Focus on MDF: Part 2 | 29
Wood is using sesbania wood from its own plantations as the raw material. Meanwhile, Homann Holzwerkstoffe GmbH, based in Munich, bought a stake in Nile Wood, with its joint venture agreement with EKH. Under the terms of this deal, Homann Holzwerkstoffe bought a qualified minority interest in the holding company Global MDF Industries BV, headquartered in Amsterdam, which controls Nile Wood. Also in Egypt, Wood Technology Co
(WOTECH) placed a milestone project order in February 2020 with Siempelkamp. The MDF plant has an annual production capacity of 205,000m³ and is designed to process rice straw as the raw material. With start up established in 2023 this facility has now been added to the main listing. With this plant, WOTECH has positioned itself in the areas of environmental protection and resource efficiency, because the value-added use of rice straw opens new perspectives for a raw material that would otherwise be burned as a waste product. The concept is also attractive for countries such as Egypt as well as in other countries globally, who do not have sufficient wood resources for industrial use. WOTECH is the second customer after
CalAg, LLC, California, to ask Siempelkamp for an MDF plant based on rice straw at Idku, near Alexandria. The contract value for the new project marks the third-largest single order ever placed with Siempelkamp. The assembly process on the new plant with its annual production capacity of 205,000m3
started in January 2022.
The forming and press line were supplied with an 8ft x 48.7m ContiRoll, while board produced on the line will cover 3-40mm thickness. The panels produced will primarily go into the furniture industry in the local or Middle East region. With start up established in 2023 this facility has now been added to the main listing. For South Africa, private sector housing is still projected to grow annually and certainly the demand for furniture and wood-based panel products has strengthened there considerably over the past decade. Only one MDF producer has been under expansive construction in South Africa in the last year, and this is by the wood-based panel manufacturer PG Bison, which has an existing MDF facility at Boksburg in Gauteng Province, with a current installed capacity of 132,000m3
capacity of 207,000m3
out of a total South African .
In December 2020 PG Bison unveiled
a ZAR2bn (equalling roughly €110m) programme of investments. Owned by the South African conglomerate KAP Industrial Holdings, PG Bison said that the investments involved installing a new front end, screens, gluing, blending and dryer at its particleboard mill in Mkondo (Piet
HOW THE LISTING WAS COMPILED The WBPI listings published in 2022 were reviewed and modifications made, using other published sources and data received directly from the mills and specific industry experts. Published information was reviewed for news of capacity changes. These sources include relevant trade magazines, association reports, press releases and equipment suppliers’ reference lists. The mills own reported capacities are used wherever possible because this is the basis upon which they can make their estimates of future capacity and production changes. Where this information is not available, published sources are used, usually on a basis of 330 operating days per year. Conversion to ft2 .
to m3 to 1.77m3 /year is made with 1,000ft2 to m3 /year is made with 1,000ft2 equal
In September 2011, Geoff Rhodes established GRA as a specialist forest products and international trade consultancy, providing independent in-depth assessment of markets and market potential for wood-based panel products. Geoff is well known for his pioneering work over many years driving the introduction and huge expansion in the use of MDF in the UK and international markets. He is a former President of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF), the European Association of MDF Manufacturers (EMB), the Fibre Building Board Federation (FIDOR) & a former Board Member of the European Panel Federation (EPF). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and since 2016, he has been President of the Institute of Carpenters (IOC). In 2017 he was the recipient of the TTJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the timber industry.
geoffrhodes.associates@
gmail.com
Retief), Mpumalanga, that had already been modernised in several phases in the past few years and also the installation of a new MDF line with a capacity of 275,000m3
at the Piet
Retief site. Downstream processing capacity will also be increased again following the completion of the two projects. Additional investments to the tune of around ZAR400m are envisaged for the projects between now and 2025, which include installing a seventh short cycle press and a second hot coating line. Siempelkamp supplied the main
components of the MDF/HDF plant planned for its eMkhondo (Piet Retief) location. The press line is a 6ft x 38.7m ContiRoll. According to PG Bison, the new plant will produce MDF, light MDF and HDF in thicknesses between 3-35mm, reaching a capacity of around 275,000m3
a year.
Total capacity for MDF/HDF sold by PG Bison under the name SupaWood will increase from currently 420m³ to 1,200m³/ day.
PG Bison achieved a significant milestone with the production of the first board from the new MDF line, with full commercial operation beginning in July, 2024. This new line trebles PG Bison’s MDF capacity and enables the company to meet the growing demand for MDF in Africa and select markets. Despite the sharp declines in the few years
following the previous global economic crisis, MDF consumption in South Africa increased annually over the past five years.
The relatively strong growth in production and consumption of furniture in the past decade, as well as projections for strong growth to 2023/24/25, suggest that it will be a key sector continually driving growth in the consumption of MDF and particleboard. For Iran we have recently been able to
completely update our main listing, which shows Iran’s MDF name plate production capacity up to an impressive 3,220,000m3
.
In recent times the Ministry of Industries, Mining & Trade in Iran banned the exports of timber, chipboards and MDF. The measure was said to be aimed at regulating the domestic market, as furniture producers and business in the field, had recently complained of scarcity and high prices of raw materials used in their trades. There has been considerable change in the MDF manufacturers’ evolution in Iran during the last few years. Many new companies came into the market with both new and second-hand lines installed. The previous details about Iranian MDF industries published in WBPI has been updated again this year. Furthermore, there are also two new
investments in Iran for MDF lines now listed in our future capacity table that are under construction – the Arta Industrial Group 2 at Ardebil with 300,000m3
2 at Azarshahr, Tabriz with 500,000m3
, and Melamin Sazeh .
In Iran, MDF still has further potential for more to be produced locally as nearly 800,000m3
was imported only in the last years, mainly from Turkey and China.
www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2024 | WBPI
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