A little more distance will probably be needed to be able to put the past year in perspective. One thing which is certain already is that in 2021, global demand could not be met in every region of the world or at any time. Furthermore, prices broke numerous records and the Central European industry still has an extremely high willingness to invest. From A, as in Ante-Holz, to Z, as in Ziegler Group, almost every major timber company has spent and is still spending considerable sums of money.
Companies use the money for the replacement of outdated saw lines with higher-performance and more flexible machines and plants, the investment in further processing and the construction of completely new production sites. As for new constructions, projects range from the classic sawmill to production lines for glued timber and fiber insulation boards and complete factories for modular construction. Already in mid-April, the Holzkurier published a list of 50 new construction or bigger renovation projects which are to be implemented in Europe or by Central European companies within 24 months. Since then, numerous other investment projects and takeovers have been announced or officially confirmed.
From A, as in Ante-Holz, to Z, as in Ziegler Group, almost every major timber company has spent and is still spending considerable sums of money.
Enormous sums
The biggest takeovers were Binderholz’s acquisitions of the two US Klausner sawmills and the British BSW group. Ziegler Group for its part announced the most ambitious investment program which is worth €400 million and includes several greenfield projects. Mayr-Melnhof Holz has similar ambitions. According to insiders’ estimates, the Styrian company took over the Swedish sawmill group Bergkvist Siljan for more than €250 million in mid-December and is investing over €200 million in a new CLT plant and the existing saw line at the headquarters in Leoben.
Thanks to these most recent takeovers, Binderholz (4.83 million m³) has nearly closed the gap on Stora Enso (4.88 million m³), the biggest player in Europe in terms of lumber production. Mayr-Melnhof Holz has risen from ninth to third place with 2.9 million m³. In addition to major takeovers, Binderholz also invested in b-solution, a production facility for prefabricated solid wood components for multi-story residential construction, at its Hallein site, in a new saw line in Baruth/DE and in numerous other projects, including another saw line in Oberrot/DE which is to be put into operation in January. Although the Tyrolean company has not disclosed the sums which have been invested, the total is likely in the three-digit million-euro range.
The Ziegler Group will invest most of the sum it disclosed in a production facility for wood fiber insulation boards in Grafenwöhr (€150 million) as well as in a timber construction competence center with cross-laminated timber lines with an annual capacity of 140,000 m³, a prefabricated house factory and a model home park in Tirschenreuth (€220 million).
New sawmills in Central Europe
For the first time in several decades, the Holzkurier was able to visit four new saw lines last year, including two greenfield projects in Austria and southern Germany. At its headquarters in Wilburgstetten, the Rettenmeier Group replaced a line for small-diameter log wood from the 1980s with a Linck VM50 profiling line with a capacity of 1.3 million m³ a year. According to CEO Dr. Stephan Lang, the site is Europe’s most modern large sawmill.
In Summerau in Upper Austria, glued timber producer Handlos put a sawmill into operation. In 2021, the company reported a cutting volume of 205,000 m³. In 2022, the target is 450,000 m³. The sawmill primarily supplies the raw lumber to Handlos’s own glulam and solid structural timber (KVH) manufacture.
For the same reason, that is to ensure the supply of lumber to their own glued timber plants, GELO Holzwerke and Holzwerke Bullinger decided to found GELO Timber and to build a sawmill for small-diameter logs in Wunsiedel. The planned annual cutting volume of the Veisto line is 350,000 m³. The new company was awarded the title “Sawmill of the Year 2022” by the Holzkurier because of its holistic concept.
In the course of the modernization of the Hasslacher Group’s production site in Preding, the 35-year-old saw line was replaced with a new Linck chipper canter line. With the new line, the company wants to raise the annual cutting volume from currently 250,000 m³ to a maximum of 600,000 m³. Furthermore, the company will increase cutting at its Russian site in Malaya Vishera from 200,000 m³ to 400,000 m³ a year.
Lumber to meet in-house demand
The visits to companies in the coming months should be no less exciting. Best Wood Schneider plans to start its new sawmill as early as spring. The company is building a new production site in Meßkirch, in the district of Sigmaringen, for around €80 million. In the future, Best Wood Schneider wants to produce 200,000 m³ of lumber and 100,000 m³ of cross-laminated timber a year at the new site.
One year later, Tschopp wants to start cutting in Buttisholz at “Switzerland’s most modern sawmill”. For an overall investment of CHF 75 million, the company is building a USNR band sawmill which is to cut up to 300,000 m³ of logs a year in a two-shift operation. According to the Holzkurier, it is not only Switzerland’s most modern, but also the country’s biggest sawmill.
Also in Switzerland, timber construction company Uffer plans to revitalize the old community sawmill in Tinizong and build a highly digital and efficient wood competence center. In the medium term, Uffer wants to process up to 70,000 m³ of logs a year.
A little further away, HS Timber is also busy with sawmill projects. At its Svisloch site in Belarus, the company also plans to start up a sawmill this spring. At the beginning, 500,000 m³ a year are to be cut. Furthermore, the company is building a sawmill in South America with an annual capacity of 500,000 m³. In December, HS Timber started building a new sawmill in Gobernador Virasoro in the Argentine province of Corrientes together with its Belgian joint venture partner Forestcape. For the project, in which around €87 million will be invested, the project partners turned mostly to European suppliers. The sawmill is to be started up in the middle of 2023.
