Shengda Forestry is a privately owned company founded in 1997 to produce laminate flooring. In fact, the company claims to have been the firstmanufacturer of this product in China; itsmajor competitor,Power Dekor, only imported laminated board and machined it in China at that time.
The company began by importing highquality HDF (high-density fibreboard) to laminate and machine in its own factory, later moving to Chinese-made board as the quality available improved.
In 2006, it set up Sichuan ShengdaMan Made Fibreboard Co Ltd to make its own base board and placed a contract with Dieffenbacher of Germany to supply an 18.2mx8ft CPS continuous press line. That line went into production in December 2007 and WBPI visited it in March 2008.
In fact, the machinery installation on that first line began in early August 2007 so it was a remarkably quick start-up.
“That first line, designed with a capa city of 130,000m3/year, is running well and producing 160,000m3/year in 2.7 to 12mm thickness, with 50% in thin board for furniture production,” said Pan Zhen Qi, general manager of the company’s newest MDF/HDF factory in Guangyuan City.
Today, Shengda has three laminate flooring factories equipped with lines from Hymmen of Germany, in Qinbaijiang and Wenjiang in greater Chengdu City, and in Shanghai.
The Shanghai factory produces veneered MDF and bamboo flooring board as a veneer on MDF, as well as laminate flooring. It also has a direct printing line, made in China, for producing another range of flooring.
Another group factory in Chengdu produces solid wooden doors.
In late 2007/early 2008, the company laid plans for its second MDF/HDF line and in July 2008 carried out its intention to float on the Shenzhen stock market.
“We went to the market on July 16, 2008 and the flotation was very successful,” said Mr Pan. So now the planned second line could steam ahead.
“We decided on this site in Guangyuan because wood raw material was readily available in the form of pine and mixed hardwood in a 150-200km range, from forest owned by Shengda Forestry. This resource is just for line 2 – line I has a separate supply.”
Guangyuan is a three-hour drive from Chengdu City, which is a two-and-three quarter- hour flight from Beijing.
The Shengda Group owns over 200,000 mu (ca13,300ha) of forest, mainly in Sichuan province.
With a site allocated for the new factory, the order for the press line was again  placed with Dieffenbacher, on August 13, 2008.
Dieffenbacher’s scope of supply was from the green end, including air graders, to the glue kitchen and press line, to raw board handling.
The CPS continuous press is 23m long and eight feet wide and the designed capacity of the line is 220,000m3/year. The press is equipped with Berndorf Band stainless steel endless belts.
Chippers and debarking were from a local supplier, Zhongfuma.
The cut-to-size and sanding line was supplied by Holzma of Germany,  with a Steinemann eight-head sander, while the refiner was a 54in Evo unit from Metso. This was the second Evo machine in China, according toMr Pan.
GreCon of Germany supplied the on the- line quality control, including moisture measurement, thickness and blister detection and density profile, as part of the Dieffenbacher contract.
The energy plant was supplied by Chinese manufacturer Changzhou Union and is fuelled entirely by dust, waste wood and bark.
The resin plant on site was also supplied by Chinese companies and produces melamine urea formaldehyde glues only.
A biological water treatment plant from a local supplier was ready to clean all process water, while the only emissions  control was dust collection, with the dust going to the energy plant.
At the time of my visit, a new office block was under construction and the current office building was destined to become workers’ accommodation, with completion in mid-year. The line had already produced its first boards and was undergoing the finishing touches. Full production commenced on July 1.
As for line 1, 80-90% of production is in the thickness range 3 to 5mm with a density of around 870kg/m3 but the mills do not only supply Shengda’s own flooring works, but also sell to outside companies, depending on where the best price can be obtained.
Total investment in the new factory was RMB410m (US$61m), including purchase of the 300mu (20ha) site bordered by the Nan River. The site will employ around 200 people when running fully.
Markets for the Guangyaun line will be mainly within Sichuan province. “In the future, maybe we will sell to the northern part of China and we hope to export some of our production when the export market improves, but we are 1600km from Shanghai port,” said Mr Pan.
For the value-added production, the group has 1,000 shops around China selling its branded flooring products. I asked Mr Pan about the company’s future plans – I was told in 2008 when visiting the first line that a further three MDF/HDF lines were planned.
“We will see how it goes with this line and then maybe we will build a second one here – we have the space,” he replied.

Acommon step in the manufacture of all wood based panels (WBP), except cement bonded particleboards, is hot pressing. Panels bonded with amide adhesives, eg UF or MUF, must be cooled after they have been taken out of the press. If the boards were stacked together immediately, the residual heat would cause thermal degradation of the glue. On exiting the press the boards are placed in a star cooler, which holds the panels on their edges, thus exposing both faces to air. The star cooler, or coolers in some factories, are usually large enough to accommodate a sufficient number of boards so that when the boards leave the cooler their surface temperatures will have fallen to about 40^oC.
The graph shows the temperature variation of a laboratory-made, 20mm thick particleboard with 450mm sides. It is clear that the internal temperatures continue to rise after the panel leaves the press and that when the surface temperature is around 40^oC, the internal temperature is much higher. Commercial panels are much larger than laboratory scale panels and so the temperature differences are expected to be larger in commercial panels even though it is the thickness which is the most important variable here. Consequently, once the panels are stacked, the surface temperatures rise once again. Depending on the stack size and season, the temperature in the centre of a stack can be more than 55^oC, even after 3 days of storage.
Phenolic bonded WBP, on the other hand, can be hot stacked. In fact, hot stacking is recommended for PF bonded boards as their properties are  usually seen to improve by this process. It is said that the improvement is due to increased cure of the adhesive, which seems very plausible. However, some of the improvement may also be due to continued internal stress relaxation permitted by the high temperatures in the stack.
Panel cooling is also necessary from the point of view of subsequent processing steps, especially sanding, but also in order to minimise further reductions in panel moisture content, as this must be recovered before the panel is shipped.

