Comment | 3
WBPI – the voice of the global panel industry T
he issues of sustainability and material resource
efficiency have never been stronger in the wood-based panels sector.
Maintaining a secure and
cost-effect raw material supply is paramount against a background of competing global demands
for wood fibre, all at a time when there is a need to demonstrate a strong environmental profile and sustainable operations.
So, tangible process on the long-standing
conundrum of how to utilise post-consumer MDF board waste as a new infeed material is potentially very important in helping meet these challenges. And there is absolutely progress and a momentum building in this area. In this issue we have many updates on MDF, both in our global Focus on MDF survey Part 2 report, as well as the news and features section. The news of technology providers Andritz and
PAL/MDF Recovery announcing separate projects to supply equipment to recycle MDF waste into new products is a giant step forward. In the news section, Andritz details what it describes as a contract to supply the world’s first industrial fibreboard recycling line to the panels industry – the supply of a dry fibreboard recycling line to Sonae Arauco’s mill in Mangualde, Portugal. The line, scheduled to go live in Q2, 2025,
will recycle end-of-life fibreboards back into valuable fibres as new raw material for fibreboard production.
And in our features section we cover in great
❯ FOCUS ON PARTICLEBOARD: PART ONE A detailed look at capacity investments in the PB sector
❯ FOCUS ON NORTH AMERICA A round up of panels stories from North America
❯ FOCUS ON ITALY: PART TWO We look at more developments from Italian tech suppliers
❯ PLUS REGULARS Including all the news relevant to our industry, which will be covered in depth and will also appear, as it happens, on our website:
www.wbpionline.com
detail the partnership between PAL and MDF Recovery, which includes PAL’s contract signing with UK-based MDF mouldings manufacturer W Howard. PAL is to supply W Howard with a plant in Newtown, Wales to recycle waste MDF and manufacture loose wood fibre insulation for sale. Both projects mark significant steps forward in utilising MDF waste as a new raw material stream for the wood products industries. We fully expect further announcements on projects in the next 12 months, so the reality of new MDF boards containing a proportion of recycled and cleaned MDF waste fibre is getting nearer. Meanwhile, despite current global dynamics, which have proved challenging for many panels markets, investment in new MDF capacity continues in various regions of the world. In our Focus on MDF Part 2 report we see that
Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam are each either announcing or are developing new projects. The report – which covers the rest of the world
(following the Part 1 North America and Europe report) – shows an increase in installed MDF capacity in these regions in 2023 to 90,300,000m3
. ,
while further investments identified in this region for 2024/25 and beyond bring the total up to 95,033,000m3
Stephen Powney
www.wbpionline.com
GROUP EDITOR
www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2024 | WBPI
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