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.