Baoshan Corporation, headquartered in Long menshan Town, near Chengdu in Sichuan province, has a 30-year history in metal working, mainly in copper and zinc, and in hydro-electric energy generation schemes. Historically, it had no involvement in panel production at all. So it seems surprising that the company should make the decision in 2005 to go into MDF production (the actual commitment to the project was delayed due to exceptional circumstances, but more of that later).
“Yes, we have the hydro-electric side of the business, but that is coming to an end due to environmental concerns about restricting the flow of the Yangtse River with too many such projects,” explained Jia Qing, board chairman and general manager of Baoshan Corporation, through an interpreter.
“In former times, the government gave support for this industry but now it pays more attention to environmental considerations.”
That explains the need to get out of reliance on the hydroelectric sector but not why the company chose to go into panel production.
“There were four main reasons for our decision to move into MDF production,” replied Mr Jia. “These were: the development of the company into the future; electrical power supply was available to support an MDF plant; since the 1970s we have had a 30,000mu tree plantation and today we have 200,000mu [ca13,330ha] of local tree species, mainly fir; and we believe there is a good market for wood based panels and that this will help us to expand our business.”
I asked the chairman where one would start in entering a totally new business area such as MDF manufacture.
“For sure we had no experience in the industry, so we had to hire people with that experience – the management of the line is obviously very important. We visited existing MDF  mills such as Baoyuan, Dongdun, Dare, Weilibang [Weihua], Sunway and Luyuan. That included a mixture of Siempelkamp and Dieffenbachersupplied mills.We also visited the Ligna exhibition in Germany in 2007.”
Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery’s continuous press was also considered at that time, said Mr Jia.
Having begun the investment planning process in 2005, Baoshan signed a contract with Dieffenbacher to supply the press line on December 27, 2007.
It was after that that those “exceptional circumstances” mentioned earlier interrupted proceedings.
OnMay 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale, with its epicentre80km west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, at a depth of 19km, shook not just the province, and metaphorically all of China, but also the Baoshan Corporation, severely.
Seven factories belonging to Baoshan were totally destroyed and 52 of its employees died in that catastrophe. “We lost RMB2.7bn and there was no insurance for such an event, but industry did receive a lot of government support,” said Mr Jia.
Amazingly, five of those factories are already up and running again and the other two were under reconstruction at the time of my meeting withMr Jia in March this year.
“So, we had intended to start our MDF project before the earthquake struck but in the event, we took it up again in June 2009, when we reconfirmed the contract with Dieffenbacher,” said the chairman.
The land for the mill had already been purchased in 2007 in PengZhou, Sichuan, with adequate water and electricity supply and close to the all-important Chengdu market: “One of the biggest furniture markets in China,” saidMr Jia.
The site covers an area of 220mu on former agricultural land already designated for industrial development.
Construction on the site began in June 2009 and the buildings were scheduled to be completed this May. Full production is planned for August. Total investment will be in the region of RMB420m (US$62m). One obvious question concerns the risk of further earthquakes in the region and Mr Jia said they had prepared for this eventuality.
“Baoshan and Dieffenbacher considered this problem together and we made the foundations stronger than normal, capable of resisting an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 and probably more,” he said. “This is also factored into the strong support for high buildings on the site, such as the cyclone towers.”
The actual production line was split into sub-contracts.
The green end – chippers, debarking, etc  – was supplied by Chinese contactors. The chip screening came from Jiangsu Baolong Electrical Manufacturing Company, while the sifter came from Schenkmann & Piel/Dieffenbacher.
Dieffenbacher was awarded everything from the dryer to the press, as well as part of the raw board handling. The flying diagonal cross-cut saw also came from Dieffenbacher’s subsidiary (exMetso Panelboard) in Finland. From the press to board storage is of local supply, while actual board storage was again awarded to Dieffenbacher, which was also made responsible for overall contract management/ coordination. The CPS continuous press is 23.6mx8ft. The contract for the 54in refiner was placed with Austrian supplier Andritz.
Sanding was supplied by Imeas of Italy with a six-head machine, while the cut-tosize line came from Anthon.  
The energy plant was supplied by GTS Energy of Shanghai.
The Baoshan factory has its own locally- supplied resin making plant, as do most panel factories in China.
Baoshan expects to employ about 200 workers once the factory is up and running to capacity.
The main product for this line will be thin board of around 2mm, but Baoshan’s intention is not to just rely on the sale of raw board – it has plans to build a valueadding line, of some kind, to be purchased from a Chinese supplier.
“We are still researching this subject,” said Mr Jia. “We are looking for something new to produce which will add value to our production. I will be attending some international events to gain ideas for this.”
Whatever Mr Jia decides to produce in the added-value area, it is unlikely to be simply laminate flooring or melamine  faced panels as he feels there are already a lot of companies making those products.
“At the last Ligna, for example, I saw the technology for producing sandwich panels with thin MDF faces,” he said with interest. “For the future we must find a way to expand the market for MDF.
“We are also thinking about future growth in panel manufacture but it depends on the success of this factory. There is a huge market for MDF produced on a continuous press and that can help to protect the forest.”
For the immediate future, Baoshan intends to supply mainly the local market in Sichuan province because it is still ‘importing’ panel from other provinces and Mr Jia is convinced that there is a big demand to be filled: “This line will have a capacity of 220,000m3 and there are many furniture companies in this province – midsize companies – and they each need 50,000m3/year of thin board, so four or five such companies would already consume our planned production”.

This company began its life in panel production with a wetprocess hardboard production line in Chunan, Zhejiang Province, in 1980. The company was then known as Zhejiang Chunan Wood Based Panel Plant.
That wet process line was converted to MDF production in 1996. However, Chunan, Hangzhou is located in an extremely picturesque part of China – home to the two famous scenic areas of The Thousand Islands Lake and The Thousand Islands Lake Stone Forest. Because of this location, and the expanding city, in 2006 the company was asked to move its factory but decided it was no longer mainstream for its business and closed it down.
The company also had one particleboard line which was very small, explained general manager and engineer at the latest factory, Fang Xiao Hua, and that was closed in 2007.
Today, Anhui Fuyang Huqian Fiberboard has two factory sites with a total of four MDF lines in Fujian Province; one MDF factory with one line in Jiangsu Province; and its latest, continuous, MDF line in Funan Industrial Park, Funan, Anhui Province. The factory is about a one-hour drive from Fuyang airport.
All except the last named line employ multi-opening press lines from Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd (SWPM).
The company’s first MDF line, after Chunan, was built in Fujian in 1998 and the second, in the same province, in 1999. The third line followed in 2002 in Jiangsu and the fourth and fifth appeared in 2003 and 2006, again in Fujian Province.
Total capacity for the company’s six MDF lines today is 600,000m3.
The move to continuous pressing for the sixth line came about because the company wanted to produce thin board and all its other lines mainly produced thicker panels.
The contract for the new line was signed in March 2007 with Siempelkamp of Krefeld, Germany, following research around the industry in China by Mr Fang and his team.
Also in 2007, the land for the ContiRoll continuous press line was purchased,  with the area being chosen because of the availability of poplar plantations within a 200km radius. The site covers an area of 233,000m2. But that is not the whole story.
“Yes, the wood supply is cheap and available but also, we are in the midnorth of China and we now have a lot of market in the north and northwest of the country. Until now, most MDF plants have been built in the northeast so we chose to build here and go for those booming markets in the north and northwest,” said Mr Fang.
Anhui Fuyang does not intend to rely long-term solely on that local wood supply though, as Mr Fang explained. “We are now thinking about setting up our own plantations,” he said when WBPI visited the new factory in March this year. “We have been focused totally on building the new factory, but now we are in discussions with the government on planting our own trees near here.
We do have our own plantation in Fujian Province to feed our four lines there, where we have an area of 33 million  m2 planted with pine and mixed species.”
On August 8, 2008 – the day the Olympic Games opened in Beijing – Anhui Fuyang started digging its foundations. “We had a big celebration, with many fireworks!” said Mr Fang.
The imported machinery arrived on site in April 2009 and then things must have really started to move because the first board came out of the end of the ContiRoll in the August, followed rapidly by full production in the October.
The main part of the line came from Siempelkamp, including the cut-to-size line from Siempelkamp Handling Systems (SHS).
“We cut to size in the line before sanding and I think we were the first MDF mill in China to do this – and it is working well so far,” said Mr Fang.
The forming line was supplied by CMC Texpan of Italy.
The conventional pre-press from Siempelkamp is followed by a special compactor from the same supplier, with a perforated stainless steel endless belt to compress the mat further before the main press and facilitate the production of thin board of under 3mm, favoured by the customer.
The ContiRoll is eight feet wide and 28.8m long and the design capacity is 220,000m3 a year.
The minimum thickness that the press is designed to produce is 1.6mm, with a design speed of 2,000mm/second. It was only the fifth line of this design in the world and the first in China.
Unusually, the ContiRoll press is preceded by an SHS flying diagonal crosscut saw which is also a new feature. This is only necessary for producing very thin board at speeds above 1,200mm/second because the airflow can produce a concave edge on the mat.
The saw only operates when the nose of the press is open – at the beginning or end of the mat. The energy plant came from GTS Energy Technology Co Ltd of Shanghai. The refiner came from Andritz of Austria and is a 54/58in unit. Andritz was also responsible for the whole ‘green end’ of this line.
The chipper is from Bruks Klöckner. The drum debarker was made locally to Andritz specifications and the Austrian company also supplied the sifters. Chinese manufacturer Sufoma supplied the wide-belt sander.
Anhui Huqian has its own resin plant as is common in China with its widespread panel industry and it produces E1 and E0 resins (the Chinese government formally  abolished E2 resins in April 2010).
The glue kitchen and blending were supplied by Imal of Italy.
The water treatment plant for treating the process water was made in China and cost eight million RMB (yuan).
Total investment in the site was RMB460m (US$68m).
There is a lot of talk about the MDF market in China approaching saturation but Mr Fang is confident for the future.
“We think there is a huge market in China, especially as we are the first to produce such thin board. Maybe others will come along but as the first producer we see a great potential.
“We are also trying to export to closer countries such as South Korea and are already talking to potential customers there.”
The factory does not produce any value-added products but sells to customers who laminate in the downtown area of Funan. Mr Fang feels the very real risk of damage when transporting surfaced boards is not worth taking.
“However, we have reserved a plot of land close to this plant and maybe we will carry out secondary processing of some kind there in the future,” he said. “We have no plans for additional raw board capacity at present, but in the future we may need to increase capacity to meet demand.”
The main market for the thin board is in packaging, such as gift boxes and for decoration applications, he explained.
“Personally, I am very optimistic about the development of our industry because it is much related to the economy of China and is relatively stable at this time, even though we did experience a downturn,” said Mr Fang. “We are coming out of that now and the government’s policy is to create a lot of new housing and that will create a demand for furniture. I think there will be rapid development of our industry in the future in China.”

