Lic.-avh. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Tekniska högskolan, 2006. / Härtill 2 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2008. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2005. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-214). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Abstract Washing during kraft pulping can be divided into two separate areas each with its own distinct features: namely brownstock washing and washing in bleaching. Research interest has so far concentrated mostly on investigating brownstock washing and factors affecting its efficiency. Pulp washing in bleaching, however, has been practically neglected. The basic phenomena are the same as in brownstock washing, but there are differences which have not been taken into consideration to a sufficient extent. This less explored area is the focus of this research. In this thesis, it is shown that brownstock washing and pulp washing between bleaching stages are distinct areas with their own specific features. They differ for example in terms of the composition and molecular size of the impurities in the pulp suspension. Various process conditions, pH, temperature and so on cause further differences between washing in bleaching and brownstock washing. The removal of specific compounds can be clearly affected by the appropriate selection of wash liquor. It is shown that the dynamic behaviour during washing is different for different compounds and depends on the properties of the wash water. The key element is to find the most harmful compounds in specific positions in bleaching and on the basis of that finding, to determine the most suitable wash liquor system. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a widely used method for evaluating the washing result, but as a collective measurement variable it does not describe the actual compounds that cause the "loss" of bleaching chemicals. Studies have shown that many compounds contribute to COD load but ultimately most of them have no real effect on the bleaching result. A suggestion for more precise definition of wash loss is offered than COD.

This thesis presents two papers dealing with international trade policy in North America. The first is "An Empirical Analysis of Protectionist Forces in the United States and Canada" and the second is "Imports as a Cause of Injury: the Case of the 1986 Softwood Lumber Dispute". The first paper addresses the question of what motivates firms and industries to initiate "less than fair value" (LFV) complaints. The theory of rent-seeking is tested by analyzing data on the frequency of countervailing duty and antidumping complaints from 1975 to 1987 in both Canada and the U.S. A reduced form model is specified that expUcitly incorporates factors that are assumed to affect the supply and demand for protection, including federal elections, business cycles, and statutory changes to laws governing antidumping and countervailing duty procedures. The results indicate that the frequency of LFV cases, in both the U.S. and Canada, rise during low points in the business cycle, and when relative competitiveness and profitability in manufacturing decline. The second paper takes a specific countervailing duty case, that of the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute of 1986, and addresses the question of whether the U.S. industry suffered injury from the alleged less than fair valued Canadian lumber imports. The relationship between various measures of injury for the U.S. industry and various hypothesized causal factors, including stumpage prices, is analyzed. The six measures of injury are: prices, output, market share, employment, accounting profits, and stock market profits. Structural models are specified and reduced form models tested for the 1975 to 1987 time period. The analysis indicates that stumpage prices, as proxied by B.C. stumpage levels, appear to have had littie effect on any injury sustained by the U.S. industry. Alternative specifications, using "leaked rents" to the B.C. industry as a proxy for the alleged subsidy, also showed little effect on the U.S. industry. Business cycle effects and the exchange rate are the most important determinants of performance. Counterfactual simulations using tiie estimated equations permit the hypothesizing of how the U.S. industry would have fared under alternative economic scenarios. This provides a useful framework for evaluating causes of injury, since one can control for all other factors besides those alleged to be unfair.

