Asia - Page 3
Stay up to date with the latest Asia updates from the global wood industryChina’s markets continue to retrench
Nowhere has escaped the economic meltdown, but perhaps China has suffered less than most. While it has been savaged by losses in export markets, a still-solid domestic economy (supported by...
Suifenhe is a far-flung outpost of the People’s Republic, hanging onto its Chinese nationality by a thread as it sits on the very border with Russia in the northeast province of Heilongjiang. In the early days of Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery’s (SWPM) existence, when it was founded by the China Forestry Bureau, the company made production lines for the manufacture of...
In his report from Weihua’s newest factory in FengKai, Guangdong province, Mike Botting listed the nine lines owned by this rapidly expanding panel manufacturing group (see WBPI issue 3, 2009,...
The Weihua group is just about to start up its ninth fibreboard line, further strengthening its position as one of the largest-capacity manufacturers in China. Mike Botting visited the construction site in April to bring the first of his reports
The Liren Wood Industry Group (LR Group) has an annual production capacity of 720,000m3 and was an early entrant to the Chinese MDF industry. Mike Botting visited its latest, rather unusual, line in Jiangshan City
ShaanXi Zhong Xing Timber Co Ltd is a privately-owned business with four MDF lines, a 15-year history in the business and some interesting plans for the future. Mike Botting visited its latest line near the world-famous city of Xian
The Weihua group has built a lot of continuous production lines in the last few years and one of its most recent is in Liaoning Province, as Mike Botting reports
German machinery supplier Wemhöner Surface Technologies first entered the Chinese market in 1983. It formed a local sales company in 2004 and in 2007 opened its own factory in Changzhou. Mike Botting visited that facility
With all the consolidation that has been going on in the SE Asian panel manufacturing industry it is in a way refreshing to find a company which is small, wishes to remain small, and knows...
The Green River Wood & Lumber Manufacturing group has annual sales of US$450m emanating from one furniture factory in Taiwan, five in China, one in Malaysia and seven in Vietnam....
Mieco is part of the Bandar Raya Developments Bhd Group of Companies. It started up its first particleboard (or chipboard) line in 1976 and claims that, in the process, it became the first panel...
Acquired at the end of September 2008 from the Hong Leong Group, Hume Fibreboard Sdn Bhd joined the existing mills of the Evergreen Group in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia and became known as...
The Metro-Ply group of companies is one of the oldest players in the field of panel production in Thailand.
It started out as a teak sawmill, going into plywood production in 1973, followed by entry into veneer production, wet process hardboard, doors and finger-jointed hardwood.
Indeed, the company is still active in all those areas but it was in 1995 – a time of considerable activity in SE Asia for composite panel production lines – that the company entered the MDF business.
One year ago, WBPI visited Siam Fibreboard’s Hat Yai site and reported on the imminent start-up of its new 18MW electrical energy generation plant, which now has the
trading name GRE Energy Company Ltd (Thailand).
This in fact started up in January 2008 but is already due for expansion in the near future as it is currently supplying sufficient power for the two (ex STA) Siempelkamp ContiRoll MDF lines already running at Siam Fibreboard but will not have enough capacity for the third line which has just started up.
For a company vastly experienced in lumber processing and furniture manufacture, Green River Panels (Thailand) Co Ltd was taking a big new step in setting up a state-of-the-art particleboard line from scratch.
Green River Wood and Lumber Group is the parent company and has furniture making operations in China, Vietnam and Malaysia (see p38 in this issue) and sawmills in Thailand and Malaysia.
Sawmills are of course excellent providers of raw material for particleboard mills and that is why Green River decided to build its first panel plant adjacent to its sawmill at Bangklum near Hat Yai in southern Thailand.
Aiming for first place The company formerly known as Hebei Yingang Man Made Board Co Ltd is now known as China National Salt Industry Yingang Artificial Slab Ltd but there is much more than a change of name to report about this fast-growing enterprise. Hebei Salt Company and Zhending County Changshan Plastic Products factory formed a joint venture to develop the panel manufacturing interests of Hebei Yingang Man Made Board Co Ltd and today the company occupies a 65.8 acre site with factories covering 77,929m2 and representing RMB820m (US$120m) in fixed assets. The company employs 680 staff at Zhengding in Hebei province.
Growing fast Li Ren Wood Group has a relatively long history in wood based panels and owns several companies trading under different names. In the first of his reports for Part ll of our Focus, Mike Botting visits its latest factory, Senlan Wood Co in Fujian province.Li Ren was originally a wet process fibreboard producer with a capacity of 10,000m3/year at its factory in Lishui, Zhejiang province. In 1994 the company switched to MDF production with a 30,000m3/year Chinese-made line, also at Lishui. This was achieved by modifying the original wet process line. In 1995, another MDF line was installed at that site, again with a capacity of 30,000m3 and utilising Chinese-manufactured equipment.
A good market Established in 1982, the Zhejiang Luyuan Group has a total of 11 production lines around China and a combined capacity of around one million cubic metres. We visit the company’s most recently completed project, in Yangdong. Zhejiang Luyuan Group built its first panel production line in 1984, in Suichang, Zhejiang province in the east of China. It was a wet-process hardboard line with a capacity of 10,000m3 /year. In 1995 the company moved into dry-process fibreboard, or MDF, buying its first, seven-opening, press line from Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd (SWPM). This line had an annual capacity of 30,000m3 and replaced that original hardboard line. Fast forward to 2003 and we find the group building its first, imported, continuous press line from Siempelkamp of Germany.
CVC completes takeover of Asia Dekor CVC Asia Pacific Ltd (CVC) has completed the acquisition of Asia Dekor Holdings Ltd, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Asia Dekor is a leading manufacturer and distributor of laminate flooring, MDF and particleboard in China. Based in Shenzhen, it currently has 16 million m2 of laminate flooring production, 200,000m3 of MDF and 200,000m3 of particleboard production in Guangdong.
