Planting the future

Founded in 1988 by Tan Sri Datuk Tiong Hiew King, Subur Tiasa Holdings began by making veneer and plywood. Over the years, the group diversified into logging, particleboard manufacture, sawn timber processing and finger-jointing. A few years ago, the company went into reforestation and oil palm plantations. Although Subur Tiasa Holdings Berhad is one of those operations started by Rimbunan Hijau in 1988, it has been a publicly-listed company in its own right since 1997.

The subject of this article is the particleboard factory at Sibu, Sarawak, which went into commercial production in 1995, producing both raw board and melamine faced panels as Subur Tiasa Particleboard Sdn Bhd. The raw material for this mill is recycled residues from sawmills located along the Rejang River in Sarawak, East Malaysia - the longest river in Malaysia. Sarawak shares the island of Borneo with its sister state Sabah and the independent state of Brunei, all being located in the northern third or so of the island while the remaining area forms the large Indonesian-ruled state of Kalimantan. There are a lot of sawmills along the river, together with a number of settlements which all grew up there to take advantage of the water supply and transport system offered by the Rejang, which remains the principle means of transport for these scattered communities. Subur Tiasa also has its own sawmill converting meranti, keruing, kapur and agathis into products sold mainly to the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Offcuts from the sawn timber are recovered to produce mouldings, which are primarily exported to the Asia Pacific, as is the particleboard production. Subur Tiasa says it has successfully converted 1.5 million tons of wood waste into commercial products such as particleboard, earning foreign exchange income for Malaysia and providing job opportunities and training for its citizens. The complete particleboard production line was designed and supplied by German company Bison, which later went into liquidation. As was common practice in those days, the line was supplied as a turnkey contract, complete and ready to run. "The mill was built to utilise the residues from sawmills, which would otherwise have continued to be burnt or discarded," explained manufacturing manager Wong Sie Kwong, who likes to be known as SK Wong for simplicity. "This also helps to conserve the forest because if we did not utilise the residues we would have to cut more trees to make construction materials for use in place of particleboard." The mill utilises mixed tropical hardwoods in the form of sawmill slabs and offcuts, log ends, peeler cores, veneer waste, shavings, plywood edge-trim and a small quantity of sawdust. In the logyard, the company maintains a covering of wood on the ground to avoid grit contamination of the wood supply. There are two Pallmann primary chippers - a PHT 500x850 and a PHT 300x550. The same company also supplied the three flakers and the hammermill. Total capacity is 5,000kg bone dry per hour per flaker, while the hammermill can process 6,000kg/hour. The Bison drum dryer has a capacity of 13,000kg/hour. Screening is carried out to produce surface layer material, core layer, dust and oversize for re-processing in the Pallmann refiner for surface layer material. "We have three filter systems - one for the sanding dust, one for the screening after the dryer and one for the reject material and sizing saw. This helps us to protect the environment," said Mr Wong. The dust, together with any other wood waste, is burnt in the energy plant, supplied by IMW of Germany. This energy plant has been modified and equipped with improved controls. When making thin particleboard, sander dust is sufficient to feed the plant, but when thicker panels are being made, chips may have to be added to the fuel mix as there is less sanding dust produced. "Chips also produce a stable flame in this energy plant," said Mr Wong. The surface and core layers are blended separately with the urea formaldehyde (UF) or melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF) resin in a Bison-supplied system. Mat forming is also by Bison and this is followed by a DeMets pre-press. The company fitted a specially designed surface to the pre-press belt, which was developed inhouse, to overcome some problems with the mat sticking to it and Mr Wong said this had worked perfectly in overcoming this problem. A PVC belt conveys the mat to the hot press, a system which involves a total of four belts, all perfectly synchronised, while a Teflon-coated 'bridge' carries the mat over the gap between the PVC belt and the stainless steel belt which transports the mat into the main press. The Dieffenbacher single-opening hot press is 72x8ft (Bison did not make a press of this kind). The line is currently running at around 420m³/day, or 130,000m³/year, on a mix of thicknesses and the press controls are the original, fully-automated synoptic systems which Mr Wong said enables the factory to produce a good uniform thickness of panels. After the press and before the star cooler, panels are cut to around 8x24ft by a Kontra flying cross-cut saw and after cooling they pass to a Bison six-head sander, where visual inspection of both panel surfaces is carried out. About 95% of production is exported, within Asia, via the Rejang River and Tanjung Manis port at the mouth of the river, where the packs are trans-shipped. Subur Tiasa has a Dieffenbacher 4x16ft short-cycle melamine-facing line to produce melamine-faced panels to order. The mill has a Holzma HPL 11 hand-fed sawing system which offers a cut-to-size service - at the right price of course. For the year ended July 31, 2006, the Subur Tiasa Holdings group recorded revenue of RM508.4m, down 5% on the previous year, reflecting lower log sales volumes. Profit after tax stood at RM74.2m. This year, particleboard prices have been poor in the region and all manufacturers have suffered a decrease in profitability, aggravated of course by the increase in costs such as resin, freight, energy and the weakened US dollar. A sister company, Subur Tiasa Forestry Sdn Bhd is a pioneer in reforestation in Sarawak. In partnership with RH Group it is investing in rehabilitating and reforesting a sizeable area of land over the next 15 years to ensure a sustainable wood supply for downstream processing "at a very competitive cost". Selected indigenous species are being planted and fast-growing exotic species are planted for areas designated for Industrial Tree Planting. Island corridor planting is practised to reduce environmental impact and to preserve biodiversity, says the company, while extensive research is being carried out to ensure proper conservation of its forests. This planting is important given the rising demand for wood, while sustainable forestry management practices ensure ongoing replenishment of wood resources and continuous wood supply. Based on its records, Subur Tiasa Forest has planted close to one and a half million trees and achieved a ratio of three trees planted for every one that is harvested. In fact, it recently attained a ratio of six to one which it claims as a major milestone in its reforestation efforts. It is setting a target of 10 to one for the future and says it is confident of achieving that. Subur Tiasa Holdings says it is proud of the part it plays in environmental protection and community support and that it is committed to making further progress in reforestation and ensuring it continues as a significant supplier of veneer, plywood, sawn timber, laminated board, finger-jointed products, round logs and of course particleboard from its base in South East Asia.