Fanxuan Sun PH.D (C)
My name is Fanxuan Sun, and I am a first year PH.D. student advised by Rasoul Yousefpour. I recently published the paper: “Market Assessment of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Fabricated from Red Pine in Ontario”. This paper examines the market potential for cross-laminated timber, or CLT, produced from red pine in Ontario. The motivation is that mass timber is expanding quickly as a low-carbon construction material, but the supply chain and market readiness depend heavily on local species, manufacturing capacity, and building demand. Red pine is widely available in Ontario and has attractive characteristics for engineered wood products, so we asked a practical question: under what conditions could red pine CLT become commercially viable in the province?
We approached this as a market assessment by questionnaires rather than a purely technical materials study. The analysis brings together demand-side signals—such as mass-timber adoption trends, building applications, and procurement preferences—with supply-side constraints, including log availability, processing requirements, manufacturing costs, and potential price competitiveness against incumbent products. We also considered how policy and standards, transportation distance, and scale of production affect feasibility.