30 | Focus on MDF Part Two: Rest of the World


in maintaining production and full-scale operations. Despite this, Arauco has sold all its forest assets in Brazil, justifying the sale by stating that it will purchase wood at competitive prices in the open market In the last year, demand for MDF products has been seen to be strong across the continent.


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, the rest of the Americas, Africa, the Far East and so on. Even against this backdrop, there has been


steady demand. According to data from the Brazilian Tree Industry (Ibá), the wood panels sector ended Q2 2025 with growth of 2% versus Q2 2024, and of 2.1% year-to-date. Dexco’s Wood Division reported adjusted and recurring EBITDA of R$427.9m for the quarter, with a margin of 29.9%, a 34.3% increase over Q2 2024. This performance was driven by the profitability of the wood panels business and by forestry trading carried out over the period. Overall, it seems that the competition between Kronospan and Egger seen elsewhere in the world has found a new arena: Latin America. Kronospan is competing through its Spanish subsidiary and 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. Brazil now has the largest production capacity as a country in South America at 8,092,000m3


with key producers in the region


including Masisa, Arauco, Dexco, Fibraplac, Floraplac, Eucatex and Berneck over the years.


Masisa do Brasil (lines 1 and 2) at Ponta Grossa has now changed its name to Arauco do Brazil SA and the entry in the main listing moves up to join the other Arauco MDF mills. 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 with this news, 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, with this line 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. Moving on, Indústria de Compensados Sudati Ltda of Palmas wants to further enlarge its MDF capacity. Capacity planned is suggested at 360,000m3


when its forest base grows more, . The project remains in our future


it to make OSB. Polincay Ltd, which previously worked in the moulding business and specialised in US exports with these products, had entered the MDF production business to safeguard its supply of upstream materials. The company had mainly used Chinese


with anticipated


start up in 2026. The future investment projects envisaged


by Asperbras (Greenplac) and Sudati will in due course again accelerate the expansion of Brazilian MDF/HDF capacity, which has been proceeding at a somewhat subdued pace in the past two to three years. Both projects are in the future capacity table. Along with increasing their raw board capacity, several Brazilian MDF/HDF manufacturers are also set to invest in coating operations. Wemhöner had previously delivered a short cycle press to Berneck’s facility in Curitibanos in April 2020 under the terms of an older contract. Assembly work has now restarted after being delayed by the pandemic. Wemhöner has received more orders from the Brazilian MDF/HDF industry via Inserco Industrie Service GmbH, headquartered in Viersen, Germany, over the past few months. Besides Guararapes and Sudati, Floraplac Industrial MDF Ltda, based in Paragominas, Pará, has also ordered a short-cycle press. With all these great projects in mind it is important to note that Brazil is the world’s fifth largest country by area. Its forest resources sector now comes under the common umbrella of IBA, the Association for the Brazilian Tree Industry. We would particularly like to thank IBA for its help in updating this part of our report. Paraguay only has a small MDF mill, a 55,000m3


unit in Coronel Oviedo


(department of Caaguazú). The venture by Agroindustria del Paraguay SA is in the main listings. Paraguay’s domestic demand for MDF is also partially satisfied by MDF imports from Brazil and from China. In Chile, installed capacity is 1,005,000m3 and there is no new capacity expansion on MDF seen at present. Arauco, as the largest manufacturer, has continued to expand its panel products global reach along with Masisa as the only producers of MDF in the country.


The former Polincay MDF mill acquired


by Chile Panels and developed by Chilean entrepreneur and politician Gabriel Ruíz Tagle to make OSB goes on in another way. Chile Panels had acquired the MDF mill, which closed a few years ago, and retrofitted


WBPI | August/September 2025 | www.wbpionline.com


technology, including a multi-opening line from Shanghai Jiecheng Baihe Woodworking Machinery Co Ltd with a designed MDF capacity of about 150,000m³ as well as two short-cycle presses. This mill has now been removed from the main listing. Production of MDF also continues in individual mills and facilities in Columbia, Ecuador, and Venezuela and we have no new or specific information to report at this time. Consumption of MDF in South America


overall (post Covid-19) is projected to increase continually out to 2025/26/27 and most of this will be in Brazil, which will be consuming more than 70% of all MDF in South America by then. Consumption will also expand over time in other countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and other non-producing South American countries, providing strong export demand regionally within the continent, as well as overseas internationally, particularly to the US. As at the end of 2024, our assessment


of total South American MDF production capacity now stands at 10,399,000m3


.


REST OF THE WORLD Australia remains one of the strongest performing advanced economies in the world and has been over the past decade. GDP growth slowed in 2024 and is anticipated to rise to around 1.5% in 2025. Economic production shifted from a dominant mining and resource sector to a greater emphasis on the production of goods and services. While both housing and non-residential


construction have been booming over the past decade, a moderation in residential construction activity has been seen in recent times.


MDF is imported mainly from China,


Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam. The industry is highly concentrated with only three producers as per our listing and has operated at near full capacity over the past five years. Further investment continues with


Australian Panels - Borg and the new replacement MDF line, under construction in Oberon with a capacity of 650,000m3


which is


scheduled to be completed during H1 2026, so this is in our future capacity table. Borg Manufacturing is replacing an old multi- opening line with an MDF forming and press line including an in 8ft × 18.8m Siempelkamp ContiRoll with lightboard package. In New Zealand, MDF producers have an


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