A large Tasmanian timber company has unveiled plans to develop new products based on hardwood plantations. The project, by Forest Enterprises, will be based at the three-year-old Bell Bay saw and chip mill which it bought from Tasmanian Resource Export Corporation in August for $6 million. Company chief executive Chris Oldfield said softwood would keep the mill ticking over while the company worked on methods for processing eucalyptus logs as young as 10 years, mostly for export markets. Mr Oldfield said the company - Tasmania's second largest private tree farmer - was working on a joint project involving the CSIRO in an effort to carve a niche industry in young plantation hardwoods. Once timber cutting and drying methods were perfected the timber would be aimed at the lower end of the market - products such as decking and mouldings. Mr Oldfield cautioned that market acceptance could be some years away. The company is also examining products such as wall studs and furniture. The mill uses Finnish Hewsaw technology, capable of sawing logs into boards as well as chipping the edges in a single pass. Forest Enterprises has sent two employees to Finland to look at how the technology can be applied to young hardwood. Mr Oldfield said significant volumes of the company's plantation timber would be ready to harvest in five years. The Mercury (Tasmania)