Quito-based Cotopaxi, which operates two small single-opening press lines of 42,000m3/year and 85,000m3/year making particleboard and MDF respectively, now intends to install a new continuous press particleboard line.
Earlier this year, Siempelkamp revealed it had won an order from Cotopaxi to supply a 700m3/day continuous line for particleboard with a provisional launch date of late this year or early in 2015.
In 2013, its parent company, Gem Corp told WBPI that it was in advanced talks with European machinery suppliers on a scheme to purchase a new continuous press line of around 250,000m3/year to produce MDF in Ecuador.
The plan foresaw production by late in 2015, Gem Corp’s executive director Federico Arteta Durini told WBPI in mid-2013.
Cotopaxi, which has invested in process and quality improvements on its existing lines and boosted their capacity in recent years, is expanding now to capitalise on the growing wood yield from its maturing forest base.
