56 | Focus on South America
BERNECK MOVING FORWARD
Brazilian wood-based panels giant Berneck is a third-generation family-run company that operates five continuous panel lines across three sites and is currently finalising the latest phase of investment at the Curitibanos site. Stephen Powney interviewed company president Daniel Berneck
I
t’s now an incredible 73 years ago that the name of Berneck began operating in the forest products industry. At first, in 1952 the focus was on solid
hardwoods, like many in the Brazil wood industries, but its diversification over the decades saw it develop into veneers, plywood, plantation timber and finally composite wood panels. Today, the business is focused on panels and plantation pine lumber. In the case of the former, Berneck SA Paineis e Serrados is now the second largest panels producer by volume in Brazil.
The third-generation family business is
led by president Daniel Berneck, who has now worked with the company for 25 years. He told WBPI about its recent investments – particularly at the Curitibanos site – and his opinions of the Brazil and wider South America market situation.
DEVELOPMENT OF PANEL PRODUCTION It was production of veneers (first sliced, then rotary cut) that led into panel production – first plywood in the 1970s, then particleboard (PB) in the 1990s. President Daniel Berneck told WBPI that
Above: Daniel Berneck, president of Berneck
the company ceased plywood production in the mid-to-late 1980s, due in part to raw material sourcing difficulties. Its solid hardwood sawmill operations continued until 2004, when it stopped mainly due to difficulties sourcing the material and because legislative/environmental changes made it difficult for industrial sized operations to continue working with hardwoods. Now the hardwood sector is concentrated on smaller, specialist operators. MDF was added to the product mix in 2008. Its panel products today are focused on PB (medium density PB), MDF and HDF, using mainly plantation pine raw material. Araucária in the southern state of Parana is the head office and features production lines for PB, MDF and HDF, as well as melamine facing operations and a sawmill. The first PB line started with a small
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Siempelkamp multi-opening (MO) line with 5,000m3
day capacity. per month production capacity. This
was followed by an upgrade to a larger used MO line with a 1,000m3
Berneck’s relationship with Siempelkamp
extended in 2000 when a first continuous line (2200mm x 42.1m) was bought to replace the MO PB line at Araucária. In 2008 a second continuous line was built to produce MDF there, with further investment to modernise the pine sawmill. In 2012, Berneck extended operations to a further site at Curitibanos in the state of Santa Catarina – a greenfield complex – with an MDF line and a sawmill. WBPI visited the 250ha site in 2011 during the installation of the MDF line. It sits eight miles from the town of Curitibanos and is surrounded by forest plantations. In 2016, a 2750mm-wide continuous Siempelkamp ContiRoll PB line started at this site. Melamine facing operations also run at Curitibanos. A third site at Lages, Santa Catarina was added in 2023 – comprising an MDF mill with 550,000m3
Siempelkamp ContiRoll Generation 9 NEO MDF line has a length of 48.8m. The Lages project also involved Siempelkamp group companies Büttner (drying) and Sicoplan (engineering). Andritz supplied a pressurised refining and evaporation system. “We only have Siempelkamp press lines up
to this moment,” said Mr Berneck. “Investment in the Curitibanos site is ongoing, with our project to double our PB capacity there. We’re working on the civil construction with the foundations for a new dryer installation.” The drum dryer was purchased from Dieffenbacher and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. An 84MW energy system was also purchased from Dieffenbacher. The grate of the energy system has a size of 106m² and the drum of the dryer is 36m long and has a diameter of 7.8m. At 155% material moisture, the dryer will achieve a
annual capacity and a sawmill. The
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