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Logging ban = no job losses

In general most of the native forest clearfell logged in the Melbourne catchments goes to two large ASX listed companies.

These are two key players are:

1. About 70% of felled trees go to Australian Paper (parent company is PaperlinX) for pulp. Under business as usual, the catchments are projected to supply about 5% of total Australian Paper woodchip input.
2. About 30% of felled trees are ash sawlog. Most of these sawlogs go to the Futuris (soon to be named Elders Ltd) owned sawmills at Heyfield. Under business as usual, the Melbourne catchments are projected to provide about 12% of total state-wide sawlog supply.

Hence ending clearfell logging in the Melbourne catchments will not create job losses for these large corporations as the catchments contribute only a small % of their overall raw material input.

Other minor users of catchment forests include Dormit, a pallet manufacturer in Dandenong and McCormack and Demby sawmill in Morwell (needs to be confirmed that logs for McCormack mill come from the catchments).

In the short to medium term, demand for native forest wood based products is declining due to the world wide recession. This reduced demand means logging in the  Melbourne cathchments could end immediately as current market commitments for native forest wood can be met from other areas and other sources such as plantations.