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Corporate and Other Our Corporate and Other segment includes: • our international operations, which include distribution and converting facilities located outside North America; • governance related corporate support activities and company wide initiatives such as major system and infrastructure deployments; and • transportation operations including Westwood Shipping Lines and five short line railroads. We may also record one time gains or charges in the Corporate and Other segment related to dispositions or events that are not related to an individual operating segment. What We Do International operations in this segment generally are conducted by wholly owned subsidiaries or joint ventures for which we are the managing partner. Our international assets consist principally of forest plantations, forest licenses and converting assets. Our transportation operations provide services to our manufacturing operations and to third parties. Where We Do It Our international operations are primarily located in Australia, Uruguay and Brazil. As part of our strategic restructuring of our international holdings, we took the following actions in our international operations during the last three years, we: • sold our French composite panels operations – Dec. 2005; • sold our Irish composite panels operation – Nov. 2006, • restructured our investment in our Uruguay joint ventures in preparation for a partitioning of the assets to the joint venture owners – June 2007; and • sold our investment in our New Zealand joint venture, Nelson Forests – Oct. 2007. See Note 7: Equity Affiliates in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information related to our joint ventures. Our transportation operations include our marine operations that operate between North America and Asia and our railroad operations located in the western and southern U.S. How Much We Sell Sales and revenues for our Corporate and Other segment comes primarily from our international operations and marine transportation. In 2007, our net sales were $444 million compared with $484 million in 2006. The decline in revenues is primarily due to the sale of the Irish composite panel operation in November 2006. Factors that affect revenues in our international operations include: • overall demand for wood products used in residential construction and remodeling of existing homes in Australia, Europe and Japan; and • environmental concerns, particularly in Europe, related to endangered tropical hardwoods, which increases demand for the type of sustainable plantation wood we grow in South America. Factors that affect revenues in our transportation operations include: • international trade levels between North America and its trading partners in Asia; • the profile of our competition within our shipping lanes; and • overall demand for wood and packaging products. Five-Year Summary of Revenue for Corporate and Other(1)(2)
Five-Year Trend for Total Net Sales in Corporate and Other(1)(2) ![]() Where We're Headed Our strategies for achieving continued success in our international operations include: • establishing a position as one of the largest, lowest-cost, global softwood and hardwood timber growers; and • producing plantation hardwood and softwood raw materials and finished products for structural and appearance uses in the global marketplace. |