Commodity report

Particle Board

This report on production, consumption and trade in particle board is the first to appear in Unasylva. Like the report on fibreboard which appeared in the last issue of Unasylva, it is based on a paper prepared by the FAO Secretarial for the International Board Consultation held in Geneva from 21 January to 4 February of this year. It also includes some new information submitted to the Consultation by the participants.

Production and capacity

The particle board industry,¹ which had its inception some fifteen years ago, has been growing at a very rapid rate and has a present day production of over 1 million cubic meters (about 750,000 tons). This compares with a current output of 3 million tons, more or less equally divided between hardboard and insulation board, by the fibreboard industry, which is now over 30 years old. The particle board industry is today steadily gaining recognition as a new and definable industry; official statistics, however, are still almost completely lacking. The statistical information included in the following pages has been communicated to the Secretariat by producers, research institutes, trade, associations and equipment manufacturers.

¹ At the International Board Consultation the following definition of particle board was recommended: a sheet material manufactured from small pieces of wood or other ligno-cellulosic materials (e. g., chips, flakes, splinters, strands, shives, etc.) agglomerated by use of an organic binder together with one or more of the following agents: heat, pressure, moisture, a catalyst, etc. (Woodwool or other particle boards with inorganic binders are excluded.)

In one or two countries (notably the United Kingdom) the commodity is known as wood chipboard. In a number of countries, however, particle board is manufactured from non-wood raw material.

Experimental work on particle boards was carried out both in Europe and North America before the war, but the first plant to produce particle board commercially was built at Bremen during the war, in 1941. It operated on wood (spruce) chips using a phenolic resin as hinder, and had a daily production of 10 tons. In the years 1941-43, two plywood factories in Germany began to manufacture wood particle boards out of plywood waste, ground or cut into small particles. They used multi-opening presses and the binder was urea resin. Work on the technical and scientific problems involved intensified in the postwar years, when Germany was confronted with a serious wood shortage. Urea resins were generally used, and it was found that considerable resin economics resulted from the use of homogeneous, engineered particles instead of heterogeneous wood chips.

Many wood species were found to he suitable including birch, beech and alder as well as pine and spruce. Developments followed in Western Germany and elsewhere, notably in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with wood as the basic raw material for the plants established. The first three-layer particle board, with coarse wood particles forming the middle layer and thin flat particles the stronger outer layers, was marketed in Switzerland in 1945.

Meanwhile, the possibility of using agricultural residues instead of wood had been explored, and a first plant based on flax was put into operation in Belgium in 1947, to be speedily followed by a number of others using flax straw. Today, of the 195 or so particle board plants in existence, some 15 utilize flax straw, while at least two others based on this material are in the course of erection. The aggregate annual capacity of the mills based on flax is estimated at around 250,000 cubic meters. As yet no particle board mill based on wheat straw or bagasse is in operation, though a plant to utilize coconut fibre residues is reported as under development in North Celebes.

As working processes in the particle board industry improved, methods grew more rational and uses for the finished board multiplied; fabrication also started in other continents: Asia, Africa and America. In America especially the number of new factories increased and output rose rapidly.

The original installations for manufacturing particle boards were all based on the utilization of the waste or residue from other forest products manufacture, such as slabs, edgings, cutoffs, planer shavings, sawmill culls, clippings and cores from veneer manufacture, and cuttings, planer shavings and trim from furniture and millwork factories. These types of raw material are usually hammermilled to produce splinters or slivers. There is a definite trend toward the use of better engineered particles than those obtained by hammermilling, and many plants today have or are installing appropriate equipment to prepare flakes, wafers, and other special particles from roundwood. Besides being more economical of resin for a given quality of board, the engineered particles yield a board with a better surface and are held to justify the increased cost of selected raw material and particle preparation.