On January 1 this year, Siempelkamp increased its shareholding in CMC Texpan from the existing 40% to 70%, gradually buying out the company’s president Dario Zoppetti, whose father founded the business known as CMC in 1962. It merged with Texpan in 1995 to form CMC Texpan. 
Siempelkamp acquired 25% of CMC shares from Texpan some years ago and the two companies have worked closely together ever since, with Siempelkamp gradually increasing its stake.  
As Mr Zoppetti (62) looks to retirement in three years’ time, he has entered into an agreement with the German complete line supplier that it will buy his remaining shares in the business at that time. 
In the meantime, CMC Texpan is becoming one of Siempelkamp’s globally distributed ‘regional engineering centres’ and taking on an increasing range of machinery manufacture in its two factories in Colzate.  
New products for the company include silo extractors, metal removers, a new generation of gravimetric separators, glue kitchens and blending systems, while its ‘traditional’ products include oscillating screens, roller separators, chip cleaners,  hammermills, dosing and storage bins and mat weigh-scales.  
Of course the company has been famous for many years for its forming stations for both particleboard and MDF production lines around the world, often, but not only, supplied through Siempelkamp, and for other machinery for particleboard.  
“We also make many components for existing Siempelkamp machines and are now their official representative in Italy and we intend to sell Siempelkamp plants in this country,” said Mr Zoppetti. “And we will continue to expand our range of products.”  
Siempelkamp also has factories in Blatnice in the Czech Republic and in Wuxi  in China as part of that global regional engineering centre philosophy.  
Wood size reduction machinery maker Hombak of Germany also joined the Siempelkamp group of companies when it was taken over in 2009 and CMC Texpan makes certain components to take some pressure off the Hombak factory. It also makes components for Siempelkamp short-cycle presses.  
“There are many such interactions within the Siempelkamp Group,” said Mr Zoppetti. “We are also cooperating in engineering. Our company PAN, near Milan, is a technical design and engineering office with a strong staff which also follows the erection and start-up team. That office also works closely with Sicoplan, which performs a  corresponding function in the Siempelkamp Group.”  
Texpan is also working closely with Siempelkamp Energy Systems in the area of biomass energy plants.   
“We have a group of people who we call our ‘Storm Troopers’,” said Mr Zoppetti, with a smile. “Among them are Mr Villa on sales and technology, technologist Mr Gattesco on R&D and sales manager Mr Steeger, who comes from Siempelkamp. There are also many others working in this group and visiting customers around the world, promoting both complete plants and individual components of the plants. This includes modification of existing lines as well as the supply of new lines.  
“So we intend to be more and more present in the market, not just as a subsidiary of Siempelkamp, but as one of the team – as well, of course, as selling our products directly to customers.”

Luca Zappetti, process engineer and project manager with Instalmec srl of San Giorgio di Nogaro, Udine, said that 2009 was a very good year for the company, even if Europe in general, and the company’s traditionally strong Italian market in particular, were not so good. 
Having said that, Instalmec started up a new cleaning system for recycled wood in Poland in 2009 which  processes 400m3/hour of material for particleboard production. This project was supplied directly to Pfleiderer’s factory in Wieruszów.  
“It was the third such plant for us and the first outside Italy (and for an international group),” said Mr Zappetti. “We guaranteed a cleaning efficiency of more than 95% in our offer and this was achieved. “The plant takes out all metals, stones, glass, plastic, etc and also has a system to clean the dust to remove sand, making it OK to burn. This project has generated a lot of interest among our other customers, too.”  
Another success claimed by Mr Zappetti for Instalmec in 2009 was the supply of two different installations in the field of pellet production for fuel. 
“In the pellet field, we also offer a gravimetric separator as a pre-dryer and this is another innovation of the last two or three years,” continued Mr Zappetti. “It replaces the traditional Omega pre-dryer and also cleans the material at the same time, removing heavy pollutants like stones and glass.”  
At La Tiesse, the biggest pellet producer in Italy, Instalmec supplied a 30 tonne per hour-input gravimetric separator to add to its existing dryer to increase capacity and remove smaller pollutants.  
In combustion, Instalmec has sold one of its new generation combustion chambers to a pellet-producing client in Hungary. The system, with a capacity of 6.8MW, has an exhaust recycling system capable of a fuel saving of around 20%. It is not fired by dust, but by particles from the chip dryer, which Mr Zappetti says is cheaper than using a moving-grate system.  
One of the latest innovations for Instalmec, patented three years ago for particleboard plants, is the Low Pressure Drop (LPD) cyclone. Four of these units are to be supplied to Italian panel maker Bipan to be installed on an existing MDF dryer as the first application in MDF. 
“The very low pressure drop compared with traditional cyclones was achieved by studying the flow dynamics in cyclones,” said Mr Zappetti, explaining that the design of the air outlet, the internal helical scroll (for specific applications) and the installation of a special finned flow breaker system enable the separation of material at a lower air speed compared with traditional cyclones. 
The lower air speed reduces wear and saves electrical energy thanks to the lower pressure drop (about half the pressure drop in conventional cyclones). One kilowatt saved is €1,000/year saved, according to Mr Zappetti. 
“We have done a lot of research into energy-saving and wear-reduction generally and think this will become a main target for panel makers,” he said. The system also involves a lighter structure, which is also lower and thus has less visual impact, and reduced installation costs, he claimed.  
“We have a highly-skilled workshop, engineering know-how and flexibility,” said Mr Zappetti “That has been very helpful to us in the past year in finding new business.”

