Kronospan is building a second laminate flooring line that will double capacity at its Chirk facility.
The company is installing an additional cutting, profiling and packing operation for HDF-core T&G board at the north Wales site. The £3m investment will take annual capacity from the present level of seven million m² to 14 million m² when it becomes operational in April.
Meanwhile, plans for a 300,000m³ per year OSB plant at Chirk have been shelved.
Deputy managing director Joe Martoccia said the UK was not really cost-effective for the production of OSB.
‘Roundwood costs are much higher than in the rest of Europe. The UK OSB market is relatively small, therefore we would have to export a significant amount of production, and the strength of sterling does not make exporting particularly viable at the moment. We would probably look to increase imports from one of our European plants,’ he said.
Mr Martoccia added that Kronospan was considering Poland, the Czech Republic, or Bulgaria as sites for an OSB mill.
