A PROMINENT national timber industry association has warned the region’s plantation estate must grow to accommodate expansion in the processing sector.
Australian Forest Products Association SA branch manager Leon Rademeyer has welcomed news Timberlink Australia planned to build a $60m new world-class engineered timber manufacturing facility.
Depending on government assistance, the project will be built adjacent the company’s sprawling sawmill site at Tarpeena or closer to markets in Melbourne.
“Timberlink’s intention to build a new cross laminated and glue laminated timber manufacturing facility in either SA or Victoria is positive news, but processor expansion in the region must be underpinned by a growing plantation estate to be sustainable in the long-term,” Mr Rademeyer said.
But the state industry lobbyist said Australia’s plantation estate had been declining amid record global and domestic demand for timber and wood products, including in South Australia.
“This downward trend is particularly worrying given the devastation caused by recent bushfires,” he said.
“Federal Government’s acknowledgement of the problem in 2018 by setting the goal of planting a billion new plantation trees nationally by 2030 was a step in the right direction, but without a coordinated state and federal commitment to address the factors that hold South Australian forestry back, the state could miss out on its fair share of trees.”
He argued one of the major factors was the state’s current Lower Limestone Coast water allocation policy, which was causing a “further decrease” in its plantation estate.
Others factors are a lack of bushfire policy harmonisation between SA and Victoria and governmental fire resourcing issues in South Australia.
“South Australia is home to around 14pc of Australia’s timber industry, theoretically entitling the state to 140 million new plantation trees which would underpin its timber processing industries for decades to come,” Mr Rademeyer explained.
Mr Rademeyer said Timberlink’s investment showed the forest industries were prepared to make long-term commitments to the region and its people, which should have a positive flow-on effect throughout the forest industries value chain.
“It will be Timberlink’s second recent large-scale investment in local production, after it announced the expansion of its Tarpeena processing site in August last year,” Mr Rademeyer said.
The Timberlink announcement is one of a number of recent major forest industries investment announcements in the region, including the completion of OneFortyOne’s Jubilee Sawmill upgrade in 2019 and Borg Manufacturing’s 2020 announcement of upgrading its particleboard facility in Mount Gambier.
In addition, he said Yahl-based Roundwood Solutions was in the process of rolling out a new timber treatment facility near Tantanoola.
“These investments show our forest industries are prepared to make long-term commitments to the region and its people, which will have a positive flow-on effect throughout the forest industries value chain.
“They greatly enhance the region’s economic sustainability and instill renewed local and international confidence in regional economies.”
Timberlink will begin discussions with both state and federal governments to secure a location for the facility, which is expected to employ nearly 30 full-time permanent jobs when the facility opens in 2023.
