| Back to Letters | Back to Forest Letter Watch |
"I have committed Gunns to add value to the rest of the business and grow our business and develop," Mr Gay said yesterday. “The added value part of forestry will reduce the value of woodchips in Gunns' turnover and we are heading towards 50 per cent."
The Launceston-based company is nearing an annual turnover of $600 million, with an $18 million profit for the past financial year. It is the biggest hardwood company in the southern hemisphere and one of 200 biggest companies in Australia. Directly or through subcontractors, it employs more than 3000 people.
Mr Gay announced yesterday new contracts for 50 containers to Belgium and 150 containers to Asia of rough sawn timber for wooden venetian blinds, flooring and furniture. If the value-adding exports continued to grow, Gunns would increase the jobs at its Launceston site by 40 to 50, he said.
However, woodchipping would never be phased out completely.
"Gunns will always need export woodchipping... because in our forests today there is a large area of forests that is not suitable for any other product except for fibre," he said.
"Being a large sawmiller and a veneer operator, we sell off the residues and, long term, we cannot really reduce the volume of woodchips we use while the sawmilling industry is at the size that it is." Meanwhile, the new Federal Forestry, Fisheries and Conservation Minister, Senator Ian Macdonald, visited timber communities in and around Launceston yesterday.
Senator Macdonald said he was inundated with inquiries about the Regional Forest Agreement. “Everyone is keen to have the RFA passed through Federal Parliament," he said. "I am delighted to be able to tell them it is listed for the beginning of the next session in a couple of weeks and we have made a commitment to promote the Bill."
He said the agreement would bring certainty through Commonwealth legislation
to both forestry and conservation.
| Back to Letters | Back to Forest Letter Watch |