Situated on a 35ha site on the outskirts of Riga, BSW’s £12m investment in Latvia brings the company’s total number of sawmills to seven.
Built to accommodate state-of-the-art sawmilling machinery, the mill has given the BSW Group a significantly wider product portfolio of products than can be derived from UK fibre.
BSW Group’s John Brownlie explained: “BSW has approximately 25% of British sawmill capacity, catering for a variety of market segments.”
The wider portfolio includes planed products in pine and spruce for construction and the garden products markets. Latvia was chosen, Mr Brownlie said, after considerable research which started in about 1994.
“Decades of under-investment in the sawmill sector, amongst others, during the Soviet period provided a fairly obvious investment opportunity, but not without significant risk. Many Americans and Europeans invested heavily into Russia in the last decade, most of whom retired not long afterwards, having lost everything.
“The decision to choose Latvia was driven in the main by the abundance of high quality raw material – 40% of the country is down to forestry – apparent lower costs compared to the high cost structures of the mature industry within the Scandinavian countries, and the ability to play a significant role in the restructuring of the highly fragmented industry that has emerged in the post-Soviet years.”
Foundations laid
The foundations for the mill, which is housed in buildings of around 7,000m2, were laid in July 1999 and it was commissioned in May the following year. Designed to cut log lengths of 3-6m, the new mill has an annual input of 186,000m3 of roundwood and output of 110,000m3 of sawn timber.
The site was specially chosen to allow for further future expansion.
Mr Brownlie explained: “The blueprint of the sawmill development was designed to provide opportunities for significant further development on the site. The existing sawmill line relies on one edger and double pass, but has been planned in such a way and the building has been built to accommodate single pass configuration with minimal disruption at some time in the future. The timing of that move is not yet decided, and there is still some unused capacity within the existing plant which will be developed fully during the next two years.
“However, it is likely that drier capacity will be doubled to around 100,000m3 per year at a cost of around £500,000 later this year and that capacity will be increased in the planing mill next year.’
The company took great care to recruit, develop, train and establish a committed and skilled workforce.
Mr Brownlie said: “A huge emphasis has been placed on training at all levels and, through in-house training using key personnel from our UK mills, we have established a skilled workforce.”
Green mill
The green mill infeed comprises a large infeed deck, a Jonsered 1500 hydraulic crane for log turning, a Bruks 1000 butt reducer, an ABB metal detector, a Cambio 75 debarker and a stepfeeder.
The primary conversion reducer bandsaw line by Soderhamm Eriksson has log recycling, and there is three-dimensional scanning and automatic log turning by MPM, a Canter quad bandsaw, a quad bandsaw, an Edgar 6100 Optimser edger, a horizontal saw, and a 30-pocket drop sorter and sticker-stacker – both by Forslunds.
Energy for the driers and general heating is supplied by a 4.5MW Dantrim boiler. The kiln driers are three rail-through chamber kilns of 250m3 each by WSAB of Sweden.
The dry-sorter, with de-sticking, visual grading, in-line moisture measurement and laser-controlled end trimming leads to a 22-pocket drop sorter and stacker by Forslunds.
The development mill comprises two mechanised Jonsereed planing lines which run at 80m/min; two Computermatic strength grading lines; two resaws; two cross-cuts; a multi-head cross-cutting facility; a package compression and export packing line and a timber impregnation facility capable of 70,000m3 per year, by IWT.
BSW’s capability to provide longer lengths and higher grades of timber from its Latvian mill will be of particular interest to the merchant sector and the growing garden products market sector. Mr Brownlie explained: “There is strong interest in the construction markets for longer lengths which are not available in the required volume from UK manufacturers.”
BSW Group: The facts
BSW Timber plc is the largest sawmilling business in Britain. The company’s foundations go back to 1848 and the current group was formed in 1988 through a merger of the Brownlie family business and Thomas Smith & Sons following the acquisition of Western Softwoods by the Brownlie business seven years earlier.
The BSW sawmills are located throughout the UK at Fort William, Boat of Garten, Petersmuir, Carlisle, Newbridge-on-Wye, Caerphilly in Wales and now Riga, Latvia.
The group headquarters are located at Earlston, Berwickshire where the business originated.
Today the group employs more than 550 people in the UK and Latvia. Turnover is around £80m, generated by sales of just under 600,000m3.
Royal seal of approval
The Prince of Wales performed the official opening of BSW Timber plc‘s Latvian mill in Riga in November 2001.
He said he was particularly pleased to see the good co-operation between Latvia and Britain and added that he was delighted to know that the mill was a Scottish investment in state-of-the-art sawmilling technology. He also praised BSW for its responsible attitude to sustainable forestation within the region.
