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Exciting future for forest products

In a wide-ranging interview with SA Forestry magazine, Hendrik de Jongh, MD of Sappi Forests, expressed the opinion that the "forest products industry" is entering an exciting period of growth and development, with many new opportunities on the horizon. These go way beyond Sappi's traditional products in pulp and paper.

Hendrik de Jongh

Chief among these is the emergence of the 'green economy' and the growing demand for bioenergy and biofuels, and the growth of carbon trading markets. Forestry is ideally positioned to take advantage of these as it is a renewable resource with a positive carbon balance, he said.

Another exciting development is the growth of the chemical cellulose market, a product which is derived from wood fibre and is used in a huge and growing array of products like viscose fabric, in the food and pharmaceutical industry, detergents, drilling fluids, cosmetics, sponges, paint, sausage casings and many more. In response, Sappi has followed up the recent expansion of its Sappi-Saiccor mill with a major upgrade of its Ngodwana mill in Mpumalanga, which will include the introduction of 210 000 tons per annum of chemical cellulose production. Once the upgrade is complete, Sappi's total production of chemical cellulose, from both the Ngodwana and Sappi-Saiccor mills, will be over a million tons a year.

This in turn opens up another opportunity as the raw material requirements of chemical cellulose entails a switch from softwood to hardwood, which frees up some of Sappi's extensive pine plantations to be used for high value sawn timber. Sappi currently operates the Lomati sawmill near Barberton, and is considering its option to utilise the timber from its Usutu plantation in Swaziland.

Sappi is currently investing around R60 million a year to rehabilitate this 52 000 ha plantation, almost half of which was destroyed in a massive fire in 2008. This event led to the closure of the Usutu Pulp Mill, which was already struggling to survive before the fire struck. The Usutu plantations comprise mostly pine with 4 000 ha hardwood.

Hendrik said that Sappi is selling some Usutu timber to local processing facilities in order to keep the plantation workers employed, and was busy exploring opportunities to establish a value-adding processing facility there, possibly combining sawmilling and bioenergy.

"We have to find a sustainable future for Usutu," Hendrik said.

He expects that the shortage of saw logs in South Africa will become acute in a few years when the full impact of the wildfires of 2007 and 2008 are felt. The shortage of saw logs will translate into higher prices for sawn timber.

In terms of the utilisation of biomass from its plantations for bioenergy production, Sappi has projects on the go but for the moment, Hendrik is playing his cards close to his chest and won't provide any details.

De-barking, salvage operation
Meanwhile, the company has acquired a Morbark triple-drum flail debarker, which is currently being used in the Highflats area to debark drought-damaged wattle. Apparently, the Morbark has made it possible to salvage much of the timber that would otherwise have to be written off as it couldn't be debarked by hand.

Hendrik expressed the opinion that this machine could be used in conjunction with a chipper to provide a platform for accumulating biomass. However, he said there is still a lot that needs to be understood about the long-term impacts of removing post-harvest residue from plantations before this could happen.

Additional opportunities for improving productivity would also come from Sappi's research and tree breeding programmes that are producing some exciting results. One such project on the go at the Sappi Shaw Research Centre at Tweedie involves the vegetative propagation of pines, which makes it possible to supply many more plants of known genetic quality from each seed.

Mechanisation and social impacts
Another topic of interest involves mechanisation of forestry operations and the growing sensitivity around social issues. This was highlighted by a recent incident at Sappi's Braemar and Highflats plantations where a harvesting contractor's workers staged a protest against what they perceived to be moves by Sappi to terminate the contract and to install a mechanised system instead, thus leaving them stranded without jobs.

However, according to Hendrik and Sappi's Logistics and Fibre Supply Manager, Alan Thistle, the protest was a result of misinformation in that the workers believed that the contractor (their employer) had lost the harvesting contract because Sappi wanted to replace them with a mechanised system.

Alan said that the Sappi team met with the disgruntled workers and their community representatives to explain that the contractor concerned had 'opted out' of the contract. Apparently, these workers had lost their jobs on a previous occasion when a contract was terminated, and they were concerned that they would be replaced by machines.

Sappi subsequently employed all 381 of the workers to ensure that harvesting at Braemar and Highflats could continue, utilising the same harvesting system. Sappi has bought the necessary PPE, leased the proper labour carrier vehicles, and has provided training.

"It was in the middle of fire season and there was no other contractor to take over, so we employed them on a six-month fixed term contract," explained Alan. "We have no intention of mechanising as the area is not suitable for it."

"Our policy is not to take our forestry operations back in-house, but in this case, we had no alternative," explained Hendrik.

However, the exercise has provided Sappi with a valuable opportunity to assess the viability of the harvesting operations and the real costs involved.

On the subject of mechanisation, Hendrik says Sappi's target is to mechanise roughly 70-75% of their harvesting operations – they have currently achieved around 65% mechanisation. This target is determined by the nature of the terrain.

Safety considerations

He said that the main factors driving mechanisation are considerations of safety and the increasing difficulty experienced by contractors in finding sufficient, able-bodied workers to do the job.

"Manual forestry work is not held in high esteem among local communities, especially bark stripping and stacking. Nobody wants to do that. It's inhumane work and it's much safer to do it mechanically," said Hendrik.

"We'll mechanise where it is cost-effective and where it's feasible."

Silviculture is another area where machines are beginning to make their appearance in South Africa. Sappi is doing some mulching in strategic areas, and has been experimenting with various hand-held and motorised pitters, as it is another job that is extremely tough on the human body.

The increasing number of foreigners from Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland working on South African plantations is an indication that forestry contractors have to cast their net wider to find workers for their operations. Most contractors will always employ a local before a foreigner.

Published in October 2011