However, more bad news came when, following rapidly on the heels of the violent typhoon in Burma (Myanmar), the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province in China shocked the world and reminded us all once again of the potentially devastating forces of nature. While Burma has no panel industry that I am aware of, of course Sichuan province does. In fact I visited one of them – Chengdu Shengda’s HDF mill – in March and the story is on page 54 of this issue.I am pleased to be able to report that, according to my sources, none of the major mills in Sichuan province has been seriously affected by the earthquake. So the good news is that the employees’ jobs are safe.
Unfortunately I cannot speak for the state of their homes and wider families of course. A truly tragic situation, the magnitude of which is still unfolding as I write.
Also in this issue of the magazine is the first part of our survey of the world MDF industry – Europe and North America – together with John Wadsworth’s unique in-depth analysis of market trends and future prospects. Nobody will be surprised by his findings in North America (unless one new mill is a surprise) but you may be surprised to see that Europe added over 14% to capacity in 2007.
Of course Turkey – reported extensively in our Focus on Turkey in issue 2 – features strongly with its dramatic capacity growth.
Meanwhile, the good news is that many of the machinery makers have full order books and their main problem is lead times.
So maybe it is not all bad news after all and there is life after the US mortgage catastrophe – and some crumb of comfort for the unfortunate people of Sichuan.
