Summary
¦ Setra is investing heavily in X-ray scanning.
¦ Södra expects its relocation of a German mill to Sweden to be completed early 2011.
¦ Martinson Trä is building a 30,000m³ capacity components plant.
¦ VIDA has invested £23m in a new sawline and planing mill.
¦ SCA is setting up a joint venture factory to make one million IKEA shelves annually.
Most businesses have battened down the hatches in the downturn – and Swedish sawmillers are no exception. Output has fallen and production facilities have been mothballed or closed.
At the same time, however, longer-term investment has continued. Diversification plans have been pushed through, new facilities built and product lines launched.
No two companies’ strategies are alike, but there are themes across the industry, with latest moves increasing capabilities to make a wider range of value-added products and meet the needs of specific markets or customers, whether in processed components, or sawn timber.
A key focus at Setra, for example, has been raw material selection; improving mills’ grading systems so “the right timber is matched with the right product”.
“We’re investing in X-ray scanning and other identification technology to assess every part of the log and ensure it goes to the optimum end use,” said development director Mikael Eliasson. “The result is less waste and greater efficiency for us and the customer.”
Setra’s total first half spending, including developments at its mouldings-to-glulam value-added arm, was SKr24m, and it has now announced further X-ray scanning investment at its Kaster sawmill.
Klausner mill
Södra Timber has also continued with strategic development, including the purchase of Klausner’s Adelebsen mill in Germany and its relocation to its Värö site in Sweden where it will treble output to 750,000m³ a year.
“The mill is scheduled to come on line at Värö in spring/summer 2011,” said sales and marketing director Eva Thunholm, “and the UK will be one of the main markets for the new capacity.”
Södra also had the UK in mind with its SKr11.5m investment at its Mönsterås mill. “This facilitates production of 6m lengths,” said Ms Thunholm. “Demand for [these] has increased, particularly in the British market and, as few Swedish mills produce them, customers have turned to the Baltics and Russia.”
Among companies moving further down the added-value route is Martinson Trä. Its latest project is a SKr30m plant, due to start up early 2011, to make 30,000m³ of finger-jointed components a year.
“We see big furniture producers, like IKEA, and window producers looking for raw material suppliers to become components suppliers and [this investment] will make us a player in a growing market,” said managing director Kenneth Wallin. “We also strongly believe that some of its production will find its way to the UK.”
Martinson is also looking for growth from its glulam and cross-laminated timber panel building operation, ranging from products for porches, car ports and conservatories, to complete shells for multi-storey buildings.
“This business has been in development several years and is now operating on a fully commercial basis in Sweden and Norway,” said Mr Wallin.
Another Martinsons development is a DIY glulam post and beam range. “This takes glulam from being a ‘complicated’ engineered product to one for the man on the street,” said Mr Wallin, “and it’s also a concept that could be something for the UK in a couple of years.”
Vida investment
Meanwhile Vida has installed an £11m new sawline at its Bruza mill and a £12m planing line at Vislanda. The former will double the mill’s annual capacity to 220,000m³, while the latter has a maximum feed rate of 1,200m/min. “We believe it’s the fastest planing line in Europe,” said group chief executive officer Måns Johansson. “Initial annual production will be 300,000m³ a year and it will focus on UK and Scandinavian markets.”
New developments have been coming thick and fast at SCA too. Besides the introduction of X-ray scanning technology the company has opened a window components plant at Munksund and spent SKr200m on a cladding pre-painting facility at the Jämtlamell mill.
In March it also announced the launch of a new business unit, Gällö Timber, a 50/50 joint venture with Persson Invest. This comprises Persson’s Gällö and Tjärnvik mills and SCA’s Jämtlamell facility and has total annual capacity of 400,000m³.
Another strategy has been to link with sub-contractors which can transform SCA products into “items they can produce at a lower cost and to a better standard” for specific customers or markets. An example of this approach, said SCA Timber president Jonas Mårtensson, is a plant being set up with TräTeam at Kramfors.
“This will make shelves for IKEA,” he said. “Annual output will be 1 million units.”
And that’s not the end of the story, with all the major players in the Swedish industry saying they have more projects in the pipeline. In fact, with latest results from the sector showing marked improvement, the pace of development is expected to pick up. That’s certainly borne out by pronouncements from SCA. It says its next moves will amount to investment of over SKr1.5bn.
