First leaks, now weak wood

By PAM GRAHAM and NZPA

New Zealand's biggest timber supplier has admitted selling under-strength wood, after three of its sawmills were raided in a Commerce Commission investigation.

Carter Holt Harvey acknowledged yesterday that its MGP10 grade Laserframe brand timber was not strong enough to meet the advertised standard and said the product would be regraded.

The company stressed there had been no reports of timber failure.

But the incident follows widespread criticism of timber and building standards last year in the leaky building crisis - including specific criticism that New Zealand timber is becoming weaker as trees are harvested earlier.

Commerce Commission communications manager Jackie Maitland said an investigation under the Fair Trading Act had started last December and search warrants had been executed.

Devon McLean, Carter Holt's chief operating officer for forests, said documents were seized at the company's Eves Valley, Putaruru and Kopu mills on October 29.

A year ago it had considered options for dealing with the problem but opted to wait for a review of the standard in Australia to conclude. It had stopped production at Putaruru in September and regraded timber.

Mr McLean said the company had not acted fast enough when it did not consistently meet the standard. "Technically we are wrong but the product is doing the job," he said.

He would not estimate the cost of the fix but said the issue of most concern was reputation.

The company is the largest seller of structural timber, plywood and laminated veneer lumber in New Zealand. Its mills in Australia are included in an industry-wide review of the MGP10 standard.

An 0800 number is being set up for customers.

Industry sources said marketing a substandard product was serious. Checking standards was an industry issue. The traditional method was visual, while Carter Holt used a machine grader.

Meanwhile, the timber industry is staging a fightback against public perceptions of arsenic-treated timbers posing risks to homeowners, workers and children, by producing its own report "clearing" the timber treatment.

"Fears that arsenic in treated timber represent significant public health risks have been rubbished," said the Timber Industry Federation president, John Hawkins.

He said two of Australasia's most prominent toxicologists had released a report that gave a clean bill of health to timber treated with a preservative including copper chrome and arsenic.

But the United States Environmental Protection Agency will cancel in January the registration of arsenic treatments for wood used in most residential settings, including play equipment, decks, picnic tables and residential fencing.

The US Consumer Products Safety Commission has also assessed the risk to children associated with arsenic-treated timber.

In May, the New Zealand Government's watchdog on hazardous substances said it could not ban arsenic-treated wood from being used on children's play equipment and homeowners' decks.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority said that before it could ban copper chromium arsenic as a timber treatment, it would have to trigger a reassessment of the chemical.