Changes in markets, technology and resources: prospects for wood-based products

Abstract

Summary Innovation in the design and manufacture of substitute wood products has made inroads into virtually all our traditional timber markets. The difficulty in re-establishing mass markets for many of these products may possibly arise from changes in building culture whereby the use of substitute products has become established as the industry norm and streamlined through architect-builder-contractor relationships. It is argued that future prospects for wood products will depend on: • forest industry adoption of electronic technology to enhance communication in the value chain; • incorporation of market intelligence-gathering and processing through electronic communication with end users; • simplification of products and the number of grades, sizes and durabilities available to the market; • incorporation of simplified procedures for designing in wood (incorporating design durability principles) into university and TAFE training of architects, engineers and building science students; • integration of component manufacturing and building procedures. New technologies are under development that can potentially automate the manufacturing of wood-based components using wood that has been engineered to meet required performance attributes. Traditionally, species and grades were selected to meet specification requirements for the component.