Metso Panelboard will supply equipment for Sonae Novobord's new particleboard line in White River, South Africa. The new line is scheduled for start-up in early 2007. The value of the order is approximately EUR 13.5 million.
The delivery includes a gluing system with flake metering and resin blending system, forming stations, continuous press and panel handling equipment as well as an intermediate storage system, sanding line, packaging line, and process automation system. Metso Panelboard will also supply the engineering services together with supervision of installation and start-up.
The new line will expand the company's annual production capacity to 620,000 cbm.
Sonae Novobord is the largest panelboard manufacturer in South Africa with operations on three sites. The company is part of Sonae Industria, a Portuguese group of companies manufacturing wood-based products. In 2005, Sonae Industria's consolidated turnover totaled about EUR 1,465 billion.
Metso is a global engineering and technology corporation with 2005 net sales of approximately EUR 4.2 billion. Its 22 000 employees in more than 50 countries serve customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, the energy industry and selected other industries.
www.metso.com