The first of our annual surveys of the global panel manufacturing industry – OSB – is in two, very different, parts.
We start with North America, where the story is a depressing one of mill closures and curtailments and miserable balance sheets for the OSB manufacturers. There is some prediction of an increase in housebuilding during 2010 but it is expected to be a slow start on a steep hill to recovery and in the meantime, nobody can be sure how much more capacity will be permanently closed as opposed to temporarily idled.

The European producers mostly have a very different story to tell. On the continent of Europe, the mood is very positive, demand is strong and order books are full for weeks ahead. Nobody seems quite sure where all this demand is coming from, or why, but they are very glad of it!
Latin America also seems to be emerging from the economic crisis and its OSB manufacturers are gearing up for eagerly-anticipated increases in demand from ‘new’ markets.
Meanwhile, China will have its first serious OSB production later this year when Hubei Baoyuan presses the ‘start’ button on its 210,000m3 a year continuous CPS line. And there are several more such projects on the starting blocks in China.
Talking of China, since Küsters introduced the first continuous press to the panel industry in 1977, European machinery makers have had a monopoly on their manufacture, with Siempelkamp producing its first ContiRoll in 1985 and Dieffenbacher in 1990.
With the Küsters press now within the Siempelkamp group (via Metso Panelboard) and the first producer of a continuous press outside Europe – Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd  – safely in the hands of Dieffenbacher, you might have been forgiven for thinking that Europe still had its monopoly.
However, as visitors to the WMF exhibition in China found out, there are three Chinese machinery makers in various stages of readiness to produce continuous presses (p40-43).
I think we can safely assume that these continuous presses will not present a threat to Siempelkamp or Dieffenbacher’s quality, or their markets – outside China at least – in the near future.
But it would be to under-estimate the Chinese manufacturers to think this situation will not change. Think back to the very poor quality, cheap, early Japanese cars. Then think about the position of Toyota for instance (forgetting their current specific quality issues for now) in the world market today.
Watch this space, as they say, and carefully.