Focus on MDF: Part 2 | 19


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 bought the greenfield project


to fruition by the end of 2023 with a design annual capacity of 240,000m³, the mill had an investment of INR5.480bn or around US$73.8m and has now been added to the main listing now. 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, it has increased its MDF production capacity from 500,000m3


to


660,000m³ and demand is still growing. 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 fully operational, and we understand is running well.


With the new plant in Vishakapatnam also in the main listing and 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. E3MDF, which belongs to the E3 Panels Group, based in New Delhi, has installed another multi-daylight press made in China at its plant in Kashipur, Uttarakhand, which has been expanded in several phases since 2019. According to the company, it now operates several MDF lines with an annual capacity of 180,000m3


and this capacity is


included in our main listing. 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


. 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 with production startup planned for 2024. The plant is being supplied by the Siempelkamp Group. There is also the new investment to add


to our future capacity listing for India and this is by Metro Panel Industries Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Taluka Kadi, Gujarat, for a new MDF plant supplied by Yalian of China, with a design capacity of 180,000m3


The company brands its MDF products as Crossbond.


Installed MDF capacity in Pakistan remains at 342,000m3 operational.


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 and political and economic crises 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/ 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. Despite this, Arauco has sold all of their forest assets in Brazil, stating they will purchase wood at competitive prices in the open market In the last year demand for MDF products has been stronger across the continent and a significant event impacting the sector in the months ahead is the recent flood tragedy in


.


Rio Grande do Sul. This disaster affected over 200,000 households, creating a substantial demand for reconstruction, with the supply of building materials being a key component. With some excess supply over demand in Brazil, quantities of Brazilian MDF are being exported worldwide, taking advantage of better freight rates. 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 etc. Overall, it seems that the competition between Kronospan and Egger seen elsewhere in the world has found a new arena: Latin America. With Kronospan this is through its Spanish subsidiary international connections 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 have come back to a more normal level.


Noting a change of ownership, the Fibraplac MDF line located in Glorinha, RS has been acquired by plywood producer Repinho. This is its first move into MDF. Dexco’s (formally Duratex) planned MDF project of 350,000m3


at Alagoas changed to


become a new plant for dissolving wood pulp in partnership with Lenzing, so it has been taken out of our future capacity listing. Asperbras (producing now under the MDF brand name GreenPlac) is an industrial and agro business group, located in Água Clara, Mato Grosso do Sul state – a complete newcomer to panel production, but serious. The company is using its eucalyptus plantations to feed its 250,000m3 Siempelkamp ContiRoll line and this line was up and running for some years. According to Greenplac, the facility can now produce approximately 300,000m³ annually. A new short-cycle press was also installed during the last year, increasing annual laminating capacities by more than 70,000m³. The group has plans to add a second line at


a cost of US$24m – with a capacity of about 230,000m3


making a potential combined capacity of 460,000m3


capacity listing.


Brazilian Guararapes previously ordered a new and additional MDF line. This third MDF production line will almost double MDF output of the Caçador works. Like the second plant delivered in 2015, Siempelkamp supplied all the main components from the debarker through to the 9ft x 48.7m ContiRoll Generation 9 press and the packaging section. Siempelkamp says the plant is designed for an annual capacity of around 540,000m³


continued on page 27 www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2024 | WBPI when its forest base grows more, . The project remains in our future


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