This thesis presents two papers dealing with international trade policy in North America. The first is "An Empirical Analysis of Protectionist Forces in the United States and Canada" and the second is "Imports as a Cause of Injury: the Case of the 1986 Softwood Lumber Dispute". The first paper addresses the question of what motivates firms and industries to initiate "less than fair value" (LFV) complaints. The theory of rent-seeking is tested by analyzing data on the frequency of countervailing duty and antidumping complaints from 1975 to 1987 in both Canada and the U.S. A reduced form model is specified that expUcitly incorporates factors that are assumed to affect the supply and demand for protection, including federal elections, business cycles, and statutory changes to laws governing antidumping and countervailing duty procedures. The results indicate that the frequency of LFV cases, in both the U.S. and Canada, rise during low points in the business cycle, and when relative competitiveness and profitability in manufacturing decline. The second paper takes a specific countervailing duty case, that of the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute of 1986, and addresses the question of whether the U.S. industry suffered injury from the alleged less than fair valued Canadian lumber imports. The relationship between various measures of injury for the U.S. industry and various hypothesized causal factors, including stumpage prices, is analyzed. The six measures of injury are: prices, output, market share, employment, accounting profits, and stock market profits. Structural models are specified and reduced form models tested for the 1975 to 1987 time period. The analysis indicates that stumpage prices, as proxied by B.C. stumpage levels, appear to have had littie effect on any injury sustained by the U.S. industry. Alternative specifications, using "leaked rents" to the B.C. industry as a proxy for the alleged subsidy, also showed little effect on the U.S. industry. Business cycle effects and the exchange rate are the most important determinants of performance. Counterfactual simulations using tiie estimated equations permit the hypothesizing of how the U.S. industry would have fared under alternative economic scenarios. This provides a useful framework for evaluating causes of injury, since one can control for all other factors besides those alleged to be unfair. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Quality perceptions of three major softwood lumber consumers: wood treaters, truss manufacturers, and home centers were investigated to determine their definition of softwood lumber quality. Data was gathered through a mail survey of buyers in each of the three groups. In total, 867 responses were received. Respondents rated the importance of product and service characteristics to quality. These characteristics were based on dimensions of product quality developed by Garvin (1984) and dimensions of service quality developed by Parasuraman et aI. (1988). A total of 80 product and service quality characteristics were assembled to represent, or measure, twelve dimensions of total product quality. Analysis indicated that the twelve dimension model, derived from previous work, was not applicable to softwood dimension lumber. Thus, exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the underlying dimensions of quality and a five dimension model resulted. The dimensions, ranked in order of importance, were: Lumber Characteristics, Supplier/Salesperson Characteristics, Lumber Performance, Supplier Services, and Supplier Facilities. These findings share few similarities with past research. In fact, they suggest that the concept of quality as a higher order abstract (i.e., dimensions of quality are similar regardless of product) may be flawed. Respondent groups differed in the importance they placed on three of the five dimensions. No difference in importance levels were found for Supplier/Salesperson Characteristics and Lumber Characteristics. However, truss manufacturers perceived Lumber Performance to be more important than treaters or home centers and Supplier Services was perceived to be more important by home centers than the other two groups. Finally, Supplier Facilities was perceived to be most important by treaters. Data gathered in a follow-up questionnaire indicated that the model developed in this study was understood by buyers of softwood lumber and that they buy from suppliers who perform well on dimensions of quality. Buyers also indicated that they pay more for better quality lumber and better service. This evidence indicates that suppliers of softwood dimension lumber can differentiate themselves based on quality and in tum command a higher price. Given these findings, strategies for utilizing quality, and the model developed in this study, to gain competitive advantage are discussed. / Ph. D.

The focus of this research is to develop a prototype expert system for softwood lumber grading. The grading rules used in the knowledge base of the system are based on Western Lumber Grading Rules 88 published by the Western Wood Products Association. The system includes 27 grades in Dimension, Select/Finish, and Boards categories. The system is designed to be interactive and menu-driven. The user input to the system consists of lumber size, grade category, and type, location and size of defects for each face. The system then infers the grade corresponding to each face, and an overall grade for the lumber. The system provides limited explanation capabilities. Evaluation of the system was performed using 85 samples of pre-graded Siberian larch 2x4x12s in Structural Light Framing category. The initial evaluation was performed using the two wide faces of boards. Results indicated a 60 percent match between the grade assigned by the human expert and the system. The largest cause of deviation was exclusion of defects on the two narrow faces. The knowledge base was expanded to include the two narrow faces; the match rate improved to 76.5 percent. Evaluations for other grading categories need to be conducted in the future to assess the adequacy of the knowledge base. The prototype development concentrates on selected defect characteristics for each grade. These characteristics are clearly defined and described in the rule book, and are usually the most frequently encountered defects on softwood lumber. The knowledge base needs to be refined and expanded if additional factors such as knot positions relative to each other, warp, manufacturing imperfections and clustering of defects are to be considered. / Graduation date: 1993

