Timberlink, an Australasian timber product manufacturing company, has announced a generational investment in timber manufacturing in Bell Bay, a industrial centre located in Tasmania, Australia.
This US$63 million capital investment will see an increase of more than 50% in on-island sovereign timber manufactured from sustainably managed pine plantations.
The expansion project installation and construction is in two stages from 2022, with full output achieved at the end of 2025. This will include offline log debarking and sorting, saw mill expansion, residue and energy optimisation, additional continuous kiln for drying of timber, planer infeed systems, and site infrastructure improvements.
Ian Tyson, CEO of Timberlink, commented: “At the completion of this project, the combined output of Timberlink’s Bell Bay Tasmania and Tarpeena South Australia manufacturing facilities will position Timberlink to increase supply of manufacture of structural timber for use in the construction of homes in Australia. The project has been brought forward by over two years in order to support additional supply into the Australian market.”
The upgrade will increase both the volume of renewable plantation pine logs that can be processed and the yield per log, creating a workplace with high tech machinery of improved accuracy, safety and job security. The planned investment is in addition to upgrades completed two years ago and the construction of Tasmania’s first Wood Plastic Composites manufacturing facility announced earlier this year for the Bell Bay site.
In addition to 25 contractor jobs during the capital upgrades and expansion, Timberlink expects that this project will create 18 new permanent full-time jobs at the facility. It is estimated that the Timberlink Bell Bay manufacturing facility supports approximately 600 direct and indirect jobs in the region.
