Brazilian panelboard producer Duratex SA has decided to freeze ambitious plans to build a massive one million m3/year medium density particleboard (MDP) line in the face of the worldwide financial crisis.
The Sao Paulo-based company stated that it will postpone the US$592m project for the giant line, scheduled to go on stream by the second half of 2010 at its plant at Itapetininga, Sao Paulo state, for six months..
Duratex has a more advanced project to construct what was billed last year as the world’s longest MDF continuous press, a 77m unit, supplied by Siempelkamp for its main MDF plant in Agudos, also in Sao Paulo state.
The eucalypt panel line with capacity of 750,000 m3/year is still due to go into operation next year alongside an existing smaller 190,000m3/year pine based fibreboard line.
