CORRIENTES, Argentina
,
April 19, 2024
(press release)
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Virasoro/Vienna, 19 April 2024: Acon Timber, the Argentine sawmill of HS Timber Group in Virasoro (province of Corrientes), was officially commissioned today with a ceremony on the factory premises. Acon Timber is a joint venture between HS Timber Group and Belgium's Forestcape Group. The new sawmill is designed to process pine wood (Pinus taeda and Pinus elliottii). This is sourced regionally from sustainably managed plantations. Favoured by the climatic conditions (365 days of growth per year), these pines are harvested after less than 20 years. The sawmill is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and technologies. In the current stage of expansion, the plant has an annual production capacity of 370,000 m³ of dry lumber. The lumber products are mainly exported to North and Central America, Middle East and Asia. Connected to the sawmill is a secondary sorting system with a quality scanner and planing system. The sawmill by-products (wood chips, sawdust and wood shavings) can be further processed into pellets (current annual capacity: 132,000 tons of pellets). Pellets are sent to Europe as ENplus certified house fire pellets. The heat required for drying the sawn and residual timber is generated in two 20 MW biomass boilers from the resulting bark and locally sourced biomass. As in all HS Timber Group plants, emphasis is placed on the full use of the raw material true to the line 'zero waste'. The groundbreaking ceremony for the greenfield project took place in January 2022. Trial operation started in December 2023 and the plant was gradually ramped up. Acon Timber currently offers 315 direct jobs. The total employment effect, including upstream and downstream sectors, is estimated at over 700 jobs. This makes the modern sawmill an important driver especially for the regions of Corrientes and Misiones. About HS Timber Group: As one of the leading companies in wood processing, we serve our commercial and industrial customers with more than 2,700 employees in 80 markets. Founded in Austria and managed from Vienna, we develop sophisticated solutions and high-tech products from the material of the future, wood, at seven production sites worldwide. At HS Timber Group, everything revolves around one thing: the CO2-binding raw material wood. We procure it from sustainably managed forests, we process it in an energy-self-sufficient manner into products with high regional added value, for example for the living space of the future, and we research it in cooperation with scientists, e.g. at the Vienna University of Technology. Handshake quality and innovative spirit have been our success factors for centuries.
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