Cross-Border Partnership

Founded as a Regional U.S. Plywood Association, APA Today Is Just as Much Canadian

by Jack Merry

Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from an article written for and appearing originally in Canadian Wood Products magazine. It is reprinted here as one in a series of the Journal’s plywood industry centennial features examining changes in the industry over the past century.

Although it officially changed its name more than a decade ago, APA—The Engineered Wood Association is still often referred to as the “American Plywood Association.” And it is sometimes still thought of as only—or primarily—a U.S. organization.

But the trade association has had Canadian members since 1983, not long after developing a performance standard for structural wood panels and opening its membership to oriented strand board producers. And its Canadian membership today is a major and growing component of its constituency.

Founded in Tacoma in 1933 as the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, the organization became American Plywood Association—or APA—in 1964 following the introduction of southern pine plywood that same year. It became APA—The Engineered Wood Association in 1994 to more accurately reflect the increasingly diverse product mix and geographic range of its membership.

APA began representing engineered wood framing products, such as glulam timber and wood I-joists, in the early 1990s through formation of a related nonprofit corporation called American Wood Systems. That arm of the organization, now called Engineered Wood Systems, is today integrated within APA, but retains its own product line management committees comprised of member company representatives.

Still commonly referred to as “APA,” the association today represents approximately 55 companies operating 140 plywood, OSB, glulam timber, wood I-joist, laminated veneer lumber and other structural engineered wood product mills throughout the U.S. and Canada. APA’s Canadian membership includes some 30 mills in seven provinces. Those facilities account for about 70 percent of Canadian OSB production, 95 percent of its glulam production, and 50, 37 and 15 percent, respectively, of the country’s LVL, I-joist and plywood output.

APA’s 14-member board of trustees includes three Canadian company representatives—Michael Ainsworth, Ainsworth Lumber Company; Peter Lynch, Grant Forest Products Inc.; and Tom Temple, Canfor Corporation. Mr. Ainsworth is APA’s immediate past chairman. Some 50 Canadian company representatives also serve on the association’s various marketing, quality, technical and other advisory and management committees.

APA’s three primary mandates—quality auditing, applied research, and market support and development—are pursued in Canada via a number of initiatives and activities, many in cooperation with Canadian-based organizations, such as the Canadian Wood Council and Forintek Canada Corp.

As in the U.S., much of APA’s efforts in Canada revolve around safeguarding and advancing the acceptance of engineered wood products in building codes and standards. APA was at the forefront of efforts by the U.S.-Canada Binational Committee in the early 90s to harmonize structural wood panel performance standards, which was a prerequisite to reduced tariffs under terms of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement. The harmonized standard in Canada is CSA O325.

The association continues to serve on a dozen Canadian Standards Association (CSA) committees, subcommittees and task groups, and is a member of the Alliance of Canadian Building Officials, among other codes and standards affiliations. It is also accredited as a certification agency and testing laboratory by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).

Within the Canadian design and construction community, APA provides assistance directly to users and specifiers, and is a member and actively participates on committees of leading Canadian home building and building materials organizations, such as the Canadian Home Builders Association, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation, Ontario Home Builders Association, Lumber & Building Materials Association of Ontario, Greater Toronto Home Builders Association, etc.

Canadian native David Birmingham, Lindsay Ontario, provides APA field service support in eastern Canada while Mike Drorbaugh, based in Tacoma, is the association’s designated field support staff member in the western provinces.

APA’s many industry affiliations in Canada provide valuable opportunities to extend the association’s product education and training efforts to a wide Canadian construction industry audience. APA is an accredited continuing education provider for the Ontario Building Officials Association and the Ontario Association of Architects, for example, and is a regular participant at Construct Canada and other trade shows, builder conferences, and design and construction seminars.

APA also participates in the 10-year-old series of Canadian Wood Solutions Fairs that each year attracts thousands of architects, engineers, builders, designers, building officials, specifiers, and other construction industry professionals. Other recent examples of APA’s collaboration with Canadian-based organizations have included, among others:

• Co-funding of Forintek Canada research on nonresidential construction and industrial markets.
• Assistance with Forintek study of U.S. structural wall systems.
• Joint authorship of a light frame construction code for China and Taiwan with the Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia/Canadian Plywood Association.
• Support of Canadian Plywood Association review of technical barriers to international trade for Canadian wood products.
• Working with the Canadian Wood Council to address fire issues in the City of Calgary building code.

Of special relevance to Canadian manufacturers shipping products abroad, APA has long maintained an international market access and development program. The association supports Softwood Export Council offices in Tokyo and Mexico City, and is a Registered Foreign Certification Organization, allowing it to provide Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) marking of member products shipped to Japan. It is now also certified for European CE marking.

APA’s international market access and development efforts on behalf of its Canadian OSB members are aided by funding support from Natural Resources Canada and the British Columbia Forestry Innovation Investment international marketing program.

The Engineered Wood Research Foundation (EWRF), a related APA nonprofit corporation comprised of APA member manufacturers and industry equipment, product and service suppliers, also boasts a number of Canadian companies.

Designed to serve as a mechanism for liaison between manufacturers and their suppliers, EWRF sponsors an Info Fair supplier exhibition at the APA annual meeting, supports forums and networking events for producers and suppliers, undertakes industry education and information transfer activities, and facilitates research of benefit to APA members. For example, it recently helped fund a study by Forintek Canada Corp. on the susceptibility to mold growth of adhesives used in composite wood products.

The benefit, of course, of APA’s cross-border membership is the same as what the Association’s founders saw when they agreed to join ranks some 70 years ago—the strength of numbers in the service of common goals and interests.

Jack Merry is APA communications director and editor of Engineered Wood Journal.