Plywood from Gladstone

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 12

Plywood from Gladstone

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A $2 million plywood factory established at Gladstone, on the outskirts of Greymouth, will soon handle Pacific Islands timbers and is looking at new processes and products. Within a few weeks, the Fletcher Timber Company factory will recive its first shipment of timber direct from the Solomon Islands. Called Solomon Island maple, the logs will be used to make a specially durable plywood. With a production of 15 million sq. ft of plywood a year the Gladstone plant is second only to Fletcher’s Christchurch piant as New Zealand’s biggest volume producer of plywood. Between them the two plants

account for more than 60 per cent of the country’s total production. The West Coast plant is the leader in the production of native plywoods. As the North Island supplies of native timber dwindle, Gladstone seems assured of retaining its place—situated, as it is, close to the only remaining major stands of rimu and other native trees. Several months ago, largely because of the difficulty of securing native timber in the North Island, Fletchers progressively closed down its Auckland plywood plant. The relocation of plant from Auckland to Greymouth cost about $lOO,OOO. Now, production of marine plywood and two

specialty products, ranch pattern and panel line, is being concentrated at Greymouth. The Solomon Island maple is being used for ranch line plywood. The 75,000 sq. feet Gladstone plant could, with the duplication of some equipment, expand to a production level of 25 million sq. ft. This is nearly half New Zealand’s total production at the moment. The main lathe in the veneer section comes from Germany. Equipped with telescopic spindles to hold the rapidly diminishing log, the lathe’s cutting knife can peel a 60-inoh log down to a minimum of five inches in less time than an old Coast bushman took to fell a small totara.