FengKai Weilibang Wood Industry Co Ltd is the latest in a long list of production facilities for the Weihua Group of companies in China.

In total, Weihua has nine lines spread around the country, with three of them being Chinese-made multi-opening lines and six European-made continuous ones. When FengKai is running at full capacity in June or July as you read this edition of WBPI, the group will be capable of producing around 1.5 million cubic metres of fibreboard (MDF/HDF) per year.

Weihua’s first line was built in Meizhou in Guangdong province in 1997 and has a nine-daylight multi-opening line with a nominal annual capacity of 70,000m3. The other two multi-opening lines are in Zengcheng (15-opening, 120,000m3) and Yangchun (12-opening, 150,000m3), both in Guangdong Province.

All the group’s multi-opening press lines were made and supplied by Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd, Anting City, Shanghai.

The company’s first continuous line was built in Qingyuan, again in Guangdong province, and produced its first board in June 2004. The continuous press was supplied by Dieffenbacher of Germany and the refiner by Andritz of Austria.

The second continuous line, from the same suppliers, was built in Taishan, again in Guangdong Province, and started up in October 2006.

For number three, a site in Xiangfan, Hubei Province, was chosen and again Dieffenbacher and Andritz supplied press and refining respectively.

Continuous press number four was again from Dieffenbacher and is located in Handan in Hebei Province.

Taian in Liaoning Province saw the fifth continuous press line for Weihua, but this time the supplier of the continuous press was Siempelkamp of Germany. It produced its first board
in December 2008 (see p28).

That brings us up to date and to FengKai in Guangdong province, where Dieffenbacher supplied the continuous press once again. While the other continuous lines have capacities of 220,000m3 a year, the FengKai line is destined to produce around 300,000m3 at full capacity.

According to Mr Zheng Haifei, deputy general manager of the FengKai factory, there were three reasons for choosing that location for line number nine.

“Firstly the wood raw material is sufficient and is within a 100km radius, comprising pine and eucalyptus species,” he said. “The group has plantations in this area covering 105,000mu and this forms part of a total plantation area for the group of 570,000mu. We plan to reach 1.2 million mu in total in five years.”

One mu is the Chinese unit of measurement for land area and is equivalent to 6.6667 acres or 0.06666667 hectares.

“The second reason for building here is that we are close to the market for our products in Guangzhou and that is a very important market for wood based panels, mainly for use in furniture,” continued Mr Zheng.

“The third reason is that we are also close to Guangxi Province where there is more wood and it is cheaper than in Guangdong Province.”
Weihua decided to build this latest factory in October 2007 and began the groundworks the following month.

Sales confidence

Mr Zheng reported that the global economic crisis had not affected the building of the FengKai factory, but he admitted that it had impacted the sales of the operating lines in the Weihua group.

“We are confident of finding customers for this line because we had a meeting with them last month and since March the market has been in a supply/demand balance and seems to be improving, according to our customers,” said the deputy general manager in April.

“The group already has a department dedicated to export and exports around five to six percent of production. All sales are controlled centrally by the head office, which is now in Guangzhou, having moved from Meizhou.

“The local government gave us strong support to build the factory here to improve the local economy. There are also four other new factories here, two involved in concrete production, one making cigarette lighters and another in veneer production,” said Mr Zheng. “Employment is mainly in agriculture in this area so new industrial jobs are important. About half our 310 employees will come from the Meizhou plant, bringing their experience with them, and the rest will be sourced locally.”

Weihua’s FengKai MDF factory will produce raw board in thicknesses of six to 25mm, with no value-adding facilities planned. However, the Anthon cut-to-size plant will give the company a lot of flexibility and it will cut small sizes for specific customer orders if required, said Mr Zheng.
Deliveries will be made by truck at first but later the company plans to ship by river, as a nearby concrete factory has its own port on the river where FengKai Weilibang hopes to rent space.

A new expressway from Guangzhou to Nanning is expected to be completed by 2010 and will make a big difference. Guangzhou is currently 220km from FengKai through scenic mountain
territory and alongside the West River.

The future is different

In common with a number of existing MDF/HDF producers in China, the Weihua Group feels that there is sufficient capacity on the market, or about to come to market, and so it is looking in another direction for future expansion.

“The group plans to build an OSB line in Hubei province next year and we expect to sell the production in the housebuilding market in China,” said Mr Zheng.

So it could be that China will finally see its first serious OSB production – and Weihua is not the only company making such plans at the present time.