South American forest products group Arauco plans to raise its low pressure panel laminating capacity in Brazil by 50% to produce up to 830,000m3/year of melamine coated board by the end of 2012.
The Chilean group is investing almost US$14m to install a third low pressure melamine laminating line at its MDF manufacturing plant at Jaguariaíva in the north of Brazil’s Paraná state.
The Wemhöner-supplied laminating line is capable of turning out up to 400 coated panels per hour. Last June, the plant launched its second 150,000m3/year Wemhöner short-cycle laminates line and started up a 40 million m2/year Vits overlay paper impregnation line.
Arauco operates low pressure panel laminating lines at all three of its Brazilian plants located in Paraná state at Piên, Curitiba and Jaguariaíva.
In June 2012, Arauco Brasil launched its second Wemhöner short cycle melamine press line with a 150,000m3/year capacity like the first one. In the same month, the Jaguariaíva plant also started up a Vits 40 million m2/year impregnation line.
In May, Arauco is due to boost panel capacity significantly at the same plant with the planned launch of its second MDF line. This will be the culmination of a US$170m project involving the installation of a 500,000m3/year Siempelkamp ContiRoll press line set to raise the site’s board output to 887,000m3/year.
