Metso Corporation's fiber and paper business area Valmet will supply an MDF (medium density fiberboard) plant to Placas do Paraná's greenfield site in Brazil. The value of the order is approximately EUR 40 million. The plant is scheduled to start up in late 2001.
The order includes all main equipment for log handling in all unit operations of the plant up to the packed panels at the end of the finished panel packing line. The highly automated plant will meet modern environmental requirements; it will incorporate a two-stage dryer, for example, to reduce both energy consumption and fiber emissions.
The new MDF plant will produce high-quality MDF panels over a wide thickness range. The annual plant capacity will be 200,000 cubic meters of 15-mm panel based on pinus species. This order closely follows the recent commissioning of a Valmet Panelboard Küsters press for particleboard in Argentina for Placas do Paraná’s sister company Faplac.
Metso Corporation's fiber and paper technology business area Valmet is the world's leading supplier of technology, systems and equipment for the pulp, paper, converting and panelboard industries. In 1999, Valmet's net sales was EUR 1.7 billion and it had a personnel of 10,600.
Metso Corporation is a global supplier of process industry machinery and systems. In addition to fiber and paper technology, Metso's business areas are automation and control technology and machinery. The net sales of Metso Corporation was EUR 3.4 billion in 1999 and personnel totaled approximately 23,000. Metso Corporation is listed on the Helsinki Exchanges and New York Stock Exchange.