24 | Focus on Particleboard Part 2
materials such as chipboard and MDF boards, both laminated and raw boards. The main production plant is located in
Hat Yai in the Thai province of Songkhla. SOUTH AMERICA
South America has seen some pockets of panel board investment interest in recent years. The Latin America economies bounced back well from the Covid crisis and 2022 was a good year for economic growth, but 2023 was a wake-up call with the economic bloc seeing its economic growth halve to 1.9%, according to Deloitte. The important Brazilian economy is projected to see growth almost halve in 2024 to 1.5%. Brazilian wood-based panels producer Berneck celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2023.
The company entered the particleboard segment in 1984. In 2006, it started producing BP-coated panels, before entering MDF the following year. Berneck has been investing large amounts in increasing both PB and MDF capacity. The Curitibanos particleboard works in Santa Catarina has been the subject of extensive improvement work, with a central feature being a new drum dryer from Dieffenbacher – believed to be the world’s biggest chip dryer ever delivered. The extensive front-end improvements
to the Curitibanos plant will double the production capacity to approximately 2,700m3
a day. We expect this extended capacity to be
added to the main listing in 2024. Another particleboard investment in Latin America worth highlighting is Aglomerados Cotopaxi’s new plant in Ecuador. After several delays, equipment contracts were placed and deliveries and installation are believed to be taking place in 2024, with suppliers including the Siempelkamp Group, Imeas and others.
The established manufacturer already produces PB, MDF, mouldings and sawn timber, with the PB plant being constructed back in 1978 and the MDF plant in 1996. We are expecting further news on the progress of this project during the course of 2024.
An original estimation was for production capacity in the region of 230,000m3
. Elsewhere in the region, we have made
several amendments to the main listings. This includes deleting all three closed Pizano mills and adding Primadera, all relating to Columbia.
AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND & AFRICA The largest particleboard line in Australia is on its way, following agreement in 2023 for
Siempelkamp to supply Australian Panels (a Borg company) a PB line at the Mount Gambier location in the South of Australia, halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide. A 2025 completion date has been set for the project, which will feature an annual capacity of more than 650,000m3
.
The Siempelkamp press line is in the 8ft x 55.5m format with NEO infeed. The scope of supply also includes the cooling and stacking line. Siempelkamp Group companies Pallmann and Büttner, will also be supplying the project.
In 2016, the Australian company ordered a similar Siempelkamp particleboard line in New South Wales in 8ft x 50.4m format. There is no further news about another
potential PB project – by Guangxi Fenglin in Gisborne, New Zealand. We will keep this project on the list of potential future capacity.
The most recent update was a possible 400,000m3
capacity PB mill in Gisborne, after earlier plans in Kawerau were abandoned HOW THE LIST WAS COMPILED
The WBPI listings published in 2020 were reviewed and modifications made using other published sources and data received directly from the mills. Published information was reviewed for news of mill capacity changes. The mills’ own reported capacities are used wherever possible but where this information is not available, published sources are used, usually on the basis of 330 operating days per year.
Conversion of ft2 to m3 /year is made with 1,000 ft2 equal to 1.77m3 .
With regard to press types, the following abbreviations have been used in the listings: MO=multi-opening/multi daylight SO=single opening/single daylight C=continuous
Mende=Bison-Mende (Calender) na=not available
The following press makes have been identified and are shown in the listing as:-
Bison (pre and post-Metso acquisition) BVH Becker & van Hüllen C Compak Dieff Dieffenbacher Fjellman Küsters (pre and post-Metso acquisition) Mende Bison Mende Metso
Motala NKK Pagnoni Raute
Siemp Siempelkamp WIW Washington Iron Works na
due to site and lease issues. Lastly, in Africa, a new particleboard project for Ghamoud in Algeria has progressed but there are delays. It was first held up by the Covid pandemic and is progressing slowly. Main supplier Dieffenbacher is believed to have supplied all its equipment, but the customer installation process was not expected to begin until Q1, 2024. We understand it is possible that the plant, with a capacity of 115,000m3
completed towards the end of 2024. The project features a CPS+ press from Dieffenbacher, Eppingen and a wide scope of supply from Dieffenbacher’s Chinese subsidiary SWPM.
An Africa project added to the main listing is PG Bison’s expansion project at the eMkhondo (Piet Retief) manufacturing facility, in Mpumalanga. Completed in 2022, the mill has increased its particleboard output capacity by 37% to 1,000m3
a day.
, could be
Information not available
We remain pleased to accept any and all contributions to this survey. Please send them to Stephen Powney, the group editor of WBPI, at
stephen.powney@wbpionline.com
We are grateful to the CPA for the use of a small part of its figures. If you wish to become a member of this organisation and have access to its comprehensive data, go to
www.CompositePanel.org. We are similarly grateful to the EPF and the same applies. Go to
www.europanels.eu
WBPI | December 2023/January 2024 |
www.wbpionline.com
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