Estonia’s Imavere sawmill is undergoing a €2.2m investment programme this year.

Most of the money is going towards the provision of new kilns to increase drying capacity by 30,000m³.

Imavere plans to increase its annual output of sawn material production by 15% to 320,000m³ in 2002 – without significant investments but with increased efficiency.

Managing director Peedo Pihlak says the rise in capacity is needed because of increased competition on the log market. ‘With higher log prices and lower prices for sawn timber, stepped up efficiency and a lower cost price is the key to success,’ he explained.

However, the increase in production will not lead to an increased workforce. It will remain at 215 staff working on three shifts.

Imavere was one of the first Estonian wood processors to be hit by a shortage of raw timber in the third and fourth quarters of 2000. This led to the company having to buy one-fifth of its timber requirements from outside Estonia in January. This problem has been solved by building up stocks during the winter and spring.

Preliminary agreements were also signed with traders of wood from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, while talks are also under way with traders in Belarus.

Imavere handled 245,000m³ of wood in 2000 compared with 194,000m³ in 1999. Sales last year amounted to around EKr630m, a rise of 35% over 1999.

It expects to exceed its target production of 280,000m³ in 2001, having already produced 160,000m³ in the first half of the year.

Imavere sawmill was established in 1994 as a greenfield project. Since then its production figures have risen steadily – starting at 10,000m³ in 1995 and rising annually to 46,000m³, 71,000m³, 119,000m³, 193,000m³, 240,000m³, and an estimated 290,000m³ for 2001 and 320,000m³ for 2002.

In 1995 the company had a small log sawline together with a 2.5MW boiler plant, a log sorting line and six kilning chambers each with a 60m3 capacity.

Over the next two years additional chamber kilns of 100m³ capacity each came on stream and 1997 saw the start of the construction of an additional Heinola saw line for bigger logs, together with a new 8MW boiler plant, three additional kilns, a dry-sorting line and a warehouse for ready-made goods with a holding capacity of 10,000m³ of sawn material.

By 1998 the Heinola sawing line was up and running in two shifts and a year later Imavere was getting its second 10,000m³ warehouse prepared for ready goods. A new office building was also completed.

A new fingerjointing line with a sophisticated WoodEye camera system was installed to produce redwood components, mainly for window and door segments, and four new channel drying kilns were built.

Last year Imavere renewed its dry-sorting line and added an additional 8MW capacity to the boiler plant. Production was raised as the sawmill began to work in three shifts and this year five new kilning chambers for special drying were ready.

Since it opened, Imavere has seen a total investment of €32.6m. In the first half of 2001 the company sold 142,000m³. Its main market, at 32%, is Estonia, followed by Egypt at 14%, the Netherlands at 11% and France at 7%.

The UK and Ireland account for 6%, Germany, Finland and Algeria 5% each and Spain 4%.

The company has recently started to sell to the US and this was helped by it attaining certification of origin for the US market.

Today Imavere sawmill uses about 80% of local raw material. The remaining 20% is imported, mainly from Russia.

Currently, the main shareholders in AS Imavere Saeveski are AS Sylvester (Estonia) with 56% and Stora Enso Timber Ltd with 33%.

This year AS Imavere Saeveski received a ISO 9002 quality certification and also attained a British C16/24 visual strength-grading standard.