Log export forecast

Six ships are loading raw logs in Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Global Heart is loading logs in Port Alberni Tuesday through Saturday. 

The POS Jade (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Saturday and Sunday.

The Pacific Logger (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Crofton Wednesday through Sunday.

The Nicoline Bulker (United Kingdom) is loading logs in Chemainus Friday through Sunday.

The Santa Francisca (Panama) is loading logs at Harmac Thursday through Saturday.

The Coos Bay is loading logs in Kultas Cove Tuesday through Friday. (No more information is available on this ship.)

Log export forecast

One ship is loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island this week.

The White Coral (Panama) is loading in Nanaimo through Wednesday.

No log exports this week

For the second time in a month, there are no raw log exports from Vancouver Island ports this week.

Log export forecast

Six ships are loading raw logs in Vancouver Island ports for export this week.

The Matakana Island (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Chemainus Monday through Thursday. 

The Taokas Wisdom (Panama) is loading logs in Nanaimo Tuesday to Saturday. 

The Global Peace (Singapore) is loading logs at Harmac Monday to Wednesday. It moves to Port Alberni Thursday-Saturday. 

The Young Spirit (Vanuatu) is loading logs at Harmac Thursday to Saturday. It shifts to Port Alberni Sunday. 

In Port Alberni, the Global Garland (Panama) is loading logs on Monday and Tuesday. (Photographed at Gabriola one month ago.)

The Port Phillip (Hong Kong) finishes loading logs in Port Alberni Monday. 

Log export forecast

Four vessels are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island ports this week. 

The Global Garland (Panama) is loading logs at Harmac Monday through Thursday.

The Global Diamond (Panama) is loading logs in Nanaimo Tuesday through Thursday.

The Kiwi Trader (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday and Tuesday.

 













The Port Phillip (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Tuesday and Wednesday.

No log exports this week

For the second time in six months, no raw logs are being exported from Vancouver Island ports this week. Is this related to the troubles of Sino-Forest Corp? The former giant in the Chinese and world forest industry is facing bankruptcy and fraud allegations. Its impending demise may cast a harsh light on other forest companies and their accounting methods. 

Embattled Sino-Forest faces more uncertainty as OSC alleges fraud

Sino-Forest Corp. is in for a long road of uncertainty ahead as the once top-rated forestry company, now struggling to find a buyer, faces fraud allegations by the Ontario Securities Commission.

The firm, which the OSC accuses of misrepresenting its revenue and the extent of its assets in China, has been exploring its options, which might include a sale of the company.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection March 30 and put itself up for sale ...

Last year, investors in BC joined a $9.18-billion class-action lawsuit against the company.

When the fraud allegations became public, stock prices quickly collapsed.

From the Vancouver Sun:   

British Columbia’s biggest public-sector pension manager has joined a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking compensation from the embattled Chinese timber company.

Sino-Forest, once Canada’s biggest forestry-related company with timber operations in China, headquarters in Mississauga and stock listings in Canada and the United States, saw its share value collapse after short-seller Carson Block targeted the firm with allegations of overstating its holdings*, which were made by his research firm Muddy Waters LLC.

In an emailed statement, bcIMC said it joined the suit because “we believe that our clients and the Canadian marketplace were deceived.”

*"Overstating its holdings" means claiming it had forests where there were none. 

Is this the start of a new downturn in forest commodities? Time will tell. 

Log export forecast

Two ships are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island this week.

The Nicoline Bulker (United Kingdon) is loading logs in Crofton from Tuesday to Saturday.

The Crystal Island (Panama) is loading logs in Nanaimo from Tuesday to Friday.

Log export forecast

Two cargo ships are loading raw logs for export in Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Santiago Basin (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 

The Nicoline Bulker (United Kingdom) is loading logs in Crofton Thursday through Sunday.

BC Liberals face backlash over log exports

The province has been overruling its own advisory committee on raw log exports, according to reports. From the Vancouver Sun, March 14:

The B.C. Liberal government has, since December, been exporting raw logs that its own advisory committee has been saying should be going to producers in B.C.

On Tuesday, New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix said the Timber Export Advisory Committee (TEAC) determined last December that logs from Quatsino Sound on Vancouver Island should be sold to Teal-Jones of Surrey instead of being shipped overseas.

But Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson overruled that recommendation, Dix said, allowing the logs to be sold into foreign markets.

The ministry said that staff overturned TEAC recommendations on 86 applications in December and January, covering 70,145 cubic metres.

In February, the ministry stopped referring anything to the committee from the west coast of Vancouver Island, as they expected the decisions would be overturned. There were 47 offers in February, comprising 35,532 cubic metres.

 Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail reports that a political backlash against raw log exports has forced the Liberals to launch a review.

There has been a shift in the long-running battle over raw log exports in British Columbia, to the advantage of industries that profit from shipping logs overseas. The winner of this fight – within the forest industry and within the B.C. government – will be declared this spring.

Log exports roughly doubled last year, bringing much-needed cash into coastal logging companies, but creating a political backlash in the process. So, as with so many conflicts facing the Clark government, the province launched a review, which is due in the next few months.

 “I don’t think anybody in British Columbia wants to see us exporting non-milled logs,” Premier Christy Clark said this week. “The point of the review is making sure we can manage, and hopefully diminish, the amount of raw log exports in British Columbia.”

