MIRI: Samling Timber Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Loggo IP Pty Ltd, an Australian developer of competitive Engineered Wood Products (EWP) which will see both parties working on a pilot project in Sarawak.
The MoU was signed on Wednesday (Oct 18) by Lawrence Chia, Samling Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Pat Thornton, founder and managing director of Loggo IP Pty Ltd.
“We will work together on a pilot project in Sarawak using Loggo IP’s patented engineered wood technology focused on a burgeoning forest recovery industry to develop small diameter true rounds or peeler cores,” Chia said.
“As the world shortage of timber hits home, we are convinced Samling, long respected globally for its high standards of sustainable forest management, can develop these cost-competitive systems across southeast Asia and beyond,” added Thornton.
According to Chia every year millions of peeler cores are produced as ‘waste’ from plywood production.
These are largely used in low-value recovery options such as packaging and as fuel for thermal energy processes.
“However, in a world first, Loggo has developed and patented three versatile engineered wood products as well as columns and each can be made from low value forest ‘thinning’ or peeler cores.
Two of these beams can use Samling’s ply as a web,” he added.
Thornton said apart from the financial benefits, Loggo’s low-tech, minimal processing and set-up costs and the economic advantage of these low-value plywood by-products is a green and sustainable way to increase returns.
Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) which regulate and facilitates the advancement and sustainability of the timber industry in Sarawak welcomed the MoU.
“STIDC is very happy that the industry players are taking initiatives to develop EWP using planted wood in Sarawak,” said its adviser Datu Hashim Bojet.
“This is aligned with our vision to utilise more planted logs for high-value wood- based products like engineered wood. This is also in line with the state’s aspiration for the timber industry as one of the most important sectors to transform Sarawak into a developed state by 2030.
“We are confident that this MoU will allow Samling to progress from the initial stage of assessment to later manufacturing these high-quality structural components, first for local and then for global markets. This effort is fully complementary with STIDC’s overall EWP vision which includes laminated veneer lumber (LVL), glued laminated (Glulam) and cross laminated timber (CLT) products,” he said.
Samling, under its sustainable forests mandate, manages around 1.2 million hectares of forest land and 190,250 hectares of gross plantable forest plantations in Malaysia.
Operating for more than 50 years, Samling is one of Malaysia’s largest timber companies, processing its own logs into sawn wood, plywood and veneers in an integrated, upstream and downstream operation.
The group has obtained forest management certificates for three of its Forest Management Units (FMUs), as well as four Licence for Planted Forests, all under the Malaysian Timber Certification Council’s Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme which is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
In August, Samling was awarded the prestigious “Most Diversified and Value-Adding Timber Manufacturer” award by the STIDC.
