Heavily investing Norwegian sawmills choose Valutec’s lumber kilns
Three Norwegian sawmils have chosen to invest in lumber kilns from Valutec for a total order value of more than SEK 40 million. Kjeldstad and Gran Tre are investing in batch kilns and Bergene Holm is investing in three continuous kilns with a total capacity of 120,000 cubic meters (50,800 MBF) annually.
“Valutec was chosen as the supplier based on a combination of good references, technical solutions, a good project organization and a short build time,” said Bergene Holm and Johan Mörland director of the division in Nidarå in connection with the announcement of the deal.
The investment is the second step in an investment program that previously included a new lumber intake and saw line. The new continuous kilns will be built in the latter part of 2018 and commissioned in the first quarter of 2019.
Gran Tre KS, more than 80 km (50 miles) north of Oslo, is also in the middle of a strong growth phase after merging with the larger group Gausdal Bruvoll at the beginning of the year. Gran Tre is planning on increasing its production by 50 percent and therefore chose to invest in two forklift-fed batch kilns.
“Today, we have three batch kilns and undercapacity. In connection with this investment, we will increase our drying capacity by almost 100 percent and will instead have overcapacity. The drying should not be a bottleneck,” says Finn Hoel, CEO of Gran Tre.
In total, the sawmill’s capacity will increase from today’s 60,000 cubic meters (25,400 MBF) of lumber per year to around 90,000 cubic meters (38,100 MBF). Gran Tre chose Valutec’s complete solution, as well as the advantages of using Valutec’s control system Valmatics.
“We want to get a better and smarter control system where we can optimize based on more parameters. It’s very important to have control of the drying processes; it’s the trickiest process we have. Branches, fibers and all of the input moisture ratios mean that no two boards are alike and that’s the challenge,” says Finn Hoel and adds that commissioning will take place at the end of the year.
Kjeldstad’s investment involves a batch kiln for the mill in Stören.
“We see many long-term investments in Norway, Sweden and Finland. There are good reasons to believe in a trend where wood can continue taking market shares from other materials,” says Jon Lindberg, Sales Manager at Valutec.
For additional information, please contact:
Jon Lindberg, Sales Manager
Valutec
+46 70 662 99 99
jon.lindberg@valutec.se
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The desire to increase the use of wood is the ultimate reason for Valutec's existence. We have been combining Scandinavian expertise in the field of timber drying with insights into the challenges facing our customers for almost 100 years. This has all been done with the aim of pushing the boundaries of what is possible, both as regards value-creating timber kilns as well as intelligent control systems. The Valutec Group has companies in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Canada, and with more than 4,000 timber kilns delivered, we are the leading supplier in Europe. Read more about our “Good for Wood” outlook at www.valutec.se.
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