PG Bison, a South African company, and the leading manufacturer of wood-based panel products, has announced a R2 billion ($131.5 million) capital investment to be rolled out over the next three years. The capital projects include a major capacity expansion to PG Bison’s existing facilities in eMkhondo (Piet Retief), Mpumalanga, as well as an additional new medium density fibreboard (MDF) plant at the same location.
“In the wake of COVID-19, we’ve seen increased appetite for import replacement, and an uptick in people investing into their homes as remote work becomes the norm,” says PG Bison CEO Gerhard Victor. “We have been investing in upgrading our eMkhondo operations since 2017, through a multi-stage capital investment programme to help us increase our production capacity and ensure that we can sustainably supply the long-term local market demand.”
PG Bison is investing an additional R560 million ($36.8 million) into a new front-end dryer for its particleboard plant. This will significantly increase capacity, moving the eMkhondo plant to more than 1,000 m3 per day of particleboard production. This additional investment comes on the back of the R600 million already spent on a new Siempelkamp Contiroll press and forming line. The project is due for completion by December 2021
The next stage in the company’s plans is to build a new additional MDF plant. The project will commence in 2022 and the 1st board is expected off the line in the middle of 2023. The capital investment project and the localisation opportunities it will create, has been positively received by government at all levels. A total of R1.42 billion ($93.4 million) will be invested in this new plant.
“Currently, we produce 400 m3 per day at our MDF plant in Boksburg. With the new additional plant coming online, we will ramp this up by 200% with an additional 800 m3 per day of MDF. This will give PG Bison a total installed capacity on MDF of 1,200 m3 per day between our two MDF plants,” says Victor.