Additives of two types are used in the basic manufacturing process for particle board. Both are added to the particles before the board is formed into a mat or sheet. A binder is a material added in manufacture to provide the bond which gives the board its form and strength. Size is added to increase water resistance. The binder, which produces the bond and glues the particles together, is the most expensive single component in a particle board. Thermo-setting synthetic resins -urea formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde - are the basis for most binders for particle board. Urea-formaldehyde resin is the most widely used; it is the most economical, light colored and is suitable for boards for interior application. Phenolic and melamine resins cost more but give bonds that are resistant to more severe exposures of moisture and heat and are therefore more durable. Size for particle board is primarily paraffin wax, which is dissolved in mineral spirit or melted and sprayed on the particles. Small amounts (0.5 to 1 percent) are used to improve resistance to moisture but the strength properties of the finished board decrease with increasing amounts of, size.

Particle board was first made, both in the experimental stage and in commercial production, in flat presses, and the vast majority of plants operating today employ multi-platen presses. In the flat platen pressing process the glued particles are layered parallel to the faces of the board. The chips are bonded together by pressure perpendicular to the board surface (flat pressing). The particle boards so produced have their greatest strength in the plane of the board.

Intensive research in Western Germany during the period 1947 to 1949 led to the development of the extrusion process, which speedily found commercial application. In the extrusion process the glued particles are forced by a reciprocating piston through a long rectangular heated die, virtually made up of two platens with side stops. Bonding takes place under the influence of pressure and heat and the thickness of the endless, extruded board is controlled by adjusting the dimension of the cross-section of the mouth of the press. In the extrusion proem the particles are chiefly arranged perpendicular to the direction of pressure and perpendicular to the surface of the board. The extruded boards have their lowest strength in the direction of the extrusion. In the two other planes perpendicular to the direction of the extrusion the strength is greater.

Today, there are in existence or under construction about 35 plants utilizing the extrusion process in various parts of the world, including 17 in North America. Although extruded board does not possess the same strength characteristics as flat pressed board, it can serve in a number of applications. Nearly all extruded board is presently used as a core material, for utilization after facings have been applied. However, not all the strength properties are equally relevant in various applications, and certain applications in which unveneered extruded board has proved satisfactory have been reported. The importance of extruded board springs from the fact that, for a given output, the capital cost of an extrusion plant is approximately half that of a multi-platen plant. This explains the rapid rise in its popularity, especially for operators anxious to convert their own or local wood residues into core material for use in a subsequent operation, e. g., furniture manufacture.

More recently, a continuous process for the production of flat-pressed particle board has been devised, and five such plants are now in production or under construction. The capacity of the continuous press unit is fairly high, 25 to 33 thousand cubic meters annually, depending on the thickness of the board. The capacity of the unit, and hence the investment required, render the continuous press unsuitable for small captive plants or for localities lacking a sizeable potential market. However, if the running speeds now claimed are realized and maintained in practice, the continuous press is likely to be more widely adopted in those areas where marketing possibilities can ensure that its capacity will be effectively utilized.

Most particle board produced is in the intermediate density range, 0.40 to 0.80 gram per cubic centimeter. The majority of production is of single-layer (homogeneous) board or three-layer board, though two-layer board is not unknown. In three-layer board, higher quality particles are used on the surface, improving strength, stiffness and appearance.

Particle boards are extensively used as core stock for veneer and other overlaid furniture and as panel material. Applications involving more severe service conditions are increasing. Phenolic or melamine resins, having greater resistance to heat and moisture than urea, should be considered if the exposure conditions are severe. Particle board is also used for flooring and for facing concrete forms.

World production of particle board today exceeds one million cubic meters but this figure is well below current world capacity since the industry is undergoing very rapid development.

The following Table gives estimated world particle board production for 1950 to 1956:

TABLE 1. - ESTIMATED WORLD OUTPUT OF PARTICLE BOARD, 1950 TO 1956 (in thousands of cubic meters)

Region	1950	1951	1952	1953	1964	1965	1956
Europe	10	40	80	120	270	450	775
North America	10	15	30	80	120	180	240
Oceania							2
Africa				5	15	25	50
Far East				2	5	8	12
Near Fast							6
Latin America					1	5	16
WORLD	20	55	110	207	411	668	1101

As already explained, the figures in this and the subsequent Table are based largely on unofficial data. Nevertheless, it is believed that they indicate with reasonable accuracy the orders of magnitude today involved and the approximate geographical distribution of production.

