A year on from our last Particleboard Part 1 Survey, it is clearly a different environment in the global wood-based panels industry from that initial uncertain period following the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

The first half of 2020 was understandably affected by the pandemic, causing a pause in investment activity and delays in deliveries of new projects to the global wood-based panels industry.

Travel restrictions and worker isolations provided a different sort of challenge for technology companies serving the panels sector, but as usual they found a way to keep the communications channels open using video conferencing and workers based at their overseas operations.

But from the second half of 2020 onwards, more signs of investment activity have flared back to life. The majority of the investment activity within Europe is coming from outside the EU28, with Russia being a main centre of investment focus for new particleboard projects.

Our Part 1 Survey listings feature production capacity at mills in Europe and North America as at December 31, 2020. This report also details projects that are either ongoing, planned for the future or mill closures / reduction in capacity.

New plants which came on line during 2021 will be added to the main listing tables next year.

Plants in Asia and the rest of the world will be covered in our Part 2 survey in the following issue.

WBPI’s headline capacity figures for this survey shows installed capacity as at the end of December 31, 2020 in the whole of Europe is calculated as 57.34 million m3, compared to 55.8 million m3 in 2019.

For the EU28 we estimate the figure as 39.81 million m3, up from 38.4 million m3 in 2019, with European capacity outside the EU28 remaining the same at 17.52 million m3.

In North America, we estimate the installed capacity to be 9.7 million m3.

Looking at actual production output figures, the European Panel Federation’s (EPF) annual stats paint an interesting picture of 2020.

The top line figure for all wood-based panels was a 2.1% decline in production in EPF countries during 2020, noticeably smaller than the 6.1% reverse in European GDP during the same period. Despite that reverse, the better performance compared to GDP was, the EPF says, due to strong demand for wood-based panels from furniture and construction markets.

The EPF cites a strong rebound for the second half of 2020 after the initial pandemic impacts.

Particleboard saw a 4.4% fall in 2020 production to 30 million m3, significantly below the highs achieved 12-plus years ago.

The top three largest producers were Germany, Poland and France, with a 1% increase for Poland. Volumes of particleboard going into construction were 29% of all PB production (up from 26% a year ago).

Interestingly, recovered wood is used in 44% of European particleboard production (up 1% from the previous year).

EUROPE EU28

A year ago, we mentioned that there was a dearth of new particleboard mill projects in Europe, which was likely to impact on the future growth of capacity.

While that may still be largely true, there is talk of new investments. We have learnt that Saviola Group, Italy’s leading particleboard producer, is examining building a very large new plant, in fact one of the largest in Europe.

WBPI understands it has already obtained quotations from machinery suppliers and is believed to be seeking the necessary permissions. The development in question is understood to involve a 60m-long press and design capacity could be up to 1 million m3.

Such a project is unlikely to be realised until after 2023, so we have added this to Table 6 in the list of projected future capacity changes in Europe and will await further updates.

The size of the project would indeed be a very big development in terms of European particleboard production.

Germany’s particleboard industry recorded significant growth in Q2 this year, with its particleboard production rising by more than 30% to just over 1.1 million m3, although this is against a comparison with the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

Staying with Germany, we have now added Sonae Arauco’s Beeskow mill to the main listing after it produced its first board in July of 2020, later than the 2019 intended but delays were compounded by the pandemic outbreak. This adds 340,000m3 of capacity to give a 600,000m3 annual capacity.

Of course, there was a flurry of activity of new particleboard plants coming on line in 2019-20 – others during this period in the EU28 include VMG, Akmene, Lithuania; Tableros Hispanos, Nadela, Spain; Kastamonu, Gorno Sharane, Bulgaria; and Egger, Biskupiec, Poland.

Added to the main listing for this year is the VMG project at Akmene. The 660,000m3 capacity plant featuring a Siempelkamp ContiRoll Generation 9 press produced its first board on July 31, 2020 and is rated as one of the most efficient plants in Europe which also has thin board production capabilities.

A new single opening press from Dieffenbacher has been installed at Lombardo in Italy to replace an existing Pagnoni press at the site in Mortegliano, Udine. The capacity is not changing much from the previous 70,000m3 but it will allow the manufacturer to make a greater range of quality boards, including thinner panels.

Other adjustments we have made in the main listing, include altering the name of the mill at Kazla Ruda, Lithuania to more accurately reflect its ownership – from Giriu Bizonas to IKEA Industry.

And the Tableros Hispanos plant which produced its first board in October 2019, featuring a Dieffenbacher CPS+ continuous press, has now been added to the main listing with the correct company name (formerly Tablicia SA).

We have made adjustments of totals for Belgium and Romania after we received updated information. In the case of the former, we have removed two previously closed Unilin lines from the main listing.

NON EU28

Moving over to the rest of Europe, but outside the EU28, is where it perhaps gets more interesting and where Russia is a main talking point. Numerous technology manufacturers have reported an increase in investment enquiries from this nation.

According to the investment portal of the Kaluga Region, in June this year Peter Kaindl, director at Kronospan Holdings attended the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Mr Kaindl and the governor of the region Vladislav Shapsha signed an investment project agreement for locating an enterprise for the production of particleboards/ composite particleboards in Kaluga.

The construction of a third plant at the Lyudinovskaya site of the Kaluga ISEZ is seen as a new stage in the industry development in the region. Investments in Kronospan DSP will amount to about 10 billion rubles and about 100 positions will be created.

WBPI understands that Chinese plant supplier Yalian Machinery Co Ltd will undertake the project and our indications are that this will be a very large capacity, possibly up to 1 million m3. 

Kronospan’s Kaluga fibreboard plants and Ultra Decor Rus finished cellulose base paper plants are already under construction here.

