Trends in Wood Protection in Asia and Oceania: A Perspective - ACS

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Trends in Wood Protection in Asia and Oceania: A Perspective Alan Preston and Lehong Jin Chemical Specialties, Inc., 200 East Woodburn Road, Suite 350, Charlotte, N C 28217

Introduction The availability of plentiful native wood resources in many countries in the western Pacific established a long tradition of the use of wood for structural applications in utility, construction and agricultural applications. In the tropical regions of Asia and Oceania, this native resource has been characterized by a wide variety of hardwoods, many of which had excellent natural durability. In the case of Japan and New Zealand, the dominant native species were softwood species with good durability in construction applications but with few species having good natural durability in ground contact. These resource realities shaped the growth and applications of wood protection technologies in the region. Other key drivers have been the presence or otherwise of termites and climate and traditions with the use of other materials in place of wood. As a consequence of these various factors, both New Zealand and Japan have long established wood preservation industries and technology bases for the treatment of plantation softwoods, while Australia and the continental countries of Asia traditionally relied on their durable hardwood resources for many applications until quite late in the 20 Century. However, the establishment and harvesting of softwood plantations in Australia saw a move towards wood preservation that earlier was restricted to lyctid control of susceptible hardwoods as well as treatments of some less durable Eucalyptus species. In Malaysia, Thailand and tropical China the establishment and eventual rotation harvesting of large rubberwood plantations gave rise over the last quarter century to a th

© 2008 American Chemical Society In Development of Commercial Wood Preservatives; Schultz, T., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.

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thriving treatment industry based around borate treatments of rubberwood lumber for use in furniture applications. While it is convenient in this survey to group Asia and Oceania together as a geographically based package, in reality most activity is driven by national rather than regional factors, and these are resource, population, wealth, tradition and application driven.

Asia Japan Like many northern hemisphere countries with a temperate climate, Japan is a society with a long tradition of using wood for many applications. This relates to the historic availability of a natural softwood resource of species with an appropriate level of natural durability. As the population has increased the pressures on the natural resource increased and the availability of the naturally durable old growth trees diminished. Plantation forestry of these species, especially Cryptomeria japonica (Sugi) and Pinus densiflora (Japanese pine) flourished, but the utilization of these plantation forests necessitated the development and growth of the wood preservation industry. This, coupled with the importation of large volumes of Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) from Canada and also Douglas fir, gave rise to the primary structural building materials used in Japan today, all of which require treatment to control either termite infestation, especially by Coptotermes formosanus (Formosan termite), which is now endemic in regions from Tokyo south and west, or from decay. The wood treating industry is thus well developed with many pressure treatment plants, both large and small. Many of larger plants are associated with construction companies, but independent treaters are also common. Japan has well-established standards and procedures in the wood treating area, although third party inspection of treatments is rather uncommon. Japan is a country of considerable natural beauty and the population lives in a relatively small proportion of the land area. These two factors, coupled with the high overall wealth of the country may be key drivers in leading to a society that is quite environmentally sensitive and in the mid-1990s Japan was one of the first countries to switch away from C C A because of ecotoxicological concerns with arsenic and chromium as used at wood treating plants. Today A C Q and copper azole are the dominant wood preservatives in commercial use. In addition, a number of other preservatives, quats and borates among them, are used for above ground-only applications.

In Development of Commercial Wood Preservatives; Schultz, T., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.


601 In the area of research in wood preservation, Japan has a strong and flourishing research community based around several prominent university programs, the government research organization, as well as several industrial laboratories. There is a history of innovative research, which continues to this day. Japanese society is very aware of product quality and appearance, and this is reflected also in the utilization and research on protected wood products. Perhaps because markets for many products in Japan tend to be far more fragmented than is the case in North America, this has the positive effect of allowing relatively niche product developments to flourish, and this has been the case in wood protection markets, too, in Japan.

Korea The situation in Korea is somewhat similar to that in Taiwan but recent growth has been more robust in this market. In Korea there has been no historic widespread use of treated wood, and it appears that some of the activity in the last ten years has been focused on export to Japan has the main target. Trends in the types of wood preservatives used in Korea have generally followed that of Japan, in part because of the export sector needing to parallel that of Japan. Korea has an active academic research base in wood protection. This is focused around research at several universities as well as the Forest Research Institute of Korea.

