The centre, at Vida’s terminal, will allow Vida to have its softwood timber imports treated at the dock, rather than incur haulage miles having its wood treated at Timberstore’s Beaconsfield and Crawley sites.
Timberstore says while Vida will be the main customer for the centre, it will also be treating other timber as well.
The two low pressure plants operating at Chatham were moved from Timberstore’s Beaconsfield site and are using Protim E406 treatment to treat roof truss and timber frame material. They have a capacity of 400m3 per day.
The equipment move has effectively vacated a 20,000ft2 facility and 1.5-acre outside yard area at Timberstore’s Beaconsfield site.
"We’re hoping a roof truss or timber frame manufacturer will occupy the building," Timberstore director Ian Caldwell told TTJ.
The Beaconsfield site also has a high pressure treatment facility using Osmose Celcure AC500.
A further low pressure vessel on site is to trial the treatment of Accoya modified wood using a Protim treatment. Treating Accoya is intended to protect the material from mould staining caused by timber fungi.
Timberstore’s Crawley treatment centre uses AC500, Protim 0406 and Tanalith E 8000.
Mr Caldwell said bad weather had affected volumes at the start of 2013, but customers were reporting full order books so he was expecting business to pick up.