Eight new CLT production sites by 2023
In terms of the numbers and sizes, the announced CLT plants are equally as impressive. In addition to the above-mentioned projects by Mayr-Melnhof, Best Wood Schneider and the Ziegler Group, five more production sites are to go into operation by 2023.
At its Czech site in Ždírec, Scandinavian group Stora Enso is investing around €80 million in its fourth CLT production. With the additional capacity of 120,000 m³ a year, the company will reach an annual output of up to 400,000 m³. Production is to start in the third quarter of 2022.
Also this year, HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald is scheduled to start operating in Seewald-Besenfeld in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Thus, the feasibility study, which was originally initiated by the Forum Weißtanne, in a cooperation between the three Black Forest-based sawmills and processing companies Sägewerk Echtle (Nordrach), Kübler Holzwerk (Haiterbach) and Sägewerk Streit (Hausach), has come back positive. At first, the target is to produce 35,000 m³ of cross-laminated timber a year.
300 km further north, in Oberhonnefeld-Gierend, Holzwerke van Roje is building a CLT production line which is to go into operation in 2022 as well. Its planned annual output is 75,000 m³.
Mosser plans to start a production line with a capacity of 55,000 m³ a year in Randegg by 2023. The company’s own sawmill will supply most of the lumber to the CLT production. In preparation for this project, the company is raising its cutting and drying capacities at all of its production sites to a total of 300,000 m³ a year.
LOC Holz stands for Lauss, Ortner and Cappelen. The sawmill owners Josef Lauss and Rudolf Ortner want to start up a CLT production site together with the Cappelen Group by 2023. According to Ortner, it will be a small but excellent production site which exploits the strengths of medium-sized sawmill production. The planned capacity is 45,000 m³ a year.
CLT plant number 9 is to go into operation in 2024: Recently, Schilliger Holz announced its plans to build a second CLT line at its site in Volgelsheim/FR. It has a planned annual output of around 50,000 m³ in a two-shift operation, and production is to start in January 2024.
Already in 2021, the Ante group started up a CLT plant with an annual capacity of 100,000 m³ in Berga near its sawmill in Rottleberode. The plant can also produce up to 50,000 m³ of solid structural timber (KVH) a year.
From new constructions and investments in the replacement of old machines and plants to sawmills, glued timber lines and plants for the production of fiber boards or construction elements – major investments are made in all areas and segments.
Increasing interest in glulam
The numerous investments which are made in the glulam and KVH segments are worth mentioning, too. In addition to increases in capacity and some modernizations, such as the ones implemented by the Pfeifer Group in Imst, entire glulam lines are replaced (Holzwerke Bullinger, Abtsgmünd) and new production sites are built. Holzwerke Ladenburger is expanding the glulam production at its Bopfingen site by another plant. The overall investment is said to amount to €15 million.
Cordes Holz is investing €50 million in another glued timber production in Bremerhaven. The new facility will raise the annual production capacity in Bremerhaven to 200,000 m³ of KVH and 50,000 m³ of glulam (duo/trio). For Cordes Holz, this investment represents the company’s entry to the glulam market.
HS Timber Productions, a subsidiary of the HS Timber Group, is spending €34 million on a glued timber plant in Kodersdorf. The plant is to be built on an 11-hectare big plot of land south of the existing sawmill in Kodersdorf and completed in spring 2022.
Last spring, the Rettenmeier Group put a glulam plant with a capacity of 60,000 m³ a year into operation at its KVH production site in Hirschberg. The plant is also suitable for the production of KVH as well as Duolam and Triolam in batch size 1.
In 2020, Eschelmüller Holz installed a new, greenfield line for the production of glued timber. At the new site, the company produces finger-jointed construction timber and also glue-laminated beams. In the summer of 2020, Eschelmüller announced the construction of another line in the same hall.
In addition to the aforementioned KVH projects of the Ante Group, Rettenmeier Group, Cordes Holz and Eschelmüller Holz, two newcomers have entered the market. After a fire in April 2020, Schrage-Holz decided not to rebuild the sawmill, but to start KVH production at its Olpe/DE site instead. Ruhdorfer began installing a KVH production line in Straßburg, Austria, in December.
Robots to build houses
Last but not least, the massive investments made in the fiberboard and construction element segments have to mentioned. In addition to the above-mentioned projects realized by Binderholz (b-solution) and Ziegler (Timber Construction Competence Center Tirschenreuth), Gropyus is planning Europe’s most modern and probably also biggest production facility for construction elements in Richen im Kraichgau. Operating a fully automated production, the aim is to provide “affordable housing”. In the future, 100 robots are to produce 1000 apartments per month.
In September 2021, construction started on Steico’s new facility for the production of wood fiber insulation boards. At the Polish Gromadka site, the company wants to produce more than 1 million m³ of flexible insulation mats and 500,000 m³ of wood fiber boards per year. The facility is to be started up around the turn of the year 2022/2023.
Homanit, a subsidiary of Munich-based Homann Holzwerkstoffe, plans to make substantial investments in its site in Losheim am See/DE. The announced investment sum is €65 million.
Gutex is building a production site for wood fiber insulation materials in the Breisgau industrial park for an total of over €100 million. From September 2023, wood fiber insulation panels are to be produced there using the dry-process. Furthermore, Gutex installed a new pulp processing plant for the production of wood fiber insulation boards at its Eschbach site.
Always up to date
In addition to these projects, which have already been implemented or at least confirmed, machine suppliers report numerous other small and big projects in the timber industry. The Holzkurier team will keep you up to date in the new year, too, with reports on planned projects and detailed presentations of completed production sites through on-site reports and videos.
