USNR recently announced that it has acquired North America’s foremost consulting and industrial engineering firm – Mid-South Engineering. This marks a significant step forward for both companies, reinforcing and building upon both USNR’s and Mid-South’s capabilities for the execution of large scale turn-key projects. Welcome to the future!
For decades USNR has delivered turnkey projects to its customers around the world but needed additional internal resources to manage and run multiple turn-key projects on a large scale. That changed recently when USNR acquired Mid-South Engineering, the leading engineering consulting company in the wood products industry in North America. Taking the extensive experience, expertise, capabilities, and knowledge about the industry that both USNR and Mid-South possess, the companies are establishing a combined force that can build a better result for their customers. This strategic move creates a step change for both USNR and Mid-South going forward.
USNR and Mid-South have worked together on sawmill and plywood mill projects for many years, and both companies have benefited from this strong relationship. As separate entities each company inevitably focused on optimizing its own segments of the project; together the two can work to improve the execution of the entire customer project, reducing time, cost and risk, and delivering a superior integrated turn-key system.
The Players
Mid-South is the largest full-service consulting engineering company in North America, established in 1969. It employs more than 100 multi-disciplined personnel, with a particular expertise around the building products industry. The company is based in Hot Springs, AR, and has offices near Raleigh, NC and Bangor, ME.
Mid-South’s services fall into the categories of engineering, project development, project management, and construction. Its extensive list of services includes mechanical engineering and design, industrial project planning and development, electrical engineering, project management, production process development, civil engineering, construction, and structural engineering. The company boasts a who’s-who of clients in the lumber and panel industry, including Weyerhaeuser, West Fraser, Canadian Forest Products, International Paper, Georgia-Pacific, Martco, Louisiana-Pacific, Deltic Timber, Bowater Lumber, and a host more.
Mid-South is also well versed in projects relating to biomass, pellets, power generation, pulp and paper, and mining.
Globally, USNR is the largest manufacturer of systems and services for the wood processing industries, with four manufacturing plants in the US, Canada, and Sweden, and more than a dozen regional engineering, service and sales offices across North America, and Europe. Employing around 1,000 individuals worldwide, USNR is best known for providing end-to-end solutions for sawmills and planer mills, including log lines, curve sawing gangs, edger lines, trim-sort-stack systems, dry kilns, and the optimization and control technologies to maximize the output and performance of that equipment. USNR is also known for its Söderhamn Eriksson debarker, sawlines, and highspeed edger systems, and its Coe- and Ventek-branded products used in the manufacture of plywood and other panel products.
Turn-Key, or À La Carte
There is a trend in the industry toward more interest in turn-key capital projects. Wood processors are looking to concentrate more of their efforts on their business, their products, and markets. They want to take less of a hands-on approach to project execution and let experts take care of the details.
Whether a company is looking for a turn-key partner, or wanting to run a project using its own team, USNR is a strong option . If a customer wants to build a complete new greenfield complex, expand its existing lines, or replace a single machine center, USNR has all the elements required to take the project and run with it. Or the customer can pick and choose the products and services they want USNR and Mid- South to provide. It’s their choice.
Maintaining Independence
Although USNR and Mid-South expect to collaborate on many projects, Mid- South will remain an independent company and will continue to be available to serve its clients as an independent consultant.
Mid-South will also continue to serve industry segments in which USNR has not traditionally been involved (biomass, aggregate, gypsum, power generation, etc.).
By preserving Mid-South’s independence, wood processors will continue to have the option to work with other equipment manufacturers as they have in the past with full confidentiality. Similarly, USNR will continue to work with other engineering firms according to customer preference.
