$10m for three timber companies

The federal government has announced grants to three big timber processing companies in Western Australia in a further sign the industry’s future rests with softwood plantation timber.

The grant recipients – Wesbeam, Wespine and Worldwide Truss & Frames – all specialise in processing softwood pine, typically for structural uses such as construction.

As a condition of the grants, which total $10.3 million, the three businesses plan to invest $16 million of their own money.

The largest recipient is privately owned company Wesbeam, which manufactures laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and I-joists at a factory in Neerabup north of Perth.

Its $4.5 million grant will go towards an $11.5 million investment in the Neerabup facility, which employs nearly 200 people.

Wesbeam was established 20 years ago by timber industry legend, the late Denis Cullity.

Chief executive James Malone said the grant would help to support local manufacturing.

“The need for local manufactured product was never more clearly seen than during the Covid pandemic when Australian wood supply was critical to ensure residential housing construction was able to continue in the face of a world supply chain gridlock,” he said.

Mr Malone said the proposed investment will significantly enhance Wesbeam’s efficiency and increase production capacity through wood yield improvements and debottlenecking.

The boom in housing construction post-COVID has been good news for Wesbeam.

It posted a record net profit of $32.7 million in the year to June 2022 on sales of $153 million, according to its latest filings with ASIC.

The company said it was the premier supplier of engineered LVL and I-joists in the Australian market.

Wespine, which is jointly owned by Perth conglomerate Wesfarmers and ASX company Fletcher Building, has been granted $3.5 million.

It will use the money for efficiency and safety improvements at its Dardanup sawmill.

The third recipient is Mundijong-based Worldwide Truss & Frames, which has been granted $2.3 million.

Its goal is to encourage the building industry to increase the use of prefabricated trusses and frames.

The WA grants were announced by the member for Pearce, Tracey Roberts, who said the program showed the Albanese government’s support for a sustainable forestry industry.

“Our government understands how important the forestry industry is for communities around the country and particularly here in Western Australia,” Ms Roberts said.

“These grants are about creating more long-term jobs in the forestry sector.”

The federal grants come after the state government moved last year to shut down native (or hardwood) forest logging in WA’s South West, leading to hundreds of job losses.