27 Oct 2010 PANEL PRODUCTS INDUSTRY HALTS OPERATIONS IN EUROPE-WIDE PROTEST
Kronospan will halt production for 3 hours on the 29th October at Chirk, in protest against subsidies that are damaging the environment, economy and threatening millions of UK and European jobs.
More than 600 workers will down tools at one of the UK's largest wood panel plants to highlight the risk of unfair subsidies for biomass energy, not just in the UK, but across Europe.
Kronospan will close its Chirk production plant near Wrexham, North Wales, in protest against subsidies that are damaging the environment, economy and threatening millions of UK and European jobs.
On Friday, October 29, Kronospan will halt production between 11am and 1pm in a coordinated mass protest by wood panel plants across Europe.
The industry is highlighting that wood harnessed for biomass energy at the end of its life is a sound proposition, but current subsidies encourage electricity generators to burn virgin wood, which is disastrous for CO2 emissions.
If this situation continues there will be a potential shortfall, in Europe alone, of up to 400 million m3 of timber by the year 2020 due to biomass demand, according to a United Nations report.
The pressure on supply directly threatens not only Europe's wood panel manufacturing industry but also all its associated customers, from furniture makers to the construction industry.
The wood working industries in Europe have a turnover in excess of €270 billion providing 2.4 million jobs. The industry creates 25 times more employment and 10 times more wealth creation than biomass energy generation, according to global analysts Pöyry.
The unfair subsidies also offer no benefit to the environment as biomass energy generation creates five times more direct CO2 per tonne of timber than wood panel production, according to Carbon River. Wood products are also a store of carbon and it is estimated that 60 million tCO2 is stored in Europe’s wood commodities.
Gavin Adkins, director of Kronospan, says: "Paying subsidies to burn virgin timber rather than manufacture with it, damages wealth creation, the economy and the environment. It's pushing up prices, creating a shortage in raw material and inevitably threatens millions of jobs.
"To protect the economy, environment and jobs, we felt it was absolutely vital to back this European Day of Action and help reverse the unintended consequences of this short-sighted policy."
Kronospan's symbolic shutdown supports the European Panel Federation's Day of Action, which will bring the European industry to a standstill on October 29.
In the UK, the Wood Panel Industries Federation has been lobbying hard with Government through its Make Wood Work (www.makewoodwork.co.uk) campaign to reverse the consequences of the Renewables Obligation Order, which is a result of European Union Climate Change Directives.
The Renewables Obligation Order places an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers in the UK to generate an increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources.
Kronospan UK is one of the top 10 manufacturing companies in Wales, employing more than 600 people, 90 per cent of whom live within 10 miles of its North Wales site.
All Kronospan panels in the UK are manufactured using wood sourced from FSC certified sustainable forests and recycled wood.