It will be seen that Europe today accounts for over two thirds of all particle board produced. In no other forest product does Europe enjoy this pre-eminence. The reasons for this are briefly discussed below.

The tremendous growth rate of this new industry is evident, even if allowance is made for the fact that - owing to inadequate statistics - output figures for the earlier years are understated. Moreover, the rapid expansion continues, as may be seen from the following table which presents, by countries and regions, the number of mills and their output in 1956, and expected capacity in 1957/58:

TABLE 2. - PARTICLE BOARD: ESTIMATED 1956 PRODUCTION AND 1958 CAPACITY

Region	Number of mills		Production capacity
	existing in 1956	under construction	1956	1957/8
			......in thousands of m3......
EUROPE	114	23 plus	775	2077
Austria	3	2	35	65
Belgium	7	2	140	200
Bulgaria	-	1	-	30
Czechoslovakia	1	several	7	160
Denmark	1	-	12	12
Finland	1	4	10	100
France	12	7	100	300
Germany: West	47	several	270	600
East	6	several	18	100
Hungary	1	-	-	10
Italy	5	-	40	80
Netherlands	9	-	20	40
Norway	-	3	-	40
Poland	2	-	-	20
Romania	-	1	-	35
Spain	1	-	8	15
Sweden	2	2	5	50
Switzerland	9	-	60	80
United Kingdom	7	1	50	80
Yugoslavia	-	-	-	60
NORTH AMERICA	59	2	240	750
Canada	3	-	45	50
United States	56	2	195	700
U.S.S.R.	-	several	-	80
OCEANIA	1	1	2	25
Australia	1	-	2	15
New Zealand	-	1	-	10
AFRICA	4	-	50	75
Northern Rhodesia	1	-	50	75
Union of S. Africa	3	-	50	75
ASIA	9	4	18	66
Israel	1	1	-	8
Indonesia	-	1	-	8
Japan	7	-	12	25
Taiwan	-	1	-	5
Thailand	-	1	-	8
Turkey	1	-	6	12
LATIN AMERICA	7	2	16	64
Argentina	-	1	-	16
Brazil	2	-	5	8
Chile	-	1	-	5
Colombia	3	-	3	20
Mexico	1	-	5	10
Uruguay	1	-	3	5
WORLD TOTAL	194	32 plus	1101	3137

The wide margin between 1956 production (1.1 million cubic meters) and expected capacity by the end of 1958 (3.1 million cubic meters) is a clear indication of the rapid expansion which this industry is presently undergoing. Thus in the space of less than a decade the particle board industry will have reached a capacity -- and 2 million tons - which exceeds the current production of either insulation board or hard fibreboard.

Current expansion plans suggest that Europe will continue to dominate the pattern of world production, though the United States will displace Western Germany as the world's largest single producer. Practically the whole of European production is concentrated at the present time in the countries of continental western Europe, the shares of Scandinavia and eastern Europe being so far relatively small. In fact, the Federal Republic accounts today for over one third of European production and one quarter of total world output. Belgium, Denmark, East Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom - all wood deficit countries - together account for 340,000 cubic meters, almost another third of world output.

These figures will be slightly modified when mills now under construction come into operation. Over 30 mills are due for completion by the end of 1958, bringing the world total to over 225.

