WORLD production and consumption of plywood has increased fivefold since the end of the second world war. This striking advance has occurred during a period which has also witnessed a major expansion of the fibreboard industry and the birth and rapid growth of the latest member of the family of wood-based panel industries - particle board.
That the production of all three of these wood-based panel products should have simultaneously grown so quickly is evidence that each has a specific contribution to make toward satisfying the needs for constructional and other materials. The accelerated growth of the industries stems from a variety of technological and economic factors which caused a diversification of these products, multiplied their uses, improved their quality and lowered their cost.
The development of these panel products has markedly improved the efficiency of utilization of the primary raw material-timber: apart from the production of veneers for plywood which is generally based on fairly large logs for peeling or slicing. This group of industries can use timber of nearly any dimension from a large number of species. Residues from logging operations, silvicultural thinnings, sawmilling and other secondary operations provide appropriate raw materials for both fibreboard and particle board manufacture.
These industries still account for only about four percent of the world's consumption of industrial wood but demand is expected to increase, particularly in those countries where rising living standards will call for substantially greater supplies of constructional materials, or where rising labor costs favor industries of high productivity. Nevertheless, temporary imbalances in the world supply and demand situation have already perturbed both governments and industries.
As the result of many requests, FAO is planning to convene an international consultation on plywood and wood-based panel products probably in Rome for a period in April and May 1963. The purpose of the meeting will be to bring together specialists from government agencies, private industry and trade to discuss raw materials, processing techniques and equipment, applications and uses and the economics of production, consumption and trade. A report will be issued which will attempt to bring into focus, on a world basis, the present situation and potential developments for these competitive commodities. Some of the important questions the consultation will seek to answer are:
1. What are the future prospects for production, consumption and trade of plywood and other wood-based products?2. What will be the effects of substitution due to competition among wood-based panels and between wood and nonwood products?
3. Will raw material supplies constitute a bottleneck? How far have technical developments in manufacture, properties and uses been generalized, and are further advances in sight?
The consultation will form part of FAO's continuing program of work aimed at fostering the development of national forest products industries, and at improving the utilization of the world's forest resources. In cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), FAO organized at Geneva in 1957 an international consultation on insulation board, hardboard and particle board. As a result a publication, Fibreboard and particle board, was fed in 1958 and reprinted m 1959. In March 1962, as supplement 4 to volume XIV of the Timber bulletin for Europe, a survey of the production, consumption and trade of fibreboard and particle board in Europe was issued in Geneva, by FAO and ECE.
Stanley A. Clarke, formerly Chief of the Division of Forest Products of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has been engaged by FAO to help organize the consultation.
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