Log export forecast

Five ships are in Vancouver Island ports loading raw logs for export this week.

The Duncan Bay (registered in Panama) is loading logs in Kultas Cove Monday through Thursday.

The Santa Francisca (Panama) is loading logs in Nanaimo Tuesday through Thursday.

The Young Spirit (Vanuatu) finishes loading logs in Nanaimo on Monday.

The Santa Serena (Panama) is loading logs at Harmac Tuesday through Friday.. It moves to Port Alberni to load logs on Saturday and Sunday.

The Eastern Asia (Panama) finishes loading logs at Harmac on Monday.

Log export forecast

There are three ships loading raw logs for export in Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Young Spirit (Vanuatu) is loading logs from Nanaimo all week.

The Timaru Star (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Crofton from Tuesday to Sunday. 

The Eastern Asia (Panama) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday and Tuesday, and at Harmac Thursday to Sunday. 

This shot of the Eastern Asia was taken on January 14, 2012, at a log dump on Gabriola Island. 

Log export forecast

Five export ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Atlantic Burnet, registered in Hong Kong, is loading logs all week in Nanaimo. Below, the Atlantic Burnet photographed in Japan.  

The Stx Harmony (Panama) is also in Nanaimo through Wednesday.

Global Garland (Panama) is loading logs at Harmac though Thursday

The Ace Century (Vanuatu) is loading in Port Alberni through Wednesday. 

The Sun Ruby (Hong Kong) is loading in Crofton through Tuesday.

Log export forecast

Five foreign cargo vessels are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Stx Harmony (Panama) is loading logs in Port Alberni through Wednesday, and the Global Garland (Panama) is loading logs there through Thursday.

The Sun Ruby (Hong Kong) is loading logs from Crofton through Wednesday.

Later this week, the Atlantic Burnet (Hong Kong), the Global Garland, and Stx Harmony are loading in Nanaimo, while the Ace Century (Vanuatu) is loading in Port Alberni.

Clearcut forecast: "Everywhere"

Logging companies are clearcutting Vancouver Island's forests faster than ever, and more remote areas are being targeted, reports Ken Wu of Ancient Forest Alliance.

Logging is on hold on Cortes Island for now, but Vancouver Island's largest landowner, Western Forest Products, is targeting old-growth across the island, Wu says.

A few of the target areas are highlighted below. Left to right: Nitinat Lake, Upper Walbran Valley, Gordon River, and the ridge above China Beach, which is being logged by a partnership with the Pacheedaht First Nation.

 
















The Kyuoquot Valley is also being logged, Wu notes. The Friends of Clayoquot Sound have issued an alert for logging on Flores Island, in the heart of Clayoquot.

Update: Cortes Island logging on hold until fall

Update: Cortes activists Tzeporah Berman and Carrie Saxifrage report that plans to clearcut parts of Cortes Island are postponed until September 2012. Representatives from Island Timberlands assured them at a meeting this week that "the earliest they would begin logging is in September."

This community of a thousand people near Campbell River is known to many as a "birthplace of the green movement" in BC. The impending battle between the islanders and the logging company, owned by Wall Street conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management, sparked protests in Nanaimo, Victoria, and Vancouver this week. In January, a petition with over 6,000 signatures was delivered to half a dozen Brookfield offices worldwide.

Log export forecast

Three export ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) finishes loading and departs from Kultas Cove on Monday.

The Black Forest (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday through Friday.

The STX Harmony (Panama) is loading logs in Port Alberni on Sunday.

Log export forecast

Five international cargo ships are loading raw logs in Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) is loading in Kultas Cove all week. 

Two sister ships from Panama, the Global Explorer and the Global Arrow, are loading logs in Nanaimo from Monday through Friday.

The Global Explorer, photographed in Nanaimo in June 2011.

The Global Arrow, photographed off California in February 2011.

The Panama-flagged Oriente Crest (photographed off Victoria in July 2011) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday through Thursday..

No records are available for the fifth ship, the Nicoline Bulker (United Kingdom), loading logs at Crofton Monday through Wednesday.

Log export forecast

There are five foreign-owned cargo ships loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Oriente Crest (Panama) is loading logs Tuesday through Saturday at Kultas Cove, and on Sunday in Port Alberni.(Photographed in Astoria, Oregon.)

The IVS Kawana (Singapore) began loading logs in Crofton last week, and it finishes there on Tuesday. (Photographed in Bay of Bengal, 2010.)

The Ocean Harmony (Singapore) is loading logs at Harmac on Monday and Tuesday.  (Photographed in New Westminster, BC.)

The Ocean Hope (Vanuatu) is loading logs at Harmac Wednesday and Thursday. (Photographed in New Westminster, BC.)

 















The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) arrives on Sunday at Kultas Cove. (Photographed in South Adelaide, Australia.)

Log export forecast

Two Singapore-registered cargo ships are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The IVS Kawana (Singapore) is loading logs all week at Crofton.















The Ocean Harmony (Singapore) is loading logs in Port Alberni on Wednesday and Thursday, and at Harmac on Saturday and Sunday.

Log export forecast

Three cargo ships are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Santa Francisca (Panama) is loading raw logs in Port Alberni.

A sister ship, the Santa Serena (Panama) finishes loading its cargo in Port Alberni on Wednesday.

After two weeks in port, the Tasman Sea (Hong Kong) finishes loading raw logs in Kultas Cove.