This would be an impressive 125,000 m³ more than in 2016 or 75,000 m³ more than in 2017. Despite plenty of conversions and new buildings within the company, not least due to the Klenk takeover at the beginning of October, investments continually go into the highest level of processing: cross-laminated timber.
"Market-compliant growth" is what the Tyroleans call it. About 70 engineers are said to be employed in Hallein where everything including civil engineering is sold with the actual wood elements.
Two equally big companies at the top
Until 2020, Stora Enso will effectively have caught up with Binderholz. At the sawmill site Gruvön/SE, they will soon be building a third production (after Bad St. Leonhard and Ybbs). The planned production capacity amounts to 100,000 m³/yr with estimated costs of more than € 40 million. In total, Stora Enso will be able to produce about 260,000 m³ of CLT by 2020.
Shortly after this issue is published, KLH Massivholz will probably announce the construction of another production site in Carinthia. It would come as a big surprise if this project didn't approximate a production capacity of 75,000 to 100,000 m³ just like Stora Enso (Gruvön) and Pfeifer Holz (Schlitz/DE). It can therefore be assumed that KLH Massivholz will classify for Europe's top 3 ranks by 2020 with an annual production volume of around 210,000 m³.
Further expansion in Germany
Hasslacher Norica Timber launched a new finger jointing line in Stall in the Mölltal valley only a few days ago. Furthermore, a small CLT production is planned in Magdeburg. In sum, this yields an annual production volume of around 120,000 m³. This puts them at fourth place. Within the assumed full expansion scope of the Magdeburg site, another CLT production will probably be added in the upcoming years.
Two CLT rookies could rank fifth and sixth in Europe right off the bat: Legal & General and Pfeifer Holz. "If and when British company Legal & General will fire up the 6 m press, is not yet clear. With a capacity of 120,000 m³, this company would come in 5th in Europe.
Much more concrete are the plans of Pfeifer Holz in Schlitz who wants to finalize supplier contracts by the end of October. Due to their utilization situation, an installation launch in the 1Q of 2019 is assumedly realistic. The expected output for the € 30 million investment amounts to 100,000 m³ per year. Competitors assume that Pfeifer Holz will be concentrating on the industrial production of standard elements.
Scandinavia is catching up quickly
Taking a closer look at the European production table for 2020, the sheer amount of Nordic companies jumping on the CLT bandwagon stand out: The Finnish enterprises CLT Plant, Kauhajoki, and CLT Finland, Hoisko, are joined by Cross Timber Systems in Jelgava/LV, Swedisch timber industry Martinsons as well as Norwegian manufacturer Splitkon. At least a small production from Södra will be added to the list. Several other Scandinavian timber industries launched feasibility studies.
In France, Piveteaubois constitutes another company next to Monnet-Seve to start a CLT production. In Switzerland, Schillinger Holz is supposed to rebuild the burnt down production in Küssnacht. New press technology can be expected, and this would enable a capacity growth to around 50,000 m³.
The top 15 companies in Europe alone will probably increase production between 2016 and 2020 by 263%: from 599,000 m³ to almost 1.6 million m³. This is almost 1 million m³ more production capacity than last year. Or in other words: Production will gain 28% per year in those four years.
Adding those companies that produce less than 15,000 m³/yr, the European output will probably almost amount to 1.8 million m³ by 202 (+1.1 million m³ compared to 2016).
In our production prediction table, only those expansion and new construction projects are considered that are de facto confirmed. Over a dozen more are currently in the feasibility study phase. How many of those will be realized remains to be seen considering
- the concentrated amount of new productions,
- the shortage of skilled workers,
- and delivery times of suppliers.
| Current and prospective production >10,000 m³/yr |
|||||
| Company | Location | 2016 | until 2020 | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Binderholz² | Unternberg/AT, Burgbernheim/DE, Gruvön/SE | 145,000 | 270,000 | incl. announced 2nd stage of expansion in Burgbernheim |
| 2 | Stora Enso¹ | Bad St. Leonhard/AT, Ybbs/AT | 130,000 | 260,000 | incl. 100,000 m³ for 3rd production in Sweden |
| 3 | KLH Massivholz¹ | Katsch an der Mur/AT, 2. Standort | 88,000 | 210,000 | incl. anticipated new production in Carinthia |
| 4 | Hasslacher Norica Timber¹ | Stall im Mölltal/AT, Magdeburg/DE | 40,000 | 120,000 | incl. second press; 80,000 m³ in Stall; 40,000 m³ in Magdeburg |
| 4 | Legal & General³ | Leeds/GB | – | 120,000 | Launch still uncertain; systems are delivered and stored |
| 6 | Pfeifer Holz | Schlitz/DE | – | 100,000 | Installation start 1Q of 2019; Full operation 2020 |
| 7 | Mayr-Melnhof Holz⁴ | Gaishorn/AT | 60,000 | 80,000 | – |
| 8 | Splitkon⁴ | Åmot/NO | – | 60,000 | Relaunch |
| 9 | CLT Plant⁴ | Kauhajoki/FI | – | 50,000 | Relaunch |
| 9 | Piveteaubois⁴ | Vendée/FR | – | 50,000 | Relaunch |
| 9 | Schilliger Holz¹ | Küssnacht/CH | 13,000 | 50,000 | Post-fire relaunch with larger press possible |
| 12 | CLT Finland⁴ | Hoisko/FI | 5,000 | 40,000 | Full operation with current machinery; 70,000 ³ after expansion |
| 13 | Eugen Decker⁴ | Morbach/DE | 25,000 | 30,000 | – |
| 14 | Züblin Timber¹ | Aichach/DE | 30,000 | 30,000 | – |
| 15 | Cross Timber Systems⁴ | Jelgava/LV | 25,000 | 25,000 | – |
| 16 | XLam Dolomiti¹ | Castelnuovo/IT | 20,000 | 23,000 | – |
| 17 | Martinsons | Bygdsiljum/SE | – | 20,000 | – |
| 17 | Weinberger Holz | Reichenfels/AT | 5,500 | 20,000 | no conventional CLT, supplementary product |
| 19 | W. u. J. Derix⁴ | Niederkrüchten/DE | 12,500 | 15,000 | – |
| Sum* | 599,000 | 1,573,000 |
|||
| Sum incl. smaller productions** | 680,000 | 1,780,000 |
|||
