HS Timber Group puts its Acon Timber sawmill into work

 Tuesday, April 23, 2024

HS Timber Group has officially put its Acon Timber sawmill, the Argentinian sawmill in Virasoro (Corrientes province). From April 17 the sawmill has started working after a ceremonious beginning at the factory premises. Acon Timber proves to be an important woodworking and wood processing endeavor, that is a joint venture between HS Timber Group and the Belgian Forestcape group.

The new sawmill is designed to process pine wood (Pinus taeda and Pinus elliottii). This is sourced regionally from sustainably managed plantations. Favored by the climatic conditions (365 days of growth per year), these strains are harvested after less than 20 years.The sawmill is equipped with the most modern systems and technologies. In its current expansion stage, the factory has an annual production capacity of 370,000 m³ of dry sawn timber. The lumber products are exported primarily to North and Central America, the Middle East and Asia.

A post-sorting facility with a quality scanner and planing system is connected to the sawmill. The sawing by-products (wood chips, sawdust and wood shavings) can be further processed into pellets (current annual capacity: 132,000 tons of pellets). Pellets go to Europe as ENplus certified domestic fire pellets.

The heat required to dry the sawn and residual wood 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 complete use of raw materials from the perspective of ‘zero waste’.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the greenfield project took place in January 2022. Trial operations began in December 2023 and the plant was gradually ramped up. As a part of one of the leading wood processing companies, Acon Timber currently provides 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 Corrientes and Misiones regions woodworking community.

Tags: Acon Timber sawmill, HS Timber Group, wood and panel, woodworking, woodworking and manufacturing, woodworking and processing, woodworking industry, woodworking UK