The softwood lumber trade dispute between Canada and the United States has centered on the debate over the existence of a stumpage subsidy in Canada and recently on dumping by the Canadian softwood lumber producers in the U.S. markets. This thesis contains three essays that investigate the subsidy and dumping issues in this dispute. The results of these analyses indicate the economic performance of Ontario’s stumpage system. The first essay investigates the market performance of Ontario’s stumpage system by examining the long-run equilibrium and Granger-causality relationships between the stumpage prices and the market prices of various end products (lumber, pulp and wood composites) from June 1995 to February 2005 using Johansen’s multivariate co-integration approach and the Granger-causality test. Test results indicate that in terms of SPF (spruce, pine, fir) for lumber and pulp, Ontario’s stumpage system can establish stumpage prices that have the potential to reflect the market values of timber. However, there is a need to modify the system for the other products. In the second essay, an Enhanced Parity Bounds Model (EPBM) is developed and used to examine the discrepancy between the stumpage price of SPF timber for producing lumber and its market value from June 1995 to January 2007. The results show that in the short run, the stumpage prices were below or above the market values. However, in the long run, the underpayment and overpayment will even each other out. The results, therefore, imply that Ontario’s stumpage system has the ability to capture the full economic rents in the long run and thus does not confer a subsidy to Ontario’s softwood lumber producers. The third paper examines the issue of whether Ontario’s softwood lumber industry had dumped softwood lumber into a major US market from April 1996 to September 2006 using the EPBM. This is a critical issue for Ontario’s stumpage system because dumping could lead to lower stumpage prices under the current stumpage system. This analysis indicates that the industry gained considerably more profit from the U.S market than from the home market and did not dump lumber in the US market during this period.

The softwood lumber trade dispute between Canada and the United States has centered on the debate over the existence of a stumpage subsidy in Canada and recently on dumping by the Canadian softwood lumber producers in the U.S. markets. This thesis contains three essays that investigate the subsidy and dumping issues in this dispute. The results of these analyses indicate the economic performance of Ontario’s stumpage system. The first essay investigates the market performance of Ontario’s stumpage system by examining the long-run equilibrium and Granger-causality relationships between the stumpage prices and the market prices of various end products (lumber, pulp and wood composites) from June 1995 to February 2005 using Johansen’s multivariate co-integration approach and the Granger-causality test. Test results indicate that in terms of SPF (spruce, pine, fir) for lumber and pulp, Ontario’s stumpage system can establish stumpage prices that have the potential to reflect the market values of timber. However, there is a need to modify the system for the other products. In the second essay, an Enhanced Parity Bounds Model (EPBM) is developed and used to examine the discrepancy between the stumpage price of SPF timber for producing lumber and its market value from June 1995 to January 2007. The results show that in the short run, the stumpage prices were below or above the market values. However, in the long run, the underpayment and overpayment will even each other out. The results, therefore, imply that Ontario’s stumpage system has the ability to capture the full economic rents in the long run and thus does not confer a subsidy to Ontario’s softwood lumber producers. The third paper examines the issue of whether Ontario’s softwood lumber industry had dumped softwood lumber into a major US market from April 1996 to September 2006 using the EPBM. This is a critical issue for Ontario’s stumpage system because dumping could lead to lower stumpage prices under the current stumpage system. This analysis indicates that the industry gained considerably more profit from the U.S market than from the home market and did not dump lumber in the US market during this period.