Duratex on course to building board plant in North East Brazil
16 January 2015Duratex is closer to building its first board plant in the fast growing market of North East Brazil.
It has signed a 50:50 deal with Usina Caeté SA, a local sugarcane and ethanol company, to plant eucalyptus forest base in Brazil's Alagoas state near the port capital of Maceió.
The firms will invest US$27m in a joint venture, Caetex Florestal up to the year 2020. Last year, Usina Caeté planted 4,000ha of eucalyptus on 13,500ha of land anticipating a deal with Duratex and Caetex will continue the plantation programme.
Usina Caeté owns most land while the rest is on a 39 year lease. "It's an opportunity to form a forest base in a region where land is expensive and rarely available," said Duratex president Antonio Joaquim de Oliveira.
Duratex could launch a plant in 2018 or 2019 although neither product or capacity has been decided. But Caetex will produce enough wood to supply a board plant of 350,000m3/year, the executive said.
Economic uncertainty means Duratex plans for a panel complex with two 700,000m3/year in Minas Gerais have slipped, but these could launch in 2017 or 2018, he added.
