The Australian Forest Products Association,(AFPA) of which Timberlink is a member, has just launched a campaign to help sustain and support the Aussie timber industry through the COVID19 economic downturn.
Timberlink CEO Ian Tyson explained the reason for the campaign, “in normal economic times Australia produces around 80% of the softwood timber that is used to build homes for Australians. The balance of supply is imported. The impact of COVID19 has seen a significant drop in forecasted housing starts, affecting the demand for Australian softwood timber. This will have a dramatic impact on the people employed right across the supply chain, with many of those people employed in regional towns across the country. At this difficult time as we are working hard to keep our industry capability in place, we are asking Australian businesses in our Australian industry for additional support by buying Aussie timber first.”
“The Australian softwood timber industry directly supports around 45,000 jobs and is key to many regional towns and communities. Choosing renewable Australian plantation timber not only keeps our mills operating but it supports the entire integrated supply chain from the harvesters, growers, logistic providers, processor, through to the timber retailer, framing manufacturer, and home builder. Additional support will preserve Australian jobs and keep our industry capability in place for the future, while supporting our regional communities both now and into the future”, said Mr Tyson.
At Timberlink’s Bell Bay mill in Northern Tasmania, the mill directly contributes around $150m to the local Georgetown economy and employs over 3% of the town’s population. The ‘Buy Aussie Timber First’ messaging is linked to the successful ‘Timber Framing – The Ultimate Renewable™’ campaign but focuses on why buying Aussie timber framing at this crucial time is so important to support Aussie manufacturing jobs and our supply-chain’s recovery from COVID19. The centrepiece of the campaign is a website with testimonials from Aussie timber workers and includes the opportunity to upload your own photo to create a mosaic in support of Aussie timber framing. The campaign will include advertising with links to the site showing the reasons why you should choose renewable Aussie timber first. You can have a look at the new website here.
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) CEO Ross Hampton is supportive, saying “timber is a proven and popular renewable framing material that provides comfort and security for hundreds of thousands of Australian homes. When Aussie timber framing is manufactured today it’s replanted for tomorrow, supporting a whole supply chain of Aussie jobs and communities. That’s why Aussie timber is the ultimate renewable framing material.”