A comparison of the regional distribution of fibreboard and particle board capacity is of some interest:

TABLE 3. - PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF CAPACITY, BY REGIONS

	Fibreboard (1955/6)	Particle board (1957/8)
	...........percent...........
EUROPE	38	66
of which:
3 northern countries	22	6
Timber deficit countries	12	38
Germany (West and East)	4	22
Other west European timber deficit countries1	8	16
Rest of Europe	4	22
NORTH AMERICA	50	24
REST OF WORLD (incl. U.S.S.R.)	12	10
	100	100

¹ Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Thus the world pattern of this industry is, and Seems likely to remain in the near future, quite unlike that of fibreboard and, indeed, quite unlike that of any other forest product. The main concentration is in Western Europe and, in particular, in the timber deficit countries of that continent.

There are several reasons why the timber deficit countries of Europe have cradled the particle board industry. Less well endowed with forests than most other areas, there has naturally been a greater emphasis than elsewhere on full utilization of the forest crop and of the residues of wood-processing industries. Faced with giant postwar reconstruction needs - for buildings, for furniture etc. - and hampered by sawnwood shortages, necessity mothered invention in this area and brought the new industry into being. As technically advanced countries, there were already in existence modern chemical industries capable of furnishing adequate quantities of necessary binders at reasonable cost. Many of the first mills were small captive plants, making use of wood residues arising in sawmills, plywood mills or furniture factories to manufacture core stock which' could replace sawnwood, blockboard and plywood in furniture manufacture. Those mills producing for sale found a ready market for their products, and the number of producing units multiplied rapidly - a trend favored by the fact that the amount of capital required to establish a new plant is much less than for a fibreboard project, while the raw material requirements are much less exacting.

The two main factors in the rapid growth of the particle board industry have thus been:

a) the need to find a substitute for solid wood where that has become scarce or relatively expensive;

b) the will of operators to turn to profitable account residues arising in their forest products operations.

Obviously, these factors are not unrelated.

The 50 or so plants in production or under construction in the United States are mainly concentrated in the Douglas fir region of the Pacific Coast or in the furniture manufacturing centers of the eastern seaboard and the Middle West. The highly developed sawmilling industry of the Pacific Coast gives rise to vast quantities of sawmill residues. While most of the slabs and edgings can find a ready market as pulp chips, the considerable volume of planer shaving are so far not suited for pulping. Thus planer shavings may come to be the most important single raw material for particle board in this area. Generally speaking, the board there produced is for the market, and with labor costs high and heavy freights involved in reaching the principal consuming centers, the tendency is towards large, highly mechanized mills to keep the product competitive.

In the east, operating costs are lower, and with markets nearer, smaller mills can be economic. In any case, many of the mills there operating are captive plants making use of furniture mill waste to produce panel and core stock for use in the parent plant in the manufacture of doors, carcase furniture, etc.

So far in the States there is little recourse to roundwood as raw material; by and large particle board production is undertaken as a means of valorizing mill residues. With adequate supplies of these still available, there is less incentive to utilize forest waste or roundwood, both of which are more expensive.

In Europe, on the other hand, both roundwood and forest waste are being used. The former (frequently species without a high current commercial value) permits the production of superior engineered particles for the outer layers of three-layer board, while the latter, along with the miscellaneous mill residues, is adequate for the center stock.

Both in Europe and North America, there seems to be a distinct tendency towards the employment of engineered, controlled dimension particles, partly on the grounds that this makes it easier to control the quality of the board and determine its properties, and partly because it permits significant economies in the amounts of binder required; as already mentioned, binder is the biggest single cost item, and any savings achieved here can warrant the employment of more costly wood material. It should be observed that views concerning the savings which can be realized are by no means unanimous; it is evident, however, that a decision on the most economic form of wood raw material in any particular instance will have to take this factor into account.

Consumption and trade

No figures are available for international trade in particle board, since the product is too new to have obtained recognition as a distinct commodity in the trade accounts of most countries. Yet some particle board is already traded internationally, mostly between neighboring countries -though there are some instances of long-distance trade; South African particle board, for example, is marketed in western Europe, while several European producers make shipments to markets in other regions. Some expansion of international trade in particle board is to be expected, but it is unlikely that the proportion of world production entering long-distance trade will ever be as high as for hardboard. It is relatively bulky in relation to its value; its raw material requirements are less exacting; and the economies of plant size are less pronounced. Thus the establishment of a relatively small plant to satisfy local requirements presents fewer difficulties, and the product of such a plant is less vulnerable to competition from the high quality production of large-scale mills in established producing centers.