Established in 1974 close to its present home in Vigevano in Lombardy, Tocchio srl has a well-established global position in the manufacture of paper impregnation lines, but founder Umberto Tocchio admits that the last two years have been every challenging for his company as orders “fell off a cliff” in the global economic downturn, in common with many machinery makers.
However, those orders taken in early 2008 helped to see the company through a difficult  period and now things are beginning to look much better.
One such order was for a line for Formica Brasil at its Suzano factory, which started production in May of this year.
“This is the fastest line for phenolic resin impregnation of Kraft paper in the world,” said Mr Tocchio when interviewed at his factory in June. “It has a maximum mechanical speed of 300 metres per minute and regularly runs at 270 metres per minute. The inner temperature of the drying tunnel is high, at 190-210oC, which is possible because phenolic resin has no hardener.”
A new feature of this line is that access to the side of the machine is enhanced by a vertically sliding upper box, which exposes the centre-line of the machine internals.
The construction comprises upper and lower boxes. The lower one is fixed, while the upper box is lifted by a motor which drives a series of screws. This simplifies cleaning the machine.
Apart from loading of the paper roll by a gantry crane operated by a remote handheld unit, the entire process is fully automated, including automated jointing of a new paper roll. The line has full thermal and sound insulation and also emits no odours from the phenolic resin.
A double-knife rotary cutter separates the continuous web of impregnated Kraft paper into sheets, which go to two stacking stations; two are needed to cope with the speed of the line.
Another recent contract for Tocchio was the supply of a multi-function melamine impregnation line to produce normal impregnated paper for low pressure laminate as well as overlay with an aluminium oxide abrasive in it for laminate flooring. The same line can also produce finish foil. It went into production in June 2009 at Eucatex’s Botucatu line in Brazil with normal running speeds of 60-70m/min.
Again in Brazil, the company has received orders for two new melamine lines for Duratex. The first has already been delivered to the Uberaba factory and is due to start production at the end of 2010. The second line will be delivered in October this year for start-up inMarch 2011 at Duratex Agudos in Sâo Paolo state. Both these lines have a capacity of 75m/min.
Over a year ago, Tocchio supplied a melamine line to Kronostar’s mega-site in Sharija, Russia and now a second line is close to start-up there.  Mr Tocchio pointed out that all machines are fully made in Italy and custom- designed to customers’ requirements in the company’s own technical office, using the latest software, and that the company employs a team of expert mechanical, electrical and electronic engineers.
As well as impregnation plants, Tocchio supplies gravimetric resin preparation, onthe- line weight and moisture devices and air cleaning systems.
Thanks to its team of chemists, conversant with the specific requirements of resins for different impregnation processes, Tocchio says it can support all customers, from resin production to the final laminated boards in the press.

The two constituent companies of the Imal Pal group had rather different experiences during the economic downturn.
While Pal srl of Ponte di Piave saw sales jump by 10% between 2008 and 2009, Imal srl of Modena found itself in a very quiet period of sales in the latter half of 2009.
“Now we have an order book for the group worth €103m and growing,” said an enthusiastic Loris Zanasi, managing director of Imal Pal Group, inModena in June. 
The group now employs some 250 and has greatly increased the product range. 
The original expertise of the two constituent companies is retained, with Imalspecialising more in the electronics side, such as quality control on the line and in the laboratory, and its mechanical dry fibre glue blending system, as well as some new products covered later, while Pal handles the more mechanical operations such as wood preparation and cleaning and screening, flaking and refining for particleboard mills. 
The two companies share some facilities, such as the mechanical workshop where heavy components are fabricated. This factory was also equipped two years ago with a heavy-duty bending machine capable of bending thick stainless steel for the manufacture of the shells for glue blenders, for example. It also has a 10m long grinding machine capable of grinding press plates; and a robot welding facility.  
Meanwhile, Pal has what the group claims is a facility unique in the world, in the form of its Ponte di Piave laboratory for testing all kinds of raw material, especially recycled wood, for use in panel making.  
With the exception of the glue blender and laboratory press, all the equipment in the laboratory is full-scale, thus enabling real-situation testing to be carried out on wood  preparation, drying, forming, pressing and all kinds of chip cleaning solutions. 
Pal also has several people dedicated to research and development (R&D) and this  team normally produces two or three patents per year, according to managing director Antonio dal Ben.  
In China, the group supplied a large installation for recycled wood including crusher, chip cleaning, screening, sifting and a specially-developed new forming station for a new kind of panel developed in Pal’s  laboratory. This has a particleboard core with MDF faces. The faces will be made using dust collected from other mills.  Gluing will be by Imal. 
There are two more orders imminent from China. One is for an MDF line and one a “special OSB” line – another product researched and developed in Pal’s laboratory.    
The Chinese customers will source Chinese-made multi-opening presses for their lines and Imal Pal will carry out the engineering for the projects.  
“We have a very good market in China where we are supporting a lot of customers with our technology,” said Mr dal Ben. “We also have a good market in South America, with  many customers.”   
Imal Pal is supplying a complete 1,000m3 a day particleboard line to Argentina, from logyard to forming station, including debarking and chipping, refining, intermediate storage, boiler, energy plant, complete dry area including dryer, gluing and all suction systems. Electrical controls are also included in this contract.  
Last year, for Eucatex, Pal doubled the cleaning capacity for recycled wood for a new MDF line, including all suction systems, while Imal supplied the glue system.  
In Europe, the company has supplied four recycled wood systems to France this year: to Kronofrance, Depalor and CFP.  
Pal has also combined much of its recycling technology into the Cleaning Tower, a five storey structure which has roller screen, eddy current separator, chip cleaner, magnet and so on in one ‘unit’. This saves energy by employing gravity to transfer the chips through each process.   
“In the laboratory we tested the best machine for each job in the Tower. Contaminated material goes in the top and clean material comes out of the bottom into bins for different fractions,” said Mr Zanasi.   
While admitting that the western European market is generally not so good at present,Mr dal Ben said his company had received a lot of orders recently for upgrading existing mills. “we have a lot of knowledge in increasing capacity and quality and in reducing maintenance costs.    
“Our next target as Imal Pal is to supply complete plants, including dryer, boiler and everything after the press. We are financially strong and will become the third force as a complete line supplier,” said Mr dal Ben.    
But the Imal Pal Group has its sights set to a new height.  “Siempelkamp and Dieffenbacher are each offering everything from one source,” said Mr Zanasi.   
“We have no choice in the circumstances but to offer the same singlesource approach.” Imal Pal has thus entered into an agreement with a Chinese company already specialized in press manufacture to fabricate parts of their own Imal Pal continuous press in China. This will be known as the Dynapress and the formers, constructed by Pal, will be known as Dynaformers.  
Two continuous presses have already been sold to Chinese customers, with Imal supplying the whole press line, with electronic and software controls and quality control equipment.Meanwhile Pal had, by June, received 13 orders for its Dynaformers for OSB, particleboard andMDF.  
“At the same time, we are setting up the Panel Alliance Team (PAT) involving a  number of experienced companies and we have already sold a plant to Cuyoplacas in  Argentina for 1,000m3 a day of particleboard,” addedMr Zanasi.
That contract includes Pal, Imal, Recalor of Spain for the dryer and Vyncke of Belgium for the energy plant.
“Everything before the former was sold by PAT with Imal Pal as the main supplier.
Each company within PAT presents its lowest price to the customer directly, but PAT facilitates our being more competitive in the market place,” said Mr Zanasi.
Imal has another major new product, which Mr Zanasi described as a key point for the company’s future. 
Called the Dynasteam, this is a steam injection unit which can be installed before the continuous press, with its belts speedsynchronised with those of the press. The Dynasteam injects saturated steam into the bottom of the mat and is designed to be used in conjunction with the Imal TS100 mat spray, which sprays water onto the top of the mat. This water turns into steam when it comes into contact with the hot press plates to balance out the steam injected into the bottom layer. The system does not add moisture to the mat, said Mr Zanasi. The target is to increase mat temperature  by at least 30oC to achieve faster press times and thus increased pressing capacity, claimed to be 15-20%. There is a patent pending for Dynasteam.
Other new products from Imal include an electronic gel timer to test resin setting  times and a formaldehyde emission measurement chamber (GA717-2), which complies  with EN717-2 and enables the rapid measurement of formaldehyde release from panel samples. It is available in two sizes – for two or four samples.
While many exhibitors found the Xylexpo exhibition in  Milan in May to be quiet, Imal secured, at the show, a confirmed order for quality control equipment valued at one million euros. So in Imal Pal we have a dynamic group which intends to take on the biggest singlesource system suppliers in the world.