No further details are yet forthcoming about the project, but bearing in mind there are two plants already under construction at Lyudinovskaya there is a high degree of certainty that this project will be realised, so we have added it to the list of future capacity beyond 2023 and will update with details when more are forthcoming.

Our Russian correspondent first mooted about investment in Kaluga in 2018, when former Kaluga governor Anatoly Artamonov signed an agreement with Kronospan during a visit to Germany. At that stage the investment was focused on an MDF plant to produce 350,000m3 a year, as well as the production of HDF and LMDF boards. This initial investment was estimated to be US$305m.

Another project in Russia which is more advanced is that of Uvadrev at the Uva location.

It is to replace an existing plant with a new complete particleboard plant made by Siempelkamp, which contains a Generation 9 ContiRoll in the format 9ft x 32.1m as the core component. The plant is designed for an annual capacity of 500,000m³.

Uvadrev’s goal is not only to expand production capacity but also to optimise quality and manufacturing costs. Gluing technology will be designed to meet the E05 standard, with dry urea used in the middle layer to reduce formaldehyde levels.

This latest project follows an earlier initial investment by Uvadrev in Siempelkamp technology in 2012, when a 300,000m3 capacity particleboard was ordered.

Assembly of the new plant is scheduled to begin soon.

We have also heard from regional officials that 2022-23 will see the launch of a particleboard production project by Kastamonu in Tatarstan Republic.

Moving to the Ukraine, Kronospan has been continuing with its project in the Rivne region.

A new particleboard production facility is being established on the site of a closed foundry / Rivne Tractor Unit Plant.

The €200m project was delayed by the pandemic. The design capacity of the plant is as yet unknown and we estimate the project will be completed beyond 2022, so at the moment it is featuring in our Table 7 list of Non EU28 future capacity..

A Rivne furniture cluster is also being created which is a typical example of a cluster of representatives of government, business and education.

The Rivne project forms just one part of Kronospan’s wider plans for the expansion of its presence in the eastern European region.

Meanwhile, Turkey has been a massive centre of wood-based panels industry investment in recent years and it seems like that trend shows no sign of relenting.

The latest addition to new capacity in the country is Kastamonu Entegre’s first board production at its Samsun plant’s new particleboard line, supplied by Siempelkamp.

Assembly had been started in July 2020 and a dry run was completed at the end of January 2021 prior to official production of the first board.

“Congratulations and, above all, thanks go to the entire Kastamonu team who made it possible to implement the project on time and successfully during these special times," said Ulrich Kaiser, head of sales at Siempelkamp.

The new particleboard line, aimed at the Turkish furniture market, includes a Generation 9 ContiRoll in the 7ft x 37.1m format, designed for a daily output of approximately 2,000m³. The plant is the eighth Siempelkamp plant with continuous press technology which Kastamonu currently operates in Turkey, Russia, and Italy.

Turkish competitor Starwood launched a new line in 2019 with equipment supplied by Dieffenbacher. The CPS+ press line at Inegöl is 9ft wide by 63.5m long and is billed as the largest continuous wood-based panel press in Turkey.

NORTH AMERICA

In North America, shipments of particleboard have been increasing in 2021. Again, that is against the comparison of a 2020 which was impacted by the pandemic in Q2 of that year.

The Composite Panel Association says US and Canadian particleboard shipments in August rose 16% over the same period last year to 297MMSF. Year-to-date particleboard shipments (to the end of August) totalled 2.317BSF, 21% more than the first eight months of 2020.

We have seen several large new advanced wood-based panels plants go on line in the past couple of years.

These include the 600,000m3 capacity Egger plant at Lexington, North Carolina going live in September 2020. This is Egger’s 20th plant worldwide and is intended to play a crucial role in expanding Egger’s presence in North America.

This project has now been added to the main listings.

The other two large scale particleboard investments in the US were Kronospan’s Eastaboga plant in Alabama and Sonae Arauco’s Grayling, Michigan plant. Both went online in 2019 and added 550,000m3 and 800,000m3 of particleboard capacity in the US.

Roseburg Forest Products is closing its Dillard Particleboard plant in Oregon as part of a larger strategic reorganisation of the company’s western operations.

The announcement was made at the end of August and was expected to be completed by the end of October. The shutdown removes a particleboard capacity of 496,000m3 from an older mill which had operated since 1965.

The closure is part of a wider multimillion- dollar investment in new technology at its other western plants to update and automate processes and further improve safety for employees.

We await further details of the company’s overall investment plans and what shape that may take for its other existing particleboard operations in Missoula, Montana; Simsboro, Louisiana; and in Taylorsville, Mississippi.

“The coming investment in automated technology will create a more competitive business and allow us to maintain a robust, long-term presence in Douglas County, the state, and the industry as a whole,” said Roseburg president and CEO Grady Mulbery.

Roseburg undertook an extensive study of strategic investment opportunities to enhance its integrated business model in the west.

The Dillard closure, coupled with other closures detailed in our report last year and the large new plant completions already mentioned above, show a clear picture of older, less competitive particleboard plants being taken out of operation in favour of more efficient, high-speed lines.

There are still many older plants working in North America, so it is not beyond the realms of possibility that more investment plans will be announced in the next few years.

Other updates from North America include a revision of capacity for Arauco North America in Albany, which we have slightly reduced to 253,000m3 to bring it in line with the CPA’s capacity report.

The 44,000m3 Webb Furniture particleboard plant at Galax, Virginia has now been deleted from the main listing following its closure last year.

Other changes we’ve made to the main listing this year include a location name changed to Sutter Creek for Timber Products Mill listed as Martell.

As normal, WBPI readers, including mills and technology providers are welcome to contact us with any corrections or new information on our survey reports.