Globally, particleboard is showing signs of growth, and of movement between countries and indeed between continents. Austrian-based Eggar is moving into Argentina; a Chinese panel maker is building a plant for itself in New Zealand. The industry's growth is becoming truly global.

We start, though, with South America, where the big news, as previously reported, is Chilean group Masisa’s sale of its Latin American plants. Two buyers have so far been announced. Arauco has bought Masisa’s Brazilian subsidiary, Masisa do Brasil, which includes the particleboard mill in Montenegro, Rio Grande, with an annual capacity of some 650,000m3. Almost half of this can be laminated. An MDF mill in Ponta Grossa is also part of the sale, though of less relevance to this report. The total value of the sale, including both mills, was US$102.8m, which, when liabilities are taken into account works out at around US$58.1m.

The sale agreement was signed on September 1, 2017 and necessary approval by competition and other authorities is expected by the end of the year.

In addition to its MDF operations, Arauco already operates a site at Piên in the Southern region of Brazil – acquired from Sonae Indústria in 2009 – which includes a 300,000m3 particleboard line.

Masisa’s operations in Argentina have been bought by the Austrian firm Egger, marking its entry into Latin America and setting it on its path to become a global, rather than simply a European, player.

This was previously reported in our Focus on Latin America. Here the purchase price is US$155m.

All the former Masisa mills will continue production, so far as we know, under their new ownerships, so overall capacity figures are unaffected. These sales do, of course, lead to some name changes. The former Masisa plant at Concordia is now renamed Egger Concordia, and appears as such in our main listing in the pages that follow.

In our Latin American focus we also previously reported the liquidation, in January 2017, of the only particleboard mill in Peru, that of Tableros Peruanos SA. Competition from other Latin American countries, and from a former client in Spain which went into production on its own account, were contributory causes.

China

South America is not the only continent to see particleboard operators viewing the globe as their oyster. Across the Pacific, trans-national operations are also in vogue.

The Chinese panel maker Guangxi Fenglin Wood Industry Group has been making particleboard, at Huizhou, Guangdong, since 2013. It has two mills operating; in September 2017 it announced that it had attracted investment of US$40m, from the International Finance Company, to decommission its existing MDF plant at Nanning, Guangxi, and replace it with a particleboard mill that would process around 360,000 tons of scrap wood annually. The total project cost is estimated at US$80m.

But China’s – and Fenglin’s – expansion also continues overseas. In April it announced plans to build a particleboard factory in New Zealand. This is not its first plan for New Zealand, but previously announced projects, for a sawmill, LVL plant and MDF line at Taupo, central North Island, have failed to materialise.

The current proposal, though, is for a particleboard mill in Kawerau, on the northern coast of North Island, next to an intended site for a container terminal at the port facility of Tauranga. It is intended that most of the production will be exported to China. Total investment is NZ$180m (US$122m) by 2020, when the plant should be fully operational, with 100 jobs created. Planned capacity is 600,000m3. This therefore appears in our table of forthcoming new capacity, Table 5.

Also in China, Wanhua Ecoboard, which makes particleboard from straw at Xinyang, Henan province, is building a second mill, again to use straw. Its original line started operating in 2015 with a 9ft x 23.4m Dieffenbacher CPS press and an annual capacity of 110,000m³. The contract for the new line, at Jingmen, Hubei Province, was awarded to Dieffenbacher subsidiary SWPM.

It will have the parent company's CPS press, this one being 8.5ft x 28m, with 50,000m³ annual capacity. It is scheduled to begin operating in mid-2018, and therefore again appears in our ‘Future Capacity’ table.

The 600,000m³ Jianfeng mill, previously listed under ‘Future capacity’, is now believed tobe operational and has thus been added to the main table.

South East Asia

In Malaysia, the Evergreen mill, of 120,000m³ capacity, hitherto by oversight omitted, is now added to the main table.

Also in Malaysia and moving from Table 5, ‘Future capacity’, to the main table of currently producing mills is the new mill of Allgreen Timber, which has now commenced production.

The plant replaces the existing Bison plant at the Segamat production site in southern Malaysia. It has a three-head forming station and a Dieffenbacher CPS 265 – 26.5m press, designed for an annual output of 264,000m³ of particleboard.

In Thailand, the Metro-Ply group’s new third line for particleboard began operation in October 2016, so this moves from ‘Future capacity’ to our main table. Its initial capacity is 450,000m3, planned to rise in two stages to 600,000m3; the press is again from Dieffenbacher. The 300,000m3 Green River Panels mill at Songhkla also moves to the main table.

A name change from Thailand is that the mill previously listed as Particle Planner (Vanachai) now appears under the Vanachai heading as Chon Buri, with a capacity increase from 165,000 to 270,000m3.

Iran

Data from Iran has been updated with information once again kindly supplied by Ali Shalbafan of the Department of Wood Science and Technology at Tarbiat University. We now have Neopan mills at Boshehr, at Kazeroon, and at Soumeasara commencing production in 2016, thus entering our main table.

India

There is interesting news from this continent, in the form of what is claimed to be the world’s first particleboard made from 100% bamboo. The Indian company Artison Agrotech has signed an order with Siempelkamp for a 200,000m3/year Conti-Roll press. Contracts were signed earlier this year; construction is to commence by the end of 2017, and production by the end of 2018. The estimated cost of the project is US$90.66m.

The company is promoting bamboo as a fast-growing and sustainable alternative to wood and timber in construction, and, like wood when used sustainably, carbon-neutral. An MDF plant, also to use 100% bamboo, will follow in a second phase.

The Siempelkamp subsidiary Pallmann will supply the technology to shred the raw bamboo. In trials, fresh bamboo supplied by Artison from the Khandwa region of Madhya Pradesh was flown to Pallman’s works in Germany where it was processed using a special, material-specific method, and pressed. The mechanical properties of these trial panels are reported to have far exceeded the expectations of all involved.

Interest in the bamboo product is substantial. IKEA has signed a letter of intent with the company and this is claimed to be the first time that IKEA has made such a commitment before a production process has actually been put in place.

More than just a particleboard plant is involved. The integrated facilities will consist of nurseries and tissue culture laboratories capable of producing 15 million bamboo saplings per annum; the particleboard plant, with a capacity of 200,000m3/year; and, as well as the future MDF mill, a furniture plant able to process 330,000m3/year.

To make the record for India complete, Century Plywood’s new plant at Chennai , in Tamil Nadu province, started production in July 2016.

Overall

The net result of these developments is an increase in particleboard capacity for the world outside Europe and North America, during 2016, of 1,735,000m3. These increases are from new mills in China, Malaysia and Thailand – the powerhouses of current particleboard development.

In addition, new plants in Iran came on-line in 2016, but information on their capacities is not currently available.