Brazil’s Floraplac MDF plant finally began producing the world’s first board made totally from the planted low density tropical hardwood species paricá in mid-October.
October also marked the first production of MDF in the north of Brazil. The Floraplac facility, located in Paragominas in Brazil’s northern Pará state, used its newly installed 120,000m³ per year Chinese-built Dieffenbacher/SWPM line initially to produce eucalypt-based panels.
Floraplac, a plywood offshoot of the regional forestry group Rio Concrem, is still at an early stage of manufacture on its new line and is experimenting with a mix of eucalypt and paricá raw material for its panels, according to the Organon consultancy which is overseeing the MDF project.
Earlier this year Organon’s Henrique Zanin estimated that paricá could finally contribute up to 30% of the fibre furnish for commercial MDF. The plant’s large capacity Andritz defibrator will play a key role in blending and extracting the wood fibres for the panels.
