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NZ Risks Squandering World-Class Wood Science: Experts Warn MPs

Scion could lose the world's best and brightest scientists and researchers overseas


Fri 13 Sep 24

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At a time when New Zealand should be using more timbers to build earthquake-resistant buildings and capitalising on the world’s most productive forest assets, it is still “stuck in the lab” and, thanks to budget cuts, now risks losing its best and brightest wood scientists to opportunities overseas.

“It’s enough to make you weep,” said Richard Westlake, Chair of Scion, who, along with Julian Elder, Scion’s CEO, defended the performance of NZ’s crown Institute for Forestry and Wood Products before the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee.

It comes as Wood Central reported (in May) that 10% of the research institute’s 280-strong staff were at risk after the Luxon government flagged large-scale budget cuts.

“It is vital for this country’s future that both the science that Scion does is not only preserved but enhanced and encouraged,” Mr Westlake said, “we need certainty, sooner rather than later, so that the world-leading scientists that we have aren’t lured overseas.”

shutterstock 749611570 fotor 20240913142858
New Zealand has missed an enormous opportunity to build mid-rise buildings out of timber in earthquake-prone centres like Wellington. (Photo Credit: Stock Photo ID: 749611570 via Shutterstock Images)

And whilst the quality of Scion’s science had not yet resulted in a high-tech materials industry that can displace steel and concrete, Mr Westlake said the promise is there. He said that the decision by major centres like Wellington and Christchurch to preference traditional concrete and steel buildings over timber presents major seismic challenges:

“If most of Wellington’s medium-rise buildings had been built in timber instead of concrete and steel, we wouldn’t have this wasteland, which, as a passionate Wellingtonian, makes me weep,” he told MPs, adding that NZ also missed out on a huge opportunity to rebuild Christchurch with timber.

Richard Westlake, Chair of Scion, on the missed opportunity to build mid-rise buildings out of mass timber.
We lack a “proper timber-based and fibre-based industry.”

According to Mr Westlake, the volume of raw logs now processed overseas highlights a huge missed opportunity to develop a high-value-added industry:

“We are sending out the commodity of one of the best products in the world, where New Zealand has a competitive advantage. If we can just invest, and get a strategic direction for this industry, we can be making high-quality products, which can be used in many areas.”

Ultimately, a lot of the logs New Zealand sent overseas ended up being used as “boxing” during the building of concrete buildings, after which it was burnt, Dr Elder said, adding that Scion was very good at doing the science in laboratories, but NZ has failed to turn that science into “major production.”

“Scion actually should be a core of keeping New Zealand a first world economy, and I don’t think that is overstating the case. If you look at the threats over the next quarter of a century to traditional exports, with carbon consciousness, with food exports, and the various pressures on those. This is the one sustainable area that we have in New Zealand.”

Dr Julian Elder on the role of Scion – New Zealand’s crown institute for forestry and wood products.
More than 78% of logs traded through South Korea's port system come from New Zealand - with the former Korea Forest Service Minister pointing to New Zealand's success in exporting its artificial (plantation) forests into global markets. (Photo Credit: Marsden Point New Zealand)
Huge volumes of raw logs are now exported from New Zealand ports – like Marsden Point, are then processed into higher value timber products are then reimported and used in construction projects. (Photo Credit: Marsden Point New Zealand)
“We feel hugely frustrated.”

“We see this big opportunity for the country, but we are still at the lab,” Dr Elder said, adding that Scion needs government intervention to supercharge progress.

“We need a level of intervention,” he said. “That includes getting the settings right for foreign direct investment to get money in to develop the country’s pulp and paper mills to transition them to being world-class on efficiency, and driving a bio-materials, bio-chemicals industry.”

However, Dr Elder said, “There’s a question mark about how you get that investment in,” adding that the level of investment required is enormous.

For example, the massive Kinleith mill in Tokoroa, owned by Oji Fibre Solutions: “It’s almost a Tiwai Smelter,” he said, with MPs invited to think about the future of the Kinleith Mill in Tokoroa, also owned by Oji Fibre Solutions.

“Are they going to invest billions of dollars to make that into a modern refinery exporting heat and energy and making all sorts of fundamental bio-chemicals that can be used for all sorts of things?

“Or are they going to switch it off?”

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  • Wood Central

    Wood Central is Australia’s first and only dedicated platform covering wood-based media across all digital platforms. Our vision is to develop an integrated platform for media, events, education, and products that connect, inform, and inspire the people and organisations who work in and promote forestry, timber, and fibre.

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