The booming Irish economy was one of the spurs for a £5m capital investment at the Galway sawmill of ECC Teo.
Managing director Patrick J Fahy said the decision to carry out an intensive automation programme was prompted partly by the need to ‘alleviate a labour shortage that has resulted from the Celtic Tiger economy’. The investment is boosting efficiency and yields and has lifted output to 3,000m³ a week.
The company, which buys its logs from the state forestry company Coillte, is Ireland’s largest exporter of sawn timber to the UK, with exports of 65,000m³ per year projected to rise to 105,000m³ in 2003. Production for the pallet and fencing markets accounts for 70% and the construction markets for 30%, with treatment facilities taking 30,000m³ a year. The company also produces 1.5 million machined fencing posts a year.
Latest spending has bought an automated handling system, with a 60-bin drop-sorter from Carbotech, Canada which can scan, trim and sort up to 200 pieces per minute. This is followed by two new cross-cutting and stacking lines with automated bale strapping. A 5MW woodwaste boiler is being installed by Kara/Bollman with two additional kiln boxes to bring drying capacity to 80,000m³ with boiler capacity to increase to 100,000m³ in the future.
