At the outset there was scepticism about prospects for developing value-added tropical timber production in Africa. However, companies in the field say they’re proving the doubters wrong. It’s still a work in progress, but further processing operations are establishing a solid base and the resulting products, made using latest machinery, are demonstrating their technical credentials, cost and environmental benefits. They’re subsequently being exported worldwide.
Interholco (IHC) started making FSCcertified finger-jointed laminated scantlings at its IFO facility in Ngombe in the Republic of Congo in 2012. Vice-president sales and production Christophe Janssen acknowledges that initially it wasn’t an easy sell.
“Established customers for logs and sawn timber from our production were conservative and didn’t want to take a risk with these new products,” he said.
“People said you couldn’t do value added production in Africa, even though it was established elsewhere in the tropics, in Asia and South America. They assumed there would be glue problems with scantlings, and they’d cause machining difficulties.
“It was a case of finding a different type of customer willing to try something new. Once we did that, we were then approached by our traditional customers interested in running trials, after which they placed orders and kept coming back.”
The key from the start was to focus on consistent quality and performance. Some early engineered products from other African producers, Mr Janssen acknowledged, had not been the best. Some mixed species and used lesser quality material for the central layer of laminated scantlings, obviously a critical issue for window makers.
“We began by investing in some of the best processing technology available, from Weinig, so we could be sure of uniformity, correct finger-jointing pressures and so on. We’ve also continued to upgrade since, with a further major re-equipment in 2016,” said Mr Janssen.
“In addition, as we have our own forest concessions, we can guarantee all our raw material will come from the same source, that there’ll be no mixing. We have complete control of what’s going into the production process and we’ve now demonstrated that the products are reliable, based on tried and tested manufacturing processes, backed by regular quality audits and can match anything else on the market.”
IHC also focused resources on training personnel in the manufacturing process and to use state-of-the-art, automated technology. “We put in place very clear procedures and produced photographic how-to guides,” said Mr Janssen. “And our people are very enthusiastic. They were proud to be involved in what was quite a pioneering venture for Africa.”
The scantling plant now has annual capacity of 5,000m3. Its products have also been accredited to standard CTB-LCA 221 by French timber technical institute FCBA.
“To have this accreditation, alongside FSC certification is a definite marketing benefit,” said Mr Janssen.
IHC scantlings, for which Danzer is UK distributor, come in a range of variants in different species using four-side clear lamellas; KKK (three layers of finger-jointed lamellas), DKD (with solid outer layers and finger-jointed mid-layer), plus on demand products with two, three or more layers.
“Some end-users are concerned their customers won’t like a finger-jointed outer layer, but consumers today see finger-joints across the range of products. They’re used to them,” said Mr Janssen.
Interholco’s market pitch for the products is that they provide stability, predictable yield and proven machining performance, and, of course, that the timber is 100% sourced from its FSC-certified forest concessions. And customers have attested to their benefits.
“One Belgian window manufacturer couldn’t compete in plastic or aluminium with the big producers and was struggling with tropical hardwood lumber because he couldn’t accurately calculate yield or costs,” said Mr Janssen. “That changed with our laminated scantlings. They cut waste and enabled the business to budget more effectively, as well as produce a window that could take on the man-made material competition in terms of consistent quality and performance. He said it helped save the company.”
Sapele is the IHC factory’s main raw material, but it is also manufacturing in kosipo and developing use of tali, bossé, sipo, limbali and padouk, all FSC-certified.
“All these species have different characteristics, of course, and may demand different processing approaches,” said Mr Janssen. “Kosipo, for instance, which is more durable than sapele, needs different tooling.
But customers are now happily using it and limbali is particularly suited to smaller manufacturers looking for a niche material.” Utilising the range of species, says IHC, contributes to sustainable use of the forest and, it maintains, these other varieties are cost competitive.
“Padouk is more expensive, but there isn’t more than 10% price difference between the others,” said Mr Janssen.
IHC will look to introduce products in other species, but it’s not an overnight process.
“From initial testing of the timber, through development of the right manufacturing approach to trialling with customers, it generally takes two years to bring a new species to market,” said Mr Janssen.
IHC’s biggest scantlings market is France, followed by Germany and Belgium, and it’s starting to sell in Portugal and Spain. The UK and US are proving slower to come around, but Mr Janssen believes it will happen. “They are perhaps more traditional markets, but we have sent trial bundles to both. It will just take time.”
There is now growing government commitment in a number of African countries to help their timber industries transition from being primary material producers, to become further processing, value added manufacturers. This was underlined at the September meeting of CEMAC, the Economic Community of Central Africa, where a proposal to ban log exports from the entire Congo Basin on January 1, 2022 was approved by ministers from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon and Chad. They also backed the establishment of economic zones for primary, secondary and third-stage timber transformation and to set up the CRIB, the Regional Committee for Sustainable industrial Development of the Timber Industry.
Interholco is upbeat about prospects for further developing its further processing business.
“There are opportunities for more specialist items for particular industries,” said Mr Janssen. “That potentially includes laminated beams and other construction products. Softwood currently dominates this market, but with hardwood’s superior strength to weight, you could use less timber to do the same job and have smaller dimension products.”