China Region

Taiwan Taiwan's involvement in wood protection is small although in the last few years there has been increased activity as commercial contacts with China have increased. The market in Taiwan is small, with only a small domestic use of treated wood, due to a weak tradition in wood utilization. The Taiwan market has had an export based focus, especially towards Japan, but the increasing economic wealth of Taiwan, coupled with the recent growth of the industry in China, will presumably have an impact on such export outlets. Within Taiwan there is a small research base, but it would seem unlikely that this will grow unless there are significant cultural or industry changes to provide further impetus.


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Mainland China As in many other areas of commerce, the wood preservation industry has undergone rapid change in the last few years. Traditionally, the industry in China was dominated by creosote treatments of railroad ties and poles, but this has been in decline with the advent of alternative substrates for these applications. In the tropical regions, especially Hainan Island, the development and harvesting of extensive rubberwood plantations has given rise to the establishment of treating plants that specialize in borate and mold prevention based treatments for rubberwood for use in furniture and other interior applications. There is also some use of pressure treated fire retardants in China. However, it is in the area of water-based preservatives for lumber applications that the wood treating industry is seeing rapid growth and change. The driving force for the popularity of using treated wood has come from the architects, designers and building specifiers. The uses of treated wood are mainly in the following applications: • Park and lakeside walkway projects controlled by government agencies • Residential decking and decorative garden applications • Structural house cladding, wooden bridges, fences, etc. The number of chemical treating plants has increased dramatically during last two years. More than 150 treating plants are operational in China with a capacity of up to 300 to 500 m treated wood production per month. The Shanghai area has the biggest share of the treating plants with 40 to 50, Beijing has 15, and then the other three most developed provinces are Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang with 10 to 15 plants each. The rest of the country has around 30 to 35 plants. The demand for treated wood is on a steep upward growth curve, and as a consequence more and/or larger treating plants can be expected to come on line in the next several years. It appears increasingly likely that the treated wood market in China will become significant within Asia and perhaps eventually also as a global influence. The major preservative used in China is still C C A and that is anticipated to remain so for the next 5 to 10 years since the major players in the industry are speaking for the continuing safe use of C C A and the consumers do not know the difference since their main criteria is treated wood with a green color. C C A is used at 65-70% of treating plants and while A C Q is being used in 30-35% of treating plants for domestic applications. Some usage of copper azole is also reported. The main driver in preservative choice is cost. There are eight known domestic preservative manufacturers in China and these are concentrated in three areas, namely Guangzhou, Shanghai and in Jiangxi province. Imported wood 3


603 preservative concentrates are also used in some plant. In 2005 it is anticipated that the total treated wood used could reach 400,000 m . While a considerable amount of the wood being treated in China is exported to Japan, especially with A C Q formulations, the greatest change in the last few years has been the rise of a significant domestic market for treated lumber. Unlike in some markets around the world, this newly arisen China treated lumber market puts an emphasis on appearance and lumber condition in service, although in-plant quality control let alone a third party system remains dormant. The emphasis is to make sure the wood looks uniformly green and well penetrated and major effort is taken to ensure good looking wood surfaces. After treatment and drying, the treated lumber surfaces are often re-planed or sanded if necessary. For government projects appearance and preservative type are often carefully specified and inspected. Both domestically sourced as well as imported treated wood products are used, and this is often southern yellow pine lumber sourced from the U.S. When southern pine is used, surface checking of the treated product is considered undesirable and hence the use of surface stain coatings, kerfing or profiling, or the use of pressure treated water repellents has started to gain more influence than is the case in other countries. The China market for wood preservatives has been reliant on a new standards system for wood treatment that is based around the A W P A and the European standards. However, as noted above, quantitative quality control or third party inspection enforcement is lacking. It is also noted that most preservative standards listed by the A W P A , such as for C C A and various types of A C Q , have been followed, but because the A W P A standards do not list specific formulation information, some of the preservative products made in China are distinctly different from those used in the U.S., Japan or other countries. These differences have the potential to unwittingly impact the longterm efficacy of some of these domestically produced preservatives. Moreover, the absence of a well established third party quality inspection scheme for either the preservatives or treated wood, may serve to exacerbate such potential problems over time. China has a significant research base in wood products protection, which is centered in the forest product based Universities such as the Beijing, Nanjing and Northeast Forestry universities, and research institutes such as the Forestry Academy of Science in Beijing and Guangdong Forestry Research Institute. However, there has also been a tendency for some key researchers involved in such research to embark on associated entrepreneurial activity in the industry, which clearly has the potential to weaken the development of innovative and fundamental knowledge but rather put more emphasis on application research. This may also create potential conflicts of interest as well as potential concerns in regards to intellectual property rights.


