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Machinery Row

Patton Named as Peterson Region Sales Manager

Peterson Pacific Corp., an Oregon-based manufacturer of forestry, recycling, and landscaping machines hired Steve Patton as the Regional Sales Manager for California, Arizona, and Nevada.

Patton has extensive experience with industry associations, contractors, and OEM equipment sales. Prior to joining Peterson, Patton had his own consulting firm advising clients on green waste recycling, biomass solutions, and training on best practices for the industry.

Nicholson Acquires Modern Machinery

Nicholson Manufacturing Ltd. (Nicholson) announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Modern Machinery Co., Inc. (Modern) to acquire the assets of the former Madill Company.

Modern acquired Madill out of bankruptcy in late 2008, and has been operating the business providing parts and service support to Madill customers through the equipment dealer SMS in Canada, and Modern Machinery in the U.S.

Nicholson Manufacturing, a leading global OEM supplier of log processing equipment to the worldwide forest industry for over 65 years, will be re-introducing the former Madill equipment line —loaders, feller bunchers and yarders — for sale once the transaction closes, currently scheduled for early 2011.

“The Thunderbird product lineup was extremely well received in the US Pacific Northwest,” says Doug Jeffrey, president of forest products at Nicholson. “Thus, it makes sense to completely evaluate that product line as a potential key part of Madill’s US product offerings. However, no decision has been made yet as to whether Madill will or will not move to formally re-introduce the Thunderbird products.”

Modern will transfer all intellectual property to Nicholson. Modern will continue on as a distributor for Madill products in the U.S. And manufacturing will take place at Nicholson’s manufacturing facility in Sidney B.C.

FOEX Indexes and Wood Resources International partner in the launching of global wood chip price indices

More than 80 million tons of wood chips—valued at almost $10 billion—are traded annually in the open market worldwide, and chip shipment volumes are increasing.

The vast majority of traded wood chips are currently utilized for pulp production, but the volumes used to generate energy are growing.

The key participants in this trade, including forest companies, energy producers, trading houses, and financial institutions, have requested that FOEX Indexes consider including wood chip prices in the company’s portfolio of well-established pulp, paper, and pellet indices. These FOEX trademarked and audited indices (PIX) have been the benchmark for the global forest industry for a number of years.

Wood Resources International (WRI), an internationally recognized forest industry consulting firm that specializes in evaluations of global forest resources and wood raw material prices, including prices of wood chips, has collected and published prices of sawlogs, pulpwood, and wood chips since 1988.

FOEX and WRI have agreed to partner in the launching of global wood chip price indices.

As with all price benchmarks in FOEX’s PIX-index family, the indices will be based on a large number of actual trades and the data will be collected from both sellers and buyers of wood chips.

Initially, the price indices will be published separately for pulp and energy end-uses. Detailed index specifications will be published after discussions with the interested parties have been concluded.

For further information about the index formation process and this new benchmark service, contact either the FOEX representative in bio-indices, Matti Sihvonen ([email protected]), Timo Teräs, managing director ([email protected]), or Håkan Ekström, the president of WRI ([email protected]. com).

Manager for Peterson CAT

In September, Jim Carter was named Used Equipment Manager for Peterson CAT, authorized Caterpillar dealer in Oregon and southwestern Washington.

Prior to joining Peterson, Carter spent 35 years with the previous CAT dealer in northern Oregon, and southwestern Washington, including ten years as Used Equipment Manager. He began his Caterpillar career as a Partsman working for Johnson Tractor in Riverside, Calif.