In May of this year, Globus srl, established by Fabio Paron in 1981, bought shares in EMG do Brasil in Curitiba. This company, established in 2007 by Italian handling machinery maker EMG as a joint venture with a Brazilian company,  manufactures components for EMG’s handling lines for the South American market.
For Globus, the shareholding means that some of its less technical components can be manufactured locally and that spare parts can be stocked closer to the company’s established customer base there, as well as providing local sales and service. The staff will be trained in Italy and on clients’ sites in South America.
For instance, Globus has just supplied a chipping line to Duratex in Uberaba for its continuous particleboard line and to provide fuel for its energy plant. EMG is supplying handling equipment to the same project.
“We already have five contracts in the region and they have been very well received,” said Mr Paron, who is also an enthusiastic supporter of GET srl, which is acting as a facilitator for his and several other companies.
Another region with positive growth for Globus is India. “The market is growing there and we have recently sold some machines to Star Panel Board for its 1,000m3 a day particleboard line,” said Mr Paron.
Trasmec, a fellow member of the GET grouping, supplied its chip conveying systems to the same project. “Russia is another important market for Globus, as is eastern Europe generally. We are currently sending machines to Almus of Uzbekistan for a plant in Russia making 600m3 of particleboard per day,” said Mr Paron when interviewed at his factory in Galliate in June.
In South America, his company is supplying a chipping and flaking line to Novopan particleboard in Ecuador, with delivery scheduled for October.
Another consignment of machinery for Ecuador is destined for delivery to Cotopaxi’s MDF line there in November.
“With the new strategy of GET srl, we arrive in front of the client in the quickest way and such opportunities are arriving fast,” said Mr Paron.
Biomass energy generation is another area of Globus’ business which is growing fast.
Meanwhile, Globus is no longer just supplying machinery to the woodyard, as Mr Paron explained: “A new international regulation states that companies cutting trees must remove everything from the forest, not just the logs. Therefore, six  months ago, we created a mobile chipping unit, MCU, which is mounted on a wheeled road trailer. It is working now in the Italian Apennines.
“The concept is that the drum produces chips in exactly the same way as a static chipper so the quality of the chips is the same. In the past, mobile chippers produced inferior quality chips, but our MCU produces chips suitable for particleboard or MDF production,” he said. “This is because conventional mobile chippers use multi-blade knives which tend to scrape or grate, rather than cut, the chips. Ours, on the other hand, has single-blade knives which produce regular chips.”
The MCU is currently offered with three choices of motor: 560hp, 900hp, or 1,200hp.
“Now you can chip directly on site ready for either the panel industry or for pellet and biomass plants. The potential capacity of these machines is 50 to 100 tons per hour,” confirmed the managing director.
When it comes to the economic crisis, at Globus, well, there is no crisis. “Production in 2009 was the same as in 2008 and 2010 will be 30% up on that figure,” said Mr Paron proudly.
He has always been a great enthusiast for the company he founded nearly 30 years ago and is now equally enthusiastic about his cooperation with GET in Italy – and his involvement in EMG do Brasil.

Bernardo Vitali Nari and Claudio Lommi entered thewater treatment field more than 15 years ago, setting up Claber Ecologia, head quartered in Parma, in 2002 as a specialist in water treatment plants. 
Initially specialising in the treatment of industrial sewage water, the company soon found other markets in which its technology had important applications. These included the tomato processing industry as well as other fruit sectors, fisheries and meat processing. 
“We specialise in treating water in large quantities, containing a variety of pollutants,” saidMr Vitali Nari when interviewed in Italy in June.  
The company’s brochure recognises a commonly-held belief that water treatment plants are a cost without benefits but of course they are necessary and Claber feels it is the right partner for such projects to be effective and reliable. 
The two partners saw the potential for their technology inMDF plants and Claber’s first contact in that sector was withMDF manufacturer Intasa, of Galicia in northern Spain.   
“We already had a history of supplying water treatment for the food industry in Spain and we met withMr Lobo of Intasa and submitted our technical solution to treat Intasa’s waste water before it entered the neighbouring river, or was recycled in theMDF production process,” saidMr Vitali Nari.  
“We approached theMDF process with a unique point of view compared to other suppliers of water treatment. Usually in MDF production, there is a large quantity of polluted water at a high temperature and this means it is a difficult problem to solve with a biological system because  of the temperature.  
“We discovered that mostMDF companies solve this problem with micro-filtration and osmosis processes utilising membrane technology. Our approach is totally different, utilising our experience in biological treatment.”  
Accordingly, Claber set up a study and realised that the first step should be the initial treatment of the water with a chemical/ physical process and reducing its temperature so that one hundred percent biological treatment became possible.  
The main pollutants are tannins, lignin, oils and other organic compounds and fibre; Claber’s solution to all these is an aerobic bacterial biochemical process.
“We could then achieve the final outcome, with the best results in terms of pollutants, and the water can be re-utilised in theMDF process, or safely discharged to the environment, as required by the customer,” saidMr Vitali Nari.  
“Themajor advantage that we discovered for our biological system, in terms of both cost of investment and cost in use, is that it is not affected by the quantity of water you have to treat. This is the big difference compared with amembrane-based plant.
“For example, consider a company which produces 500m3/day of MDF and has to treat 10m3/hour of process water and call the cost of the membrane-based plant 100. Then the cost of a biological plant would be 80. However, if the same production of 500m3/day needed treatment of 30m3/hour of water, the cost of the membrane plant would be 300, while the biological one would be 90,” he said. 
“Also the cost in use is due in large measure (90%) to the polluting charge (production in tonnes per hour of MDF) and in small part (10%) to the water treated,” continuedMr Vitali Nari. “Independently of the treated range, this allows the availability of a higher quantity of treated water at a very low price. Also very important is that some technological changes in preparation of the raw material [for instance chip washing] can be made, which would be impossible in a conventional water treatment system due to the high costs involved.
“The system installed at Intasa has been running successfully since 2007.
“Our real strategy comes from other industrial fields, with a fresh view on the field of wood products, so we think differently to the existing systems on the market.   Our systems do not require highly qualified staff to maintain and operate them.
“The key word for our process is ‘flexibility’.”

