The modifi ed wood sector is stepping up a gear, with major players investing heavily to boost capacity to meet increasing demand. Accsys is a case in point. Its Accoya manufacturing plant in Arnhem in the Netherlands is nearing its capacity of just over 40,000m3 per year. In around a year’s time, however, output is expected to increase to 60,000m3 and be on the road to 80,000m3. “We announced a few months ago that we were going to double the capacity of the Arnhem plant,” said Paul Clegg, chief executive officer.
“We have two reactors at the moment and will add two more in stages, making sure we only build capacity as we need it. “The first of the new reactors is expected to be operational in the second half of 2017 and once the fourth is installed it should extend the Arnhem capacity beyond 80,000m3 per year.”
Accoya licensee Solvay Acetow “contributed significantly to the financing of the expansion at Arnhem,” added Mr Clegg. As part of the deal, Solvay has agreed to purchase a minimum of 76,000m3 of Accoya from the Arnhem plant under an off-take agreement over the next five years for distribution with Solvay’s licensed European markets. “We are working much more closely with our partners in joint venture-type structures, rather than just purely licensing out our technology and taking a royalty. The reason for this is that we can bring so much expertise to the process – it’s not just about the technology, it’s also about product development, engineering, operating, marketing and sales. Accsys has grown up a lot as a company and has developed all these competencies, as opposed to just being a technology specialist,” said Mr Clegg.
The deal with Solvay also allows Accsys to deliver sales and marketing support to Solvay in respect of the latter’s exclusive licensed territories of 14 European countries. Accsys recovered the rights to market and sell directly into the rest of The Council of Europe countries.
While Accoya is now available in 59 countries, the UK will remain a key focus for Accsys and is the company’s “most significant market at the moment”.
“Demand for Accoya has significantly expanded without the addition of new distributors,” said Mr Clegg. “We have great relationships with our partners and distributors and while we continue to exploit and analyse new markets and product innovations, the best idea is to sell more down the existing channels.” He added that, by working closely with its distributors, the company is also able to support more directly with the distributors’ own customers – joinery companies, for example.
“What is very encouraging is that we are now seeing consumers specifying [Accoya] up through the joinery company or through the architect and that is a significant next step.
“We talk to customers about laminated structures, about new applications such as boat decking and we work with companies such as Arup on new structural engineering projects.”
Accoya now accounts for 8-9% of the UK joinery market and Mr Clegg sees no reason why that, and building applications generally, won’t increase.
“Ultimately the mass markets are in the construction related activities of joinery, decking and cladding. And we see, in the long run, civil and structural engineering will become very important markets as the sectors adopt different materials.”
There’s an equal amount of activity going on in the production of Accoya sister product, Tricoya. The modified wood- based panel product has been manufactured under the brand names Medite Tricoya Extreme at Medite’s facility in Ireland and Masisa Tricoya XB at Masisa’s factory in South America for some time and the market has been steadily growing.
“Last year we sold in the region of 4,200m3 of Medite Tricoya Extreme produced using the Accoya wood purchased from Accsys,” said Peter Clifton, product manager Europe. “We plan to sell in excess of 5,000m3 this year,” he added. “With the current mix, Medite has a plant capacity of approximately 415,000m3 per year and the planned sales volume of Medite Tricoya Extreme forms part of our key strategy to increase sales through innovative products.”
The modified MDF panel range includes a number of standard sizes to a maximum thickness of 18mm, plus a number of “special dimensions” to suit customers’ needs. “We are seeing good growth as architects, specifiers and consumers realize the benefits of the product,” said Mr Clifton. “With support to our industrial partners across Europe (cladding and roofline products, exterior doors and so on) they have further increased awareness of the product and the substrate.”
The UK is Medite’s biggest market for the product and, last year, showed the most growth among its core markets of Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands.
“We have more industrial users in the Netherlands but, as market confidence grows, we expect the UK and Irish industrial consumption to grow.”
