The last six months' sales to Germany and Austria amount to an order value of just over Euro 24.7 million for Valutec, which supplies kilns to the sawmill industry. The company has sold a total of ten duct dryers to the markets during the period, which is a fourfold increase compared to the annual average over the last five years.
Low lumber prices, together with high demand for wood products, mean that sawmills in Central Europe are on the offensive and are investing in increased capacity. A major reason for the increased demand is the shift to increased construction in wood. For example, refined wood products such as construction parts in CLT and glulam have taken market shares from steel and concrete.
"The increased quality requirements in these markets have created openings for our duct dryers. Our long-term strategy and technological development has been based on the idea that we should be the market's best choice when it comes to optimizing both quality, capacity and energy consumption,” says Robert Larsson, CEO at Valutec.
The higher quality requirements have also led to higher volumes of lumber needing to be dried in modern plants.
"This means that more sawmills need to invest and many have chosen our duct dryers when they have expanded. It is a nice acknowledgement for us and the result of long-term work to introduce the products to the market.” For many sawmills in Central Europe, the duct dryers are a new way of working and for us it has been important to lower the thresholds by offering training and close collaborations.
"Both in Central Europe and in the rest of the world, our TC duct dryers have opened doors. It is a model that takes advantage of the capacity advantages of the duct dryer while offering full flexibility to mix dimensions and types of wood," says Larsson.
Valutec is a world leader in the channel dryer segment and has a comprehensive offering with several proprietary models. Common to duct dryers is high capacity and quality and that a steady flow of wood provides a very competitive energy consumption per cubic meter/MBF.
