Norbord Plans to Make Georgia Mill Largest OSB Producer in North America

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). With every new announcement of oriented strand board (osb) expansion plans, comes the claim of becoming the largest (osb) producer in North America, and perhaps the world. Norbord Incorporated (Toronto, Ontario) (TSX:NBD) has become the latest contender to set its sight on the title, with the expansion of a mill in Cordele, Georgia, aimed at pushing the plant's output to over one billion square feet per year.

Prior to Norbord's announcement, an 820 million square feet per year (osb) mill, scheduled to come online later this year in British Columbia, was ranked No. 1 in worldwide production. See related March 28, 2005, news article - Largest OSB Mill in North America on Track for Startup Fall 2005.

On April 19, 2005, Norbord's corporate board approved a $135 million investment for a new (osb) production line capable of producing 550 million square feet per year. The new press, by Siempelkamp (Germany), has 16 openings and measures 8 feet wide and 24 feet long. Both the press and forming line will be installed in a vacant warehouse onsite, while a new building will be constructed for strander operations. Site clearing is currently underway, with major construction to commence within a few weeks. The new production line is expected to be operational by November 2006.

Norbord has contracted KTC Panelboard Engineering Limited (Surrey, British Columbia) to provide engineering and consulting services and is negotiating with Casey Industrial Incorporated (Broomfield, Colorado) as the general contractor. Norbord has issued turnkey contracts to The Teaford Company Incorporated (Alpharetta, Georgia) to supply a new energy system and to MEGTEC Systems, Incorporated (DePere, Wisconsin) for emissions control equipment.

Operations at the Cordele site began in 1991, with annual production capacity of over 400 million square feet (3/8-inch basis).

In addition to the Cordele plant, Norbord's OSB operations in North America, include plants in: Lanett (Huguley), Alabama; Jefferson, Texas; Joanna, South Carolina; Bemidji, Minnesota; Guntown, Mississippi; Nacogdoches, Texas; LaSarre, Quebec; and Val d' Or, Quebec.

Norbord Incorporated is an international wood-based panelboard producer, with assets of US$1.4 billion and annual sales in excess of US$1 billion. The company is one of the largest producers of OSB in the world and has sixteen operations in the United States, Europe, and Canada.

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