Riccardo Ferrari has spent more than 30 years working in the Italian  wood working machinery  field and in the course of that career has visited panel mills all over the world, becoming very well-known in the industry. 
In September of 2009, Mr Ferrari got together with EMG, Trasmec of Casalbuttano and Globus of Galliate and formed GET srl. 
This combined the talents of EMG in handling; Trasmec in transport of chips, flakes and dust; and Globus in wood sizereduction machinery. 
As managing director of GET, Mr Ferrari became responsible for representing all three companies in the area of wood based panels and energy plants utilising biomass, bringing together the strengths of each in an initial approach to potential projects. Not only did he bring knowledge of the market and its players to the table, but also a full understanding of the technical aspects of each business he represented.  
The new company soon expanded its portfolio, adding Claber’s waste water treatment; ITI – a Swiss-headquartered company specialising in thermal plants including combustion and diathermic oil systems for wood based panel applications; OMAR, an Italian company near Treviso specialising in exhaust dust cleaning systems; and CMP of Bondeno, Italy, which is an expert in the dismantling, assembly and erection of industrial plants as well as plant maintenance (working closely with Trasmec in construction of itsplants, for example).   
There are clear synergies between all these companies and it seems likely others will join Mr Ferrari’s portfolio of clients in the near future.

We reported in WBPI last year, following the Ligna exhibition, that EMG had supplied in 2008 a high-speed feeding line for Nelson Pine of New Zealand’s Steinemann sanding line,  which broke through the 150m/min ‘barrier’.  
Now EMG is supplying a second such line to the same client, but this time the design speed is 200m/min. Start-up is due in early 2011. 
“This line has a new feeding concept with 100% up-time,” saidMarco Conzadori, sales manager with EMG.  
InMay of this year, sander manufacturer Imeas of Italy supplied a new sanding and trimming line to Rexcel of Mexico.  This line has a capacity of 100m/min and EMG’s scope of supply to go with it included all saws for cutting and trimming, as well as the entire handling concept. 
The company is also installing the complete line after the press for Eucatex of Brazil. This encompasses everything from the flying diagonal cross-cut saw to the strapping line and is due to start production in September this year.  
A major part of the company’s expertise is in the rapid handling of very thin boards. 
“We have also supplied many cut-to-size systems to Brazil for panel trimming and cutting, using a multi-blade machine,” said Mr Conzadori, confirming South America as a major market for the company.  
“We currently have many jobs in progress and our order book is full to the end of 2010 and we are now planning for the first few months of next year,” said the sales manager.  
The orders are mainly for the panelindustry although EMG is also active in handling systems for steel sheet.  
“In this difficult economic period, thanks to the cooperation with other Italian companies Trasmec and Globus, with whom we work closely on projects through the GET company (see p39), we are achieving good results,” confirmed Guido Conzadori,Marco’s father and one of the three founders of EMG. “With this philosophy we are finding good business opportunities.” 
At Ligna 2009 and at Xylexpo 2010, the companies shared a common stand with an Italian Piazza theme and found this gave added strength to those independent companies.

