11 May 2006
Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, Vancouver, Canada Over 450 CEOs and senior forest and paper industry executives, industry analysts, customers, suppliers and government policy makers discussed the major structural changes underway in this global industry.
With a theme of Global Sourcing, Local Impacts, the conference panel discussions addressed financial performance and outlook, market and supply chain dynamics and other strategic issues. A panel of CEOs from the world’s leading forest products companies shared their visions, recent successes and challenges fo adapting to changing market pressures. Access the speaker presentations, biographies from our conference pages.
The video archive is now available.
This Webcast is made possible through the generous support of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada |
Program - 11 May 2006
Click on a discussion panel title to view speaker information and the presentation slides.
- 8:00AM - Opening remarks
Bruce McIntyre, Leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Canadian Forest, Paper and Packaging Practice and Conference Co-chairperson welcomed delegates to the 19th annual conference and to Vancouver. Bruce also thanked the sponsors for their support and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia for providing a live web simulcast of the conference and hosting a video archive of the panel discussions.
To kick off the conference and provide some perspective on the day’s proceedings, The Honourable Rich Coleman, Minister of Forests and Range and Minister Responsible for Housing in the Province of British Columbia touched on some of the dynamics of the forest industry in BC, the pine beetle infestation in the interior region, and the challenges in the industry along BC’s coast. The Minister also discussed the tentative agreement in the softwood lumber dispute with the United States, and the importance of emerging markets such as Russia.
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- 8:30AM - Financial performance/ Economic outlook
PwC’s Craig Campbell began the session by reporting that the industry’s return on capital employed fell short of the cost of capital again in 2005. He called on the BC producers to take advantage of the record low fibre costs and invest some of the expected earnings over the next few years into new, efficient mills to make BC’s pulp industry globally competitive. Reid Carter of Brookfield Timberlands Investment Management discussed the attributes of an attractive timberland investment. Lars Kjellberg of Credit Suisse shared insights from the European forest industry and how producers in the EU are focusing on management skills, cost cutting and capacity management. The panel was moderated by PwC’s Libarid Guluzian.
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- 10:15AM - Global sourcing, local impacts
Mike Gray of Dell started off the panel by discussing the five tenets of their successful business model and their focus on people, process and technology, and key learnings for the forest, paper and packaging sector. Wal-Mart’s Tyler Elm spoke about business sustainability and environmental leadership through the supply chain. Sophie Beckham from IKEA described the linkages between influencing positive environmental and social change, responsible procurement and supply chain certification, low cost manufacturing, and business sustainability. The panel was moderated by PwC’s Scott McLean.
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- 1:45PM - Market outlook
Eva Greger of GMO Renewable Resources compared timber assets with other investment classes, and discussed how financial capital is flowing to timber investments in emerging markets with stable economies and favourable tax regimes. Tolko’s Brad Thorlakson spoke about some of the current challenges faced by producers and their customers, and how globalization, supply chain infrastructure, demographics and increasing service expectations are having profound impacts on today’s marketplace. Roger Wright of Hawkins Wright discussed the maturation of the global pulp market, and how China’s policies and growth are influencing global pulp demand, production and price. The panel moderator was Clive Suckling of PwC.
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- 3:35PM - Executive perspectives
Plum Creek’s Rick Holley spoke about timber ownership and fibre supply in the U.S., the need to maximize the net present value of each acre, the impact of demographics on production, and bio-energy as an additional sound way to extract value from the forest. Frank Graves of Ilim Pulp described how pulp and paper production Russia is currently at its limit, the need for capital investment in infrastructure to capitalize on abundant wood supply, how illegal logging is being addressed and a new Russian forest code. Jim Lopez of Tembec stated that the forest industry is not generating acceptable returns, capital investments are being made without enough planning, and that declining chip supplies, high labour costs, and government subsidies are dragging down the pulp industry in Eastern Canada. Catalyst Paper’s Russ Horner spoke on the impact of Canada’s strengthening currency on Canadian producers, the need for industry consolidation in Canada and closure of uncompetitive mills, and the need to manage the excess chip supply due to the pine beetle kill and to plan for the expected reduction in supply after the pine beetle wood harvest subsides. The co-moderators for this panel were Robert Barnden and Kevin Bromley, both of PwC.
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