26 | Sector Focus: France
Above: Piveteaubois’ Pivolta car park solar canopy
◄ “This is a great cladding timber, and a replacement for Siberian larch, for which we’re also offering ayous and thermo-treated timber as alternatives,” said Ms Standaert. “Louro vermelho is also a good price.” With recent CITES Appendix II listings including ipé and cumaru, Vandecasteele has also focused on lesser-known species for decking. At CIB it showed samples of other suitable South American species – balsamo, tanimbuca, sucupira preta and jutai. The upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was another hot topic of show conversation. Companies acknowledged its demand from the end of 2024 for due diligence assurance that timber imported to and exported from the EU is deforestation- free and legal, and for geolocation co- ordinates for provenance, will be a challenge. Vandecasteele said it was considering use of Orbify’s geospatial data platform for natural assets monitoring as part of its EUDR strategy.
Interholco, the Switzerland and Africa- based timber and further processed product supplier, believes the combination of certification of its African forest and wood operations, plus its own data and traceability systems will facilitate EUDR compliance. “We already provided geolocation information for our concessions as part of legality assurance under the EU Timber Regulation, and we draw on Global Forest Watch satellite monitoring of forest cover,” said vice-president sales and marketing Christophe Janssen. “Although it’s not related to EUDR, [in terms of environmental validation] we’re also working with the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) on life cycle analysis for our timber products [to enable development of environmental product declarations and health and environment declaration sheets].”
TTJ | July/August 2024 |
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The company, he added, is also part of the European Biochar Industry Consortium, looking at the use of by-products to make biochar, which has uses as a soil improver, in water filtration and as a long-term carbon store, including in concrete production. With log export restrictions in the Republic of the Congo, where Interholco subsidiary IFO has its production and forest operations, Interholco has also accelerated further processing and finished goods production. “We’re investing in new edging and kilning capacity, and a new 180m finger-jointing line has doubled our multi-ply window and door scantlings capacity,” said Mr Janssen. Interholco too, is developing use of lesser- known tropical species.
“Recently we’ve been evaluating olon and olonvogo,” said Mr Janssen. “The latter is very close in performance to iroko, where
availability has not been sufficient to meet demand.”
Centre stage on Arxada’s stand was its
Tanalith metal-free range, plus the Lifestyle Colours designed for use with both Tanalith MF and E. “We’re looking at the needs of the market
10, 12 years into the future, and Tanalith MF is one of the outcomes of that long- term focus,” said Arxada marketing director EIMEA Wood Protection Andy Hodge. “It’s ideal for such areas as playground equipment, garden furniture and other out-of-ground contact timber uses. You don’t need that heavy chemical content. An added incentive to choose MF is materials costs, with copper prices up 25% this year. Lifestyle also enables users to be more creative, including through blending to create their own signature colour range.” ■
Above: Many exhibitors used the show to launch new products
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