Valutec´s sales to Central Europe running at a record pace

The last six months' sales to Germany and Austria amount to an order value of just over EUR 24,7 million for Valutec, which supplies kilns to the sawmill industry. The company has sold a total of ten continuous kilns to the markets during the period, which is a fourfold increase compared to the annual average over the last five years.

Low lumber prices, together with high demand for wood products, mean that sawmills in Central Europe are on the offensive and are investing in increased capacity. A major reason for the increased demand is the shift to increased construction in wood. For example, refined wood products such as construction components in CLT and glulam have taken market shares from steel and concrete. This in turn has meant higher quality requirements from customers. 

"The increased quality requirements in these markets have created openings for our continuous kilns. Our long-term strategy and technological development has been based on the idea that we should be the market's best choice when it comes to optimizing both quality, capacity and energy consumption,” says Robert Larsson, CEO at Valutec.

The higher quality requirements have also led to higher volumes of lumber needing to be dried in modern plants. 

"This means that more sawmills need to invest and many have chosen our continuous kilns when they have expanded. It is a nice acknowledgement for us and the result of long-term work to introduce the products to the market.” For many sawmills in Central Europe, continuous kilns are a new way of working and for us it has been important to lower the thresholds by offering training and close collaborations.  

Valutec is a world leader in the continuous kiln segment and has a comprehensive offering with several proprietary models. Common to continuous kilns is high capacity and quality and that a steady flow of wood provides a very competitive energy consumption per MBF.

Valutec's customers are both large groups and privately owned sawmills and in total ten continuous kilns have been sold in the markets in the last six months. 

"Both in Central Europe and in the rest of the world, our TC continuous kilns have opened doors. It is a model that takes advantage of the capacity advantages of the continuous kilns while offering full flexibility to mix dimensions and types of wood," says Larsson.

Valutec built the first modern TC continuous kiln in Sweden ten years ago. Since then, the model has been sold to Both Russia, Central Europe and North America and in total there are more than 20 TC kilns that are now in operation around the world.

More information
Robert Larsson, CEO
Valutec
+46 910 879 50 
robert.larsson@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 Nordic expertise in lumber drying for almost 100 years with a deep understanding of the challenges facing our customers. Our goal is to expand opportunities not only for value-adding lumber dry kilns, but also in intelligent control systems. The Valutec Group is a part of Addtech Industrial Process and has offices in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Canada and has an annual turnover of around EUR 40 million. With more than 6 000 lumber drying installations delivered, we are a world leader. Find out more about our corporate philosophy "Good for wood" at www.valutec.ca.

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