Be it Canada, Chile, Australia, or NZ.

They publish their specs and prices and it's the loggers or forestry consultants / companies that decide they are offering the best deal. Locally the logs from one job may go to several different mills and also to export. The mills have their own specs and prices as  well. Part of the consultants job is to get the best price for the logs, by shipping them to the best markets.

Most of these logs are plantation or 2nd growth, so it's not like it's pillaging old growth, it's routine harvest, and there will be another one in the relatively near future.

Now it's true that the local economy would benefit more if the wood was processed locally, but it's the forest owner (or company with cutting rights) that's making the decision to send the logs to the port for export. Simple economics in action.

Ian

[JVK]

Very well said Ian. That is how I see it. The whole big picture thing. I keep visualizing a log ship in China after it unloads the logs, fills the empty hold with lots of good stuff for all of us back here at home!