The original 450,000m3/year radiata pine plywood facility, part of Arauco’s major Nueva Aldea forest products complex in Chile, was destroyed by wildfires raging through the country’s forested Bio Bio Valley at the start of this year.

However, Arauco confirmed the replacement plant would have a lower capacity at 350,000m3/year.  The firm stressed this decision is not market related, but will give it a more efficient size plant at Nueva Aldea to suit the wood availability in the area.

Orders received by Raute, described as the biggest in its history, include the supply of two state-of-the-art veneer peeling lines, three drying lines, four automatic plywood gluing and lay-up lines, three plywood presses, an automatic veneer patching line, together with three automatic veneer puttying lines and the mill’s production management system.