Having said that, the construction and joinery markets, which saw the early take-up of the product, will continue to be a core part of the business in the future – and its versatility means its applications are “endless”.
“Quirky applications are always being dreamed up,” said Mr Clifton. “The most recent was for the seating and floors of carriages on a refurbished scenic railway in Margate.”
He added that Medite Tricoya Extreme has also been used recently in a playground in Denmark and that boat building is a growing customer base.
“The marine industry was one of our first adopters for Medite Tricoya Extreme, initially for internal use. However, as confidence in the product has grown, it’s now being used for cladding on the deck itself.”
There has been talk in the past of Medite setting up its own chip acetylating manufacturing plant, under licence, at Clonmel but in February Accsys announced it had formed a consortia with Medite (part of Coillte Panel Products) and BP to build a standalone Tricoya wood elements acetylation plant in the UK. It is currently anticipated that the plant will be operational in the second half of 2018.
“We’ll then have two [manufacturing] platforms, which is very exciting,” said Mr Clegg.
BP Chemicals has been a key partner of Accsys, supplying acetic anhydride for its Arnhem plant and, in the past, the company has carried out initial research into wood acetylation at its Hull research centre. The new plant is expected to be located at Hull’s Saltend Chemicals Park, adjacent to BP’s existing acetyls facility.
The new plant is expected to have an initial annual capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes of acetylated chips (equivalent to 40,000m3 of Tricoya panel), which will then be transported to Medite’s Clonmel plant for production of Medite Tricoya Extreme. In addition to this development, Accsys is also “in detailed discussions” with Chilean wood-based panel manufacturer Masisa, which holds a licence option. “It is already market testing a Masisa-branded Tricoya – Masisa Tricoya XB – and its ultimate ambition is to be a manufacturer of Tricoya panels in South America,” said Paul Clegg. Meanwhile, fellow modified timber manufacturer Kebony is also capitalising on growing demand for its product. According to head of international sales, Adrian Pye, over the last six years sales of Kebony, which is made by impregnating the wood with furfuryl alcohol, have increased by an average of 37%.
Current output at the company’s Vold factory in Norway is 25,000m3 per year and production capacity is about to be exceeded so plans to boost this are well advanced. “Recently raised capital will primarily be used to build a second factory in Flanders in Belgium, which is scheduled to be operational by 2017,” said Mr Pye. “The factory will employ about 25 people and capacity will be larger than the existing facility.”
In addition to this, €8m of investment capital secured in 2014 from existing investors (Hoegh Consortium, Environmental Technologies Fund, Seventure Partners and Munich Venture Partners) is being used to bolster production at the Vold factory. “While the factory in Norway currently produces all types of Kebony wood, once the factory in Belgium has been completed, each will specialise in a particular wood grade,” said Mr Pye.
“The Belgian factory will specialise in Kebony Clear, the bestseller in mainland Europe, while the Norwegian factory will manage the production of Character wood, the most popular timber in Scandinavia. The investment will ensure that this transition is possible, while also improving the production capabilities of Kebony in Norway.”
This year the company is forecasting in the region of 700m3 of Kebony entering the UK market, where primary distribution is by Brooks Bros.
This volume represents a 20% year-onyear increase.
“The growth in the UK is steady and we foresee some acceleration as modified woods become more acceptable and alternatives to tropical hardwoods are sought,” said Mr Pye. With pressure on tropical hardwoods increasing since the introduction of the EU Timber Regulation and specifiers – and consumers – becoming savvier when it comes to sustainable alternatives, Mr Pye believes that demand for Kebony can only grow. Kebony has become an established option for decking, cladding and garden structures and it is also being used in applications such as kitchen flooring and windows.
“Following research and testing by Menck in Hamburg, which recommended Kebony as a suitable window industry product, the wood has been recognised by the Institute of Window Technology in Rosenheim,” he said.