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Malaysia Perhaps because of its historic political association with Britain, Malaysia has long had a comparatively well-developed market, albeit small and static, for wood preservatives. C C A has been, and remains, the dominant preservative in Malaysia, although LOSP treatments enjoy a small niche and rubberwood treatments based around borate systems have proliferated over the years. The Malaysian market is marked by the presence of many small wood treatment plants, which are unlikely to change from their current preservatives unless some outside pressure necessitate such a change. The research base in wood protection was centered around the Forest Research Institute Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, but in recent years this has declined somewhat while universities in Sarawak and Penang have become more active than in the past.

Oceania Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia The islands of the Pacific that one could include under this section cover a vast area of the world's surface but the habitable land mass, with the exception of New Guinea is very small indeed. Leaving out Hawaii, as being the predominant Polynesian part of the U.S., and New Zealand for convenience even though it is part of Polynesia too, the use of treated wood in this diffuse area tends to be dominated by former colonial ties, or the relative proximity of larger supplier countries such as New Zealand. C C A remains the dominant preservative used throughout the region. Small treatment plants dot the islands, but maintaining stable manufacturing staff at these facilities is a major challenge for continuity of supply from them. Some regions of Melanesia had a significant natural hardwood resource, but these have diminished with extraction harvesting and much of the treatment carried out today is with imported softwoods from plantations. A n exception to this is the pine plantations of Fiji, which provide a valuable domestic wood resource.

Australia Australia is a large, relatively under-populated country, with a strong tradition in the use of wood products, but with a wood treatment market that in many sectors has developed relatively recently. The compelling factor that has



605 influenced the use of wood and the growth of various sectors of the wood treatment market is the presence of large areas of native hardwood forests, many of whose species had excellent natural durability that made them attractive for utilization without necessitating treatment. Indeed, some native Australian species such as Turpentine (Syncarpia) have sufficient natural durability that they served well untreated as marine piling. The use of durable hardwoods continues for both roundwood and lumber applications, in some instances requiring treatment or removal of the thin sapwood zone and in other case not. Some seventy years ago, the harvesting and utilization of lyctid susceptible hardwoods gave rise to a dip treatment borate market for the protection of such hardwoods from powder post beetle infestation. At the time, this was one of the first successful applications of borate technology in wood protection, a practice that continues to this day. As the softwood plantation of slash, radiata and hoop pine matured, so to did the utilization of these species in applications that required protection from biodeterioration. For these applications C C A has been the dominant preservative. Initially, many of these applications were agricultural, but over the last quarter century there has been a steady increase in the use of C C A treated lumber for construction applications. As the resource of durable hardwood pole stock diminished, there was a commensurate increase in the use of treated poles, especially with C C A . This has been generally successful but Australia has included two unique situations with this. One was the occurrence in the late 1970s of soft rot in Spotted Gum (Eucalyptus maculata) poles treated with C C A . Research revealed that this was caused by the greater susceptibility of lower lignin hardwood species, even when treated, to soft rot in the treated zone as compared with softwoods and high lignin hardwoods with comparable treatment retentions. The issue was overcome by raising the C C A retention requirements for such poles. The other factor that water-based metallic preservatives such as C C A have faced in some applications in Australia relates to the environment. In many regions Australia has long period of hot dry weather that creates the potential for rapidly moving wildfires. With metallic water-based preservatives this has been known to lead to several instances of spectacular destruction of the treated material by after-glow of the wood following fire. While C C A has remained the most used preservative, it is anticipated that in 2006 residential applications of treated wood will be mandated to be non-arsenical, although this is a relatively small segment of the treated wood market in Australia. Besides the use of C C A for many applications, over the last twenty years light organic solvent preservatives (LOSP) have gained favor for some specialized products in Australia. LOSP treatments have moved in some cases into exposed applications such as timber decking, with mixed success, and more recently into insecticidal treatments to protect framing lumber from termite attack. This latter market has also recently seen the rise of surface applied


