Focus on MDF: Part 2 | 19


increases, a favourable product mix also led to an increase in average sales prices. Greenply Industries Ltd acquired all shares in Baahu Panels Pvt Ltd, a company based in Kolkata, West Bengal in 2022. Baahu Panels had developed plans to build an MDF mill in Sherpura in the western Indian state of Gujarat in recent months. Greenply intended to bring the greenfield project to fruition by the end of its 2022/2023 financial year (March 31). With a designed annual capacity of 240,000m³, the mill is to entail an investment of INR5.480bn or around US$73.8m. As India’s largest MDF manufacturer, Greenpanel has now ordered its third MDF plant from Dieffenbacher. The new thin-board line based on Dieffenbacher’s smart plant concept CEBRO will be added in Routhu Suramala, Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 230,000m3


.


“Over the last two years, we have increased our MDF production capacity from 500,000 to 660,000m³, but the demand for our premium-quality boards produced with Dieffenbacher technology is still growing significantly,” said Shobhan Mittal, managing director, and CEO of Greenpanel. The new CEBRO line, scheduled to go into operation in summer 2024, will include a fibre dryer, air grader, forming station and forming line, a CPS+ continuous press system including Press Emission Control System, the raw board handling system, and the new Wireless STS raw board storage system. The Indian laminate and wood-based panel manufacturer Rushil Décor Ltd of Ahemdabad in Gujarat, India, commissioned Siempelkamp as the single-source supplier of a new 240,000m3


MDF plant for it in India.


This plant is now operational and is added to the main listing.


With the new plant in Vishakapatnam also in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the manufacturer will produce MDF from plantation eucalyptus and from over mature mango trees. To meet local market needs, Rushil Décor with this investment, will significantly expand its original production capacities above its current and original 90,000m3


MDF capacity at Chikmagalur,


based within the Indian state of Karnataka. The scope of work included an 8ft x 28.8m


ContiRoll press from Siempelkamp. We understand from a company statement that Rushil Décor wants to enter the MDF export business as well through the facility located on the Gulf of Bengal, where thin MDF can also be produced in future. Century Plyboards (CenturyPly) of Kolkata


in West Bengal has now commenced work on construction of its second MDF production line at Gopavaram, Andhra Pradesh with an annual capacity planned of 314,000m3


.


This was immediately after the decision to also expand capacities at the MDF plant


in Hoshiarpur (Punjab) with 198,000m3 (announced in February 2021), which is now operational and moved to the main listing. In its current investment planning, the company has estimated a total of INR2.2bn, equivalent to US$30m, for the expansion projects. CenturyPly’s Gopavaram line is the second


MDF works planned in southern India. In contrast to the original plans, the greenfield project also includes creating capacity for producing laminates, plywood, and particleboard. CenturyPly had originally planned a pure


MDF works with a capacity of 231,000m³ per year, which was to be put into operation by the first quarter of the business year 2023/2024 (March 31). The company is meanwhile assuming production will commence in the second half of the business year. Managing director and CEO Sanjay Agarwal says the plant is now geared up to a capacity of 314,000m3


eucalyptus forests in order to supply the majority of their operations like Dexco (formally Duratex) have the inflation pressure attenuated, but players who have a high dependency of third-party wood suppliers, may have some risk in maintaining production and full-scale operations. In the last year demand for MDF products has been seen to be less strong across the continent. For the first time in a few years freight


a year, and the plant is


being supplied by the Siempelkamp Group. Finally, there is a new investment to add to our future capacity listing for India and this is by Metro Decorative Private Ltd (a member of the Indian Green building counsel) based in Haryana, India for a new MDF plant supplied by Yalian of China, with a design capacity of 198,000m3


.


Installed MDF capacity in Pakistan remains at 342,000m3


with four manufacturers.


The ZRK Industries (Pvt) Ltd investment in its MDF mill with a continuous line in Mardan, we understand is running well. The ZRK group is the largest wood-based panel industry in Pakistan, producing both MDF and particleboard. Having state-of-the- art plants from Europe and China, it has a distributor’s network throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Its Wood Processing Division is vertically


integrated, and the group consists of Pakistan’s largest, new, fully automated particleboard plant, paper lamination and impregnation lines and now Pakistan’s largest new MDF plant. Pakistan currently imports MDF from a variety of countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and China and is a major export market for MDF produced in Sri Lanka.


SOUTH AMERICA South America continues to have an underlying demand of well over one million housing units annually which in turn, is good for MDF consumption. But elevated prices for wood raw materials, currency crises, political and economic crises as well, mean the market dynamics are often challenging. Regarding the wood supply, in some regions of Brazil, the prices have more than doubled year-on-year and with the cellulose sector also growing, the pressure on wood availability and prices is an important issue. Players who own their own pine/


rates have become a hot topic, as containers prices have fallen back, most especially when shipping out from Brazil. International buyers have found alternative freight options such as roll-on/roll-off or break-bulk shipping. Demand in Brazil is softer, so the surplus of Brazilian MDF is being exported worldwide, taking advantage of these better freight rates and lower raw materials costs. Main exporters are Dexco, Berneck and Guararapes, but also other smaller players like Greenplac. Brazilian MDF can be seen all across EMEA, rest of the Americas, Africa, the Far East and so on.


South American buyers are enjoying price drops for the first time in three years, and they are using this, together with the need of the producers to keep their lines running, to their advantage. Overall, it seems that the competition between Kronospan and Egger seen elsewhere has found a new arena: Latin America. Kronospan through its Spanish subsidiary and Egger through its Argentinian and US companies. And on the Pacific side of Latin America, Chinese boards can also be found again now that freight rates came back to a more normal level. It is quite difficult to predict how demand


will evolve in the coming months, as several elements will have impact on demand: economy evolution after the pandemic and how it affects disposable income, and political unrest in several Latin American countries. Looking at Brazil, the large Berneck MDF/ HDF mill in Lages, Santa Catarina became operational in Q4 2021 and the first MDF panels were made before the end of that year. It will ultimately manufacture 1,665m³ of MDF daily and we understand is running well.


This really remains a continent of change,


of development, of expansion. Amazingly, virtually no MDF was produced in Brazil back in 1998 but it now has the largest production capacity as a country in South America. Key producers in the region have included Masisa, Arauco, Duratex, Fibraplac, Floraplac, Eucatex and Berneck over these years. Dexco’s (formally Duratex) future MDF


continued on page 27 www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2023 | WBPI


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