Since international trade is still small, it may be assumed that current production in the main producing countries corresponds fairly closely to consumption. In the following Table per capita consumptions of fibreboard and particle board in selected countries are compared.

TABLE 4. - PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF FIBREBOARD AND PARTICLE BOARD IN SELECTED COUNTRIES COMPARED

Country	A per capita consumption of fibre- board. 1954/5	B per capita consumption particle board, 1956	A plus B
	..........in kilograms..........
Sweden	21.8	19.5	20.0
Finland	16.8	1.4	18.2
Belgium	3.4	9.6	13.0
Switzerland	4.0	7.4	11.4
United States	9.0	0.7	9.7
Denmark	5. 7	1.6	7.3
Netherlands	6.1	1.1	7.2
Austria	3.1	3.1	6.2
Union of South Africa	3.4	2.2	5.6
Western Germany	2.2	3.1	5.3
France	2.0	1.4	3.4
	0.9	0.5	1.4

NOTE: Only volume figures of particle board production are available. In this Table an average density of 0.6 has been assumed.

For reasons which have been explained, the consumption figures given in column B are only very approximate. Moreover the final column does not correspond to actuality, since columns A and B relate to different years. Nevertheless the Table suggests that particle board consumption does to some extent compensate for differences in fibreboard consumption levels, so that the disparities in consumption levels for all board are somewhat less marked than those for fibreboard alone. This is notably the case for Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Western Germany. The Table appears to confirm that in several European countries particle board has found markets which otherwise might have been won by fibreboard.

In many applications fibreboard and particle board can be used alternatively at the present time. However, in spite of the considerable area of competition, both industries are still expanding rapidly. During the last four years, in which output of particle board has rocketed, production of fibreboard, especially of compressed fibreboard, has also risen considerably. In the short space of ten years, output of all board has more than trebled, rising from 11/4 million tons in 11.446 to over 4 million tons in 1956.

Prospects

Information assembled in the course of the International Board Consultation and presented in Table 2 shows that the expansion currently taking place in particle board capacity is even more spectacular than had generally been believed. Not unnaturally, counsels of caution are becoming more frequent. While in most countries marketing possibilities appear excellent, in others there may be a danger in the near future that supplies will at least temporarily outrun effective demand. This danger seems most imminent in the United States and in certain west European countries. While the current growth rate may not be sustained, continued expansion seems certain, since this new industry has exploited few of its potential outlets.

The longer term future for particle board depends primarily on two factors:

a) its price trend in relation to alternative materials;
b) the success achieved in the search for new applications.

Hitherto particle board has competed mainly with plywood and blockboard, and to a lesser extent with solid timber. Any reduction in the price of particle board relative to the prices of other materials could extend the utilization of particle board.

As production increases in the coming years, and as ready outlets for particle board become more nearly saturated, the pressure of competition may well bring about a reduction in the price of particle board relative to other materials. Since this is an emergent industry still undergoing technical evolution, existing installations vary greatly in the raw materials they use, in equipment and processing, in the nature of the product, and in size of plant.

In consequence, there are very wide differences in production costs from plant to plant, and selling prices are by no means standardized. While profit rates vary, with many modern plants reaping exceptionally high profits, many of the smaller and older mills producing for the market are already experiencing difficulties and a number have gone out of existence. As competition becomes more intense, the weaker mills will he subject to increasing pressure; at the same time a fall in the relative price of particle board, which would appear to be within the reach of modern, well-equipped mills, would strengthen the campaign for new outlets.

Nevertheless, while the industry must inevitably encounter certain growing pains in the course of the next few years, the long-term future of this new and vigorous forest products industry seems assured.