31/01/2008 Modern birch plywood often competes for the same usages as light metals and composite materials thanks to its lightness, strength, firmness and hardiness. However, it is considerably cheaper than its competitors and more environmentally friendly at the same time. Birch plywood enjoys a particularly strong position in the transportation vehicle industry where it makes an excellent flooring material for trailers, considering how important a competitive factor low tare weight is for forwarding companies. “Other materials cannot be turned into sufficiently light products that would still meet the technical criteria as economically as plywood,” says Joni Lukkaroinen, Senior Vice-President of Finnforest's Plywood Business Line. High-tech Wood In many ways, modern birch plywood can be compared to composite materials; combinations of wood fibres, binding agents and additives can produce a host of different products for a variety of purposes. “Thanks to our development efforts we are now able to meet the strict strength, firmness and hardiness requirements of the transport equipment industry with even thinner and therefore lighter birch plywood than before,” Lukkaroinen says. “The new plywood upgrading mill, which will begin operating at the beginning of next year, will allow us to launch a new generation of Finnforest plywood products for demanding applications.” “In addition to their appearance, special overlays also reflect positively on the technical properties of plywood. We will also widen the range of plywood sizes we offer and be able to produce the largest sizes. This will be a considerable competitive advantage for our customers.” Close to the Customers Out of all the manufacturers of high-quality birch plywood, Finnforest's Plywood Business Line has indisputably the best coverage in Europe as far as its own distribution network is concerned. This network provides the company with excellent opportunities for warehousing and processing close to the customers. “Our network is a clear competitive advantage for us, as plywood products are more and more often supplied directly to customers as ready-to-assemble components on demand,” Lukkaroinen says. The last stages of processing and finishing touches like painting the edges are left to the extensive subcontractor network to bring the service as close to the customer as possible, ideally within the same industrial estate. “All in all we are able to react to customers' changing needs extremely quickly. This is something totally different from the production-orientated way in which this industry traditionally operates,” Lukkaroinen emphasises. In addition to components used in heavy-goods vehicles, Finnforest's birch plywood is used in the structural components of buses, trains and delivery vans, for example, as well as in reusable casting dies. One of the most rapidly growing customer segments is LNG shipping where plywood is used as part of insulation in the vessels' cargo hold. “The natural gas that LNG tankers carry is liquefied so that its temperature is cooled to less than -160 degrees centigrade. This makes the gas liquefy and contract substantially. Birch plywood is one of the few materials that can handle temperature variations of this magnitude without losing its consistency,” Lukkaroinen says. Information on the New Investment in Suolahti Investing in the new upgrading mill which will begin operating in Suolahti at the beginning of 2008 is in line with Finnforest's strategy, which emphasises the combination of Nordic premium timber and know-how to increase the added value that Finnforest brings its industrial customers. Finnforest's goal is to become a leading plywood supplier for demanding industrial end uses. Read more: Finnforest plywood upgrading mill investment Metsäliitto Group invests 15 million euros in a birch plywood upgrading unit Finnforest Plywood customer solutions Agados relies on birch plywood for trailer production Quality is the keyword in the trailer business of Fahrzeugwerk Bernard Krone For more information: Joni Lukkaroinen, Senior Vice President, Plywood Business Line, Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry, Finnforest, tel. +358 50 590 0720 Johanna Kankkunen, Director, Marketing and Communications, Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry, Finnforest, tel. +358 50 350 4005