Readers may be astounded to see that world MDF capacity grew by 15.3 million m3 in 2009 compared with the 7.4 million m3 somewhat optimistically reported in last year’s survey.
Some readers may turn to the world capacity summary at the end of this articleto divine how this might have come about. There you will see fluctuations in the various regional capacities which typically occur year-on-year. However, there will undoubtedly be amazement to see the China capacity estimate, not at around 22.1 million m3 as expected, but rather showing an apparently explosive increase of 13.6 million m3 by the end of 2009. Explanations of these significant differences will be provided later.
According to our revised estimates for both 2008 and 2009, actual world capacity grew by just over four million m3, or 5.8%, in 2009.
Readers of Part 1 of the survey  will have seen that in Europe and North America, aggregate capacity declined by about 240,000m3, or -1%. Combined capacity was 23,524,000m3 at the end of 2009, compared with 23,764,000m3 for 2008. In the rest of the world, (revised) capacity at the end of 2008 was 45,107,000m3 and reached 49,365,000m3 at the end of 2009.
The rest of the world possessed 67.7% of world MDF capacity and the ‘old MDF world’ just 32.3%.
When Parts 1 and 2 of the survey of 2008 were published last year, European and North American economies, and principal panel consumption drivers, were very much in the doldrums. The bright spots for MDF were in Asia and South America, Turkey and Russia. These regions supplied all of world capacity growth and the sharp decline in North American capacity offset the new developments during the year in Turkey and Russia.
Accordingly, the rest of the world region contributed all the growth reported in the global MDF sector and is the principal focus of Part 2.
This patchiness in MDF development and all the way up to national economies has, if anything, been exacerbated during 2009 and 2010.
The signs are very limited for improvements in the North American and European economies but China, with its vast domestic economy, is the engine for growth in Asia. Chinese furniture production in 2009 surpassed US$100bn (US$107 bn), whereas US housing starts ‘improved’ in 2010 to an annualised rate of one third of pre-2007 levels.
More than any other region, Europe is wrestling with the financial crisis. The need for public spending cuts and increased taxation is felt by many to herald a ‘double dip’ recession. The way forward seems to comprise many conflicting policies. Low interest rates for businesses (and government bor rowing!) are not helpful for savers and are harsh on all those in retirement relying on their investments.
Those made unemployed by corporate retrenchment and public sector budget cuts will find little solace – or opportunity for re-deployment – if retirement ages at the other end of the working population spectrum are extended.
The countries/regions where economic activity is more vibrant (and opportunities for MDF capacity development more dynamic), tend not to face these problems to the same extent and their regulatory climate is less financially burdensome and more conducive to economic progress.
China
Now we turn to China and the principal event of this year’s survey: the major uplift in the base level of Chinese MDF capacity. Last year’s survey predicted 22.1 million m3 of capacity at the end of 2009. This year’s survey shows 32.5 million m3!
It must be said that, if this new figure is to stand, then the estimate for end-2008 was 30.1 million m3. The growth in China was 2.4 million m3  during the year, which is quite close to the volume growth predicted in the 2009 survey (3.3 million m3).
Since the beginning of these capacity listings for bothMDF and particleboard, there has been an ongoing search for greater transparency in all markets, but in China in particular. For some years the author has been aware that learned Chinese spokesmen at both domestic and international events were reporting higher production and capacity totals than published in our survey. However, until such time as actual lists could be scrutinised to verify both the product definitions and the individual mill capacities, the author was in no position to offer any definitive and significant adjustments. Our original sources for China data were reliable industry sources, but a short time ago a new set of sources became available to us which, after translation, were shown to comprise association information, trade sources and media counts and clippings.
In summary, our survey showed 433 lines at the end of 2009 for 22.1 million m3 capacity, whereas the latest sources show 700 lines for 32.5 million m3.
Until the 267 additional lines can be identified, there is no other way to establish the reliability of the higher capacity figure. A significant part of the difference is the result of under-estimating the scope of installations by a number of domestic Chinese equipment manufacturers such as Shanghai Jiecheng Baihe; Dunhua Yalian, Sufoma or Dongwha. It has always been appreciated that most of these lines were small and that the capacity difference amounted to about 39,000m3 per annum per line.
The total shown for the Chinese listings is 32.5 million m3 but the 267 lines have not been shown this year. Space and time did not permit a full scrutiny of the lists to reconcile our original data with the new sources. The difficulties encountered included:
• the new names which needed to be compared with our original lists to confirmthat they were new;
• since before 2000, it has been a feature of many Chinese companies to rename and English translations are not always readily identifiable;
• name changes have been brought about by changes in ownership; mergers and acquisitions are quite a feature among the Chinese panel companies;
• there are errors within the sources themselves relating to capacity of lines and  their production dates, as well as simple omissions.
We cannot pretend that these latest estimates are definitive and have reason to believe they are not. It is noted that numerous new lines from 2008-2010 are recorded at capacities lower than that achieved by the owners within a short space of time. Fifty percent improvements are not uncommon. This might suggest that at 32.5 million m3, Chinese capacity could still be understated!
Mill visits are a surer way to record capacity and production but even our intrepid and redoubtable editor, Mike Botting, cannot check out 263 mills all over China – and keep his present job!
Apart from the actual total installed, and projected capacity, how does the new data offset the view of the market from that described previously?
The major corporate groups are largely unchanged. The top 15 see only two changes, with Shanghai Green Continent dropping out and Dong Zheng being  included.MianxianWood Based Panel Corporation has changed names to Zhongxin Forest Products Company. Another four lines have been added to Luyuan Group.  A new line has been identified for China National Salt, as well as for Dongdun. The old PTP Company also has a name change to Leshan  Jixiang and is becoming quite a significant group.
Please note that the listings still contain asterisks (*). These show lines planned or under construction. The total capacity shown for each company includes these lines but the grand total at the end of the list does not.
Comparisons between the sources also show that all the lines either operating or under construction, with foreign equipment, have been covered up until now. There are 60 foreign-made continuous press lines built or under construction, representing a total of 8.9 million m3.
Ostensibly, there are 43 domestic lines with continuous presses but 37 are calender presses. Virtually all of these derive from the Chinese manufacturer’s association with Binos of Germany. Six lines can be identified with continuous presses of domestic origin – five from Yalian and one from Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd (SWPM).
Not unexpectedly, the new sources show a number of small groups not previously recorded and operating with three to six average-size lines.
Further analysis of interest shows the location of new capacity. The active provinces in the past two years are:
Sichuan has added 13 lines since 2008 and Hebei 12, but Guangdong 16. From 2010, Sichuan – a major growth province – plans 12 lines (for 1.5 million m3). Hebei and Guangdong will also be active, with 12 lines between them.
The total number of lines delivered in 2008 and 2009 was 97, with 33 coming in 2009. 2008 saw the most lines delivered since 2004, when 76 were supplied.
The additional competition has given an impetus to exports, which languished in 2009 at just about 1.6 million m3 compared with 2.3 million m3 in 2007. 2010 to end- May shows a doubling over 2009 levels to exceed two million m3, at least.
Developments in other regions
Yet again South America was active. At least two of the SWPM lines sold into Brazil started production and we have shown the other two as start-ups in 2009 but cannot be sure. Floraplac and Duratex are opening lines – the latter being one of the largest in the world. The Eucatex plant expected in 2009 has been postponed until late 2010.
It is not confirmed, but we believe two new lines in India – Teekays and Greenply – are opening a total of 310,000m3 per annum of capacity between them.
Pakistan received a new small line and Kwang Won, Korea, completed its expansion.
Indeed most Korean lines have been modified in the past year or so, adding at least 180,000m3 to national capacity.
Without confirmation, we have recorded the new Vanachai line at Surathani for 300,000m3 per annum. Elsewhere, in Japan and Australia/New Zealand the situation has been very quiet. Their economies are weak and Japanese housing starts in 2009  were at their lowest level for 30 years.
Future Trends
To underline the strength in the rest of the world, there are about 71 lines under construction, which is bound to increase with slippage from previous years. China will  account for 44 of these lines, allegedly in 2010, and a further 12 in 2011; in 2010 China Salt will start two lines for (at least) 420,000m3 per annum and Sichuan Guodong Construction has three lines for 660,000m3. There are at least four additional lines for a further 600,000m3. Total new capacity in China will be 4.64 million m3, moving the (new) total to over 37 million m3 by end-2010 and over 38 million by end-2011. Beyond 2011, only China Salt has informed WBPI’s editor of a plan for three further lines but no orders, we believe, have been placed as yet.
Elsewhere, Brazil will see the delayed Eucatex plant (250,000m3 per annum). The Advance Fibreboard extension in Thailand (200,000m3 per annum) will also come on stream in 2010. In Indonesia, PT Sumatera Prima Fibreboard (260,000m3) should also be in production in 2010.
In 2011, a further mill in Brazil is expected with the Berneck plant (414,000m3 per annum). The first line in Columbia is also expected – Tablemac (130,000m3 per annum). Segamat in Malaysia reports a 40,000m3 per annum expansion in the same year.
There are also announcements for 2012 from Fibraplac in Brazil (250,000m3 per annum). Fibraplac also has a longer term plan to add to this line, in 2014, a further  250,000m3 per annum.
Dongwha of Korea confirms a plant in Vietnam (300,000m3 per annum) for 2012 and not 2010 as reported last year. Of a more speculative nature are the possibilities of mills in India and perhaps the 500,000m3 per annum Eucatex plant in Brazil. Indonesia is another possibility for South East Asian, or even Japanese, investment.
The impact on global capacity of these changes is shown in the World Regional Summary table opposite.
By end-2011, world capacity will exceed 83 million m3, with 45.7% located in China.
MDF capacity in several Chinese provinces will exceed that of many major industrial countries in the world. South America will pass seven million m3 per annum in 2011 – one year later than forecast in 2009. South East Asia will also be a regional player, larger than North America.
Once again the editor and author thank profusely all those who contributed to the Survey. We hope by the next MDF Survey in 2011 to have digested the new Chinese information and to have found a succinct way to present it to our readers.

WBPI takes great pleasure in congratulating Heiner Wemhoener, managing partner of Wemhoener Surface Technologies GmbH & Co KG, who will reach the age of 60 on August 13.

The market share for wood based thermal insulation in Finland has increased to 34% having increased annually by 3% since the start of 2008.

Uniboard says it plans to close its facility in Fostoria, Ohio on October1. The facility laminates particleboard used in kitchen cabinets, store shelving and cabinetry.

Italy's Safwood plans to start OSB production in Russia in February 2012 and is constructing a mill in the Komi Republic, reports Lesprom.

Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry has established a particleboard manufacturing subsidiary, Vina Eco Board, in Vietnam, which is said will have an annual production capacity of 250,000m3 and employ around 200. Commercial production is scheduled April 2012.

Formica Corporation previewed its VIVIX exterior architectural panels at the recent AIA 2010 National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami. The company said it would be the only major branded North American supplier of a solid phenolic exterior grade product.

