The mill,which secures employment for 120 employees, is now in production following trials.
Laser-guided equipment will generate 285,000 m3 of sawn timber annually from 500,000 tonnes of logs.
The mill will ultimately be capable of processing more than 1 million tonnes of logs a year on two shifts – an ambition owner and chairman Robin Howie would like to see achieved by the end of the decade.
“The new mill is typical of a number of major European plants constructed in the last five years,” he said. This investment ensure the company’s competitiveness for the next 20 years.
The company said it was clearly focused on the increased global demand for timber as a sustainable building material and wanted to ensure it was in a position to take full advantage of potential growth in the UK market and to increase the Scottish sawmills’ share of the market.