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insecticide treatments using water-based formulations for the protection of framing lumber from termite attack. At this time there are lingering questions in regards to the effectiveness of both the organic solvent and water based low penetration treatments, especially i f cut ends of the wood product are not retreated to reinstate a protective complete envelope around the untreated inner zone.

New Zealand For many years New Zealand has had the distinction of being the highest per capita user of treated wood in the world, and this remains so today, albeit at a somewhat lower level than in the past. While the native New Zealand forests were predominately Podocarpus softwoods excellent properties for many applications, these were essentially cleared or consumed many years ago and replaced, after much highly innovative research dating to the nineteenth century, with northern hemisphere pine species, especially Pinus radiata, and Douglas fir, while more recently Eucalypt plantations have become common as additional fiber feedstock resource to supplement the fiber predominantly obtained from radiate pine. New Zealand is a largely agricultural country, with a low population that is concentrated in several large and hilly cities, and a damp temperate coastal climate. These factors have long fueled the use of treated wood in agricultural, utility and construction applications. There has been limited use of creosote for railroad sleepers (crossties) over the years, and also some use of pentachlorophenol for pole treatments. The vast majority of the treated wood used in exterior applications has been C C A and this dates back some 50 years now. It has to be said that the use of C C A has been extremely successful in New Zealand and this remains so to this day. The use of borates for the protection of internal framing lumber was pioneered in New Zealand in the 1950s. While there has been no requirement for termite protection in New Zealand during this time (there have been no native or introduced termites that attack forest products in the country) the borate treatment served to protect the plantation pine framing from Anobiid attack. This also proved to be highly successful and cost effective. In the mid-1990s changes in the New Zealand building code allowed the use of pine framing without borate or any other treatment. Within a few years a substantial rise in internal decay in residential construction was observed, and subsequently borate treatments are now common as a means to protect the framing lumber from such decay, be it incidental or building practice related. The use of LOSP treatments has grown steadily in New Zealand over the last quarter century, and remains a preferred protectant for joinery (millwork) applications and plywood. Whether oil-price rises or V O C considerations eventually impact such uses in New Zealand remains to be seen.



607 A major driver for the treated wood industries of both Australia in New Zealand over the last half-century has been the presence of strong research bases in both countries. In New Zealand the erstwhile government-run Forest Research Institute was the predominant force, while in Australia the Forest Products division of CSIRO, as well as state laboratories in Queensland and New South Wales, were the key resources for many years. As in so many other countries, government funding of such laboratories has evolved rapidly in the last 15 years, and the overall total scientific resource in the two countries has" been drastically reduced. A n interesting outcome of this has been the appearance of ensis, which was launched in 2004 as a combination of CSIRO Forest Products and Forest Research (the previously privatized Forest Research Institute). Such trans-national research cooperatives or entities are highly unusual, and it remains to be seen whether the combined entity will be able to stem the seemingly inexorable decline in funding for forest products research.

Conclusion As we conclude this perspective on the wood preservative markets in Asia and Oceania, it is possibly worthwhile to consider the current relative global market values for this area of commerce. The value of preservative markets around the world in 2004 showed that greater than 50% of the value was concentrated in North America, with near 20% in Europe and the rest of the world taking up the remaining part. While Latin America is a small, but potentially significant growth market, it would be fair to say that Australasia remains relatively static in size, although export opportunities for specialty wood treatments offer growth opportunities beyond G D P growth. Asia is essentially many distinct markets, not all of which have been addressed in this perspective, and while Japan remains the largest market for treated wood in Asia with the strongest tradition of such use, it is clear that China and its rapidly growing middle class offers the greatest growth opportunity for the foreseeable future, albeit from a small base.


Trends in Wood Protection in Asia and Oceania: A Perspective - ACS

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