Australia’s largest integrated forest products company Gunns has further strengthened its market position with the A$100m acquisition of ITC Timber from Elders.
The purchase extends Gunns’ interests in hardwood sawmilling and woodchips in Victoria and Tasmania.
“This acquisition creates a business with significant scale and distribution footprint across Australia and South-east Asia,” said Gunns chairman John Gay.
The deal includes a 50% stake in Smartfibre, a woodchip export joint venture with Forest Enterprises Australia.
The move into plantation chips looks likely to move Gunns one step closer to its objective of building a A$2.2bn pulp mill in the Tamar Valley that is 100% plantation-based.
The company said earlier this year the pulp mill would be 40% reliant on native forest at start-up.
