Summary
• The RMI market offers continued opportunities for business growth.
• Panel companies see new products as a key way of maintaining market share.
• Innovation isn’t solely reserved to products.

The panel products sector has not been immune to the deteriorating economic climate.

“2008 has been a challenging year for panel products, as a quieter market has seen demand fall dramatically back from 2007 levels,” according to Bernie Ryan, Finnforest UK Ltd’s panel products purchasing manager.

“The credit crunch, fuel costs and all the other general negative economic indicators have helped to create the downturn, although the one major influence has been the decline in UK housing starts,” he added.

The sector’s response has been to put the brakes on production. “The industry is adjusting its manufacturing to suit the situation, with downtime over the summer allowing stocks to be kept at appropriate levels,” said Geoff Rhodes, marketing and business development director at Coillte Panel Products, the parent company of Medite and SmartPly. “But I’m a great believer in positive thinking. There is still a massive amount of work going on, with refurbishments, remodelling, upgrading and government contracts up for grabs.”

Innovation

To take advantage of these opportunities, innovation has become the panel market’s raison d’être.

“What’s very important for us is differentiation,” said Dave Chapman, UK sales and marketing director at Sonae. “What can we do differently from others?”

Sonae has already launched two new products this year, the acrylic-coated OSB TerraForm and a coated flooring product, with three more on the way before next year. These include two domestic flooring products, and one which will involve the company re-entering the distributor market and targeting customers differently.

“In September we will be launching a new melamine range for distribution,” said Mr Chapman. ”We’re approaching the market from a different way to how we normally would.”

Sonae has also branched out into the Decorative Panels market, joining forces with BASF and jeweller Swarovski to produce a through-coloured MDF panel decorated with glass crystals. Marketed through Sonae’s Glunz subsidiary under the TOPAN brand, the product is designed with shops, trade fairs and interior and furniture designers in mind.

Kronospan is also looking at new products as a means to overcome customer malaise. “We’re looking at five new melamine-faced décor products to launch in October,” said sales director Colin Singleton. “We’re also looking at a new melamine structure with a straight grain texture.”

Photo finish

Arnold Laver Timber World has started marketing its Fotoply panel range, which is directly printed with a high-definition image. This offers a number of innovative solutions for different applications, according to Lavers, including graffiti-resistant properties, pre-sealed non-cut edges and the application of artwork over the whole surface area, making it ideal for hoardings, advertising and signage.

German firm SWL Tischlerplatten Betriebs-GmbH’s newest product is an extra-large plywood panel, available up to 2500x7500mm.

Designed for use in vehicle floors and bulky packing cases, SWL M Ply is made from scarf-jointed spruce/fir rotary-cut veneers and is also available with an HDF fascia that is suitable for high-quality furniture and interior designs.

And in the US, researchers at the University of Maine have developed an innovative means of using wood-based panels to protect soldiers from bomb blasts.

The Modular Ballistic Protection System (MBPS) uses timber treated with a thermo ballistic composite coating to deflect the impact of an explosion. This is combined with absorbent connections that offer further fragmentation protection. This is now being developed for large-scale use, with homeland security initiatives and construction in hurricane-prone areas seen as ideal applications.

MBPS is not the only interesting use of timber panels in recent months, with the Limerick Tunnel in Ireland, the Hairywood Tower in London and The Undercroft installation at Brighton’s Fabrica art gallery using panels in unusual ways. One hundred and fifty sheets of handcrafted 18mm OSB were used in the construction of The Undercroft, forming a lattice structure that “brings to mind the geometry of computer-aided design”.

For the Hairywood Tower, laser-cut Finnish spruce plywood from Finnforest was used to create the appearance of Rapunzel’s hair for the external cladding of the 6m-high structure.

Service and quality

But innovation isn’t solely reserved for products, with the panel industry’s service and quality offering undergoing developments.

BM TRADA has launched an over-arching Q-Mark scheme for CE marking of Chinese plywood, which is intended to give buyers confidence that the products they are importing are fit for purpose.

Mr Rhodes said Coillte is “actively promoting” its products through the Time To Choose campaign, which calls on customers to select their panel products against a range of criteria, including environmental credentials and performance.

“The market is now more sophisticated and we need to raise the bar as an industry,” said Geoff Rhodes. “There are more questions about products, such as where does it come from and what is it made of?”

At SmartPly, a €100,000 board-marking line has improved the clarity of information for the entire supply chain. This includes the FSC logo, technical information and tracking details that play a part in its quality control processes.

Delivering education

Sonae,meanwhile, has launched an educational programme, targeting schools near its Knowsley plant, to show what the company does inside the factory. This focuses on Sonae’s green credentials, which were ratified when the company was placed 35th in the Sunday Times’ Best Green Companies list.

“I see innovation as not just restricted to new products,” said Mr Chapman. “We’re not standing still.”

Kronospan is also looking to improve its environmental credentials, with an investment in cleaning technology for its recycled fibres. This, said Colin Singleton, will give an improved core quality to its products and deliver customers an even better material.

A key focus at Norbord has been logistics. It has introduced e-docs to its Onbord tracking system, which reduce the administrative burden on following orders. The company has also launched the Fastrack Offsite service that offers just-in-time deliveries of SterlingOSB, Caberfloor and Caberdek products to small to medium-size timber frame manufacturers, reducing the cost implication of housing large stocks of raw materials and finished products.