Weyerhaeuser Co is considering a September reopening for its OSB plant in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, reports CBC News.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) has approved a new voluntary veneer grade.

The Timber Exporters’ Association of Malaysia (TEAM) is forecasting an increase of 5-10% in the country’s timber and wood products exports this year, although it acknowledges that the business faces challenges.

Ghana’s wood products exports rose 4.3% in volume in the first quarter, according to the latest International Tropical Timber Association market report. The exports amounted to 97,400m3 and were worth €31m.

Speakers from Pfleiderer, BASF, Grecon and Siempelkamp will talk about the latest developments in wood based panel production technology at the European Wood Based Panel Symposium.

iLevel by Weyerhaeuser has partnered with CMPC to distribute Selex Radiata Pine plywood and beaded paneling across the US, reports Home Channel News.

Tolko Industries has announced market-related downtime at its Armstrong division’s plywood operation in British Columbia, according to the Vernon Morning Star.

The court-appointed receiver of Atcon Plywood in Miramichi, New Brunswick, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), has said several potential buyers for the plywood manufacturer have come forward as markets for construction materials begin to rebound reports the New Brunswick Business Journal.

Georgia-Pacific LLC has completed the purchase of Grant Forest Products Inc’s OSB facility at Englehart, Ontario, as well as the associated facility at Earlton, Ontario, and OSB facilities at Allendale and Clarendon counties in South Carolina, for about US$400m.

The Forest Trust (TFT) has announced that a Chinese factory has, for the first time, produced plywood whose origins have been verified as 100% legal – the result of TFT's partnership with the UK’s Premier Forest Products Ltd, along with the willing cooperation of a Chinese plywood maker, a group of Chinese poplar farmers, and a Malaysian timber producer.

This resolution was presented to Ilse Aigner, the German Minister of of food, agriculture and consumer protection, on June 24, 2010, at the EPF/FEIC annual general meeting in Dresden.

APA – The Engineered Wood Association of Tacoma, Washington, has announced two new publications on structural plywood and glulam standards.

Major UK retailers are trialling a plywood replacement board made entirely from recycled waste plastic, according to a report by Materials Handling World Magazine.

To highlight what it sees as the risks being posed to the wood panel industry by biomass energy, the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) has released findings from two independent reports it commissioned which suggests that the development of large-scale wood fired energy plants in the UK not only risks 8,700 UK jobs but could increase UK CO2 emissions by six million tonnes – or one per cent of the UK’s total net CO2 emissions each year.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) says new legislation to set a national standard for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products will create opportunities for imports.

The association of the German wood based panel industries, VHI, celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

Brazil’s’ newest MDF producer Floraplac Industrial MDF Ltda is to launch by early July its first Chinese-built fibreboard line, using eucalyptus wood in the northern city of Paragominas.

The IPPS (International Panels Products Symposium) Master Class takes place September 28-29, 2010, Bangor, North Wales, UK. The seminar series will cover key topics aimed at reducing production costs and improving quality within mills. www.bc.bangor.ac.uk

After nearly 20 years as chairman of the supervisory board, Ernst-Herbert Pfleiderer, 67, has stepped down from his position at the end of Pfleiderer’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

UPM is planning to build a biofuels plant in Lappeenranta, Finland. In the first phase the plant will serve mainly as a test and training facility.

Three decors from Interprint received a Top Design Award 2010 badge at the Arena Design event in Poznan, Poland. The digitally printed decors, Tattoo and Zebrafloor, and the finish foil, Lamezia, convinced the jury in the Furniture and Interior Design category.

UPM’s tree nursery in Joroinen, Finland celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The nursery annually produces 14 to 15 million spruce seedlings and forest planting material for the company’s own forests and its customers.

Spartanics has announced on-site wood materials testing for laser die cutting during 2010/2011 worldwide trade events. www.spartanics.com

Schattdecor AG has again taken part in Moscow’s Interkomplekt/Interzum exhibition of furniture production components and materials.

On July 1, 2010, Roger Kautz will assume the position of director of marketing and communication of the Dieffenbacher Group. He succeeds Gustav Aumüller who is retiring.

Contracts have been signed making Turkish trade fair organiser Survey Fuarcilik Danismanlik Ltd STI a subsidiary of German firm Clarion Survey GmbH.

International Wood Markets Group is staging a one-day Global Wood Products Industry & Market Conference, May 10, 2011 at the Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver BC.

Royal DSM NV, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, has declared that Orascom Construction Industries’ (OCI) subsidiary OCI Nitrogen has acquired DSM Melamine and DSM Agro. OCI Nitrogen is now an integral part of the OCI Fertilizer Group.

The ZOW 2010 in Italy show for the furniture supplies and interior design sector has been cancelled.

New Zealand’s forestry and wood products sector is set to come to the fore during Rugby World Cup 2011, with a Forestry and Wood Industries Festival planned in Rotorua (September 5-9) to showcase the sector to government officials, companies and visitors from around the world.

Global provider of clean air technologies, TurboSonic Technologies Inc, has been awarded an order in the region of US$900,000 for its Turbotak scrubber technology by a US facility producing OSB. Installation is scheduled this year.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Boiler MACT) rule could create serious disincentives for the use of renewable energy and be unsustainable for the forest product industry and the nearly 900,000 men and women it supports.

A new BASF product finder containing more than 800 product lines and an overview of 25 industries and 109 applications is now available on the BASF company website at www.basf.com/productfinder

LP’s OSB mill in Tomahawk, Wisconsin has earned the coveted Innovation in Safety Award in the latest Safety and Health Awards Program sponsored annually by APA – The Engineered Wood Association for the structural wood panel and engineered wood products industry.

G Siempelkamp GmbH & Co KG has recorded its second-best business result in the 127-year history of the company in 2009. The group’s turnover amounted to €555m.

Uniboardä, a North American leader of manufactured engineered wood products, reports that its Sayabec, Quebec manufacturing facility has been certified by the Composite Panel Association (CPA) as meeting California Air Resource Board (CARB) Phase 2 emissions standards.

Wood products wholesaler DLH has launched tongue and groove (T&G) ready Lumin plywood for flooring and roofing applications. Made from plantation grown eucalyptus in South America the plywood is part of an environmentally responsible wood products range from Weyerhaeuser.

Forest products giant Arauco got quickly back on course in the wake of Chile’s devastating earthquake and plans to invest US$215m to build a new medium density particleboard (MDP) plant and another plywood mill in Chile.

Malaysian wood based products producer Evergreen Fibreboard Bhd is to expand its operations within the next two years, in an attempt to reinforce its position as a fully integrated fibreboard manufacturer.

Biomass has now surpassed oil to become the main source for energy generation in Sweden, causing increased competition for pulpwood, reports Wood Resource Quarterly. Consequently wood fibre prices have been pushed to new heights.

Total sales for Louisiana-Pacific Corporation’s Q1 2010 were US$297m, up 44% on a year ago. This reflects, says the company, strengthening OSB prices and US housing starts.

Good news, at last, reports Acimall – the Italian woodworking machinery and tools manufacturers’ association.
Figures released by Acimall indicate for Q1 2010 a 41% increase in orders compared to the same period last year.
Excellent results in foreign markets are also reported with 43.8% expansion, while the Italian markets grew by 26%.

I-joist production in North America during the first quarter was up 100% compared to a year ago, according to industry newsletter Random Lengths.