Another LVL Mill Opens This Week 
¡¾2002.11.04¡¿

New Zealand's second big scale LVL and veneer plant will be officially opened on 8 November by Prime Minister Helen Clark.  Nelson Pine Industries (NPIL), owned by Sumitomo Forestry of Japan, has completed commissioning of the NZ$80 million mill which has a rated capacity of 100,000 cubic metres annually and will work in tandem with the company¡¯s existing triple-line MDF operation at Richmond. "This [LVL] plant gives NPIL the capacity to process 40 percent of the Nelson-Marlborough region¡¯s radiata pine resource," says managing director Murray Sturgeon.  Combined wood consumption at the Richmond site will be around one million cubic metres annually. NPIL is Sumitomo Forestry¡¯s biggest offshore investment.  Since buying into the company in 1984 it has spent NZ$355 million on new MDF, veneer and engineered wood capacity ¨C all processing New Zealand pine.  Carter Holt Harvey is New Zealand¡¯s other major LVL manufacturer.

Sourec:NZforesty