Red Stag to open new CLT factory in Rotorua, New Zealand

Cross Laminated Timber

Red Stag to open new wood processing plant in Rotorua, New Zealand. The factory will produce cross laminated timber (CLT). In Red Stag's case the CLT panels can exceed 16 meters by 4 meters in size, making for very fast construction and few connections.

Costing $50 million, the CLT factory will employ 40 people initially, rising to double that over time, and is part-funded by a $15 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund.

The opening of a new wood processing plant in a few weeks will help alleviate New Zealand's timber shortage. The plant will add 5% to the capacity of the New Zealand wood processing sector. That equates to around two thousand dwelling units, or most of the estimated shortfall in current timber supply.

"We now have the last of the European technicians out of MIQ and doing the final commissioning of the plant. We’re going to bring forward the opening to May to help the timber shortage," say Red Stag group CEO, Marty Verry.

Verry doesn't expect all of the CLT factory's capacity to be used in residential units though as there is already a waiting list of other projects planning to use it, including retirement villages, student accommodation, office buildings, educational facilities and cultural buildings.

"CLT has a value sweet spot in large-format structures, buildings of three storeys or more, and for mid-floors in terraced housing built to the NZS 3604 standard. Apartment buildings and fast-to-install CLT mid-floors will be our residential focus areas."

Supply of flooring materials such as joists, I-beams and flooring panels has had supply problems in recent months, and Verry expects the building community will be quick to take up CLT mid-floors, which drop into place to provide a finished platform to construct the next level on without delay.

Red Stag Timber is an independent, privately owned timber company, based in Rotorua.