Burapha is the only forest company in Laos with its own industrial operation. Although the industry up to date is relatively small it is of crucial importance since it is being regarded as an operator who do not extract raw material for processing outside Laos, instead Burapha is known as a local Lao company contributing to the local development.

SAWMILL AND FURNITURE FACTORY

Burapha Agro-Forestry Co., Ltd is the first and only company in Laos that produces furniture from Eucalyptus. The Burapha sawmill is also the second largest in Laos with an installed capacity of 30,000 m3 of Logs per year. The sawmill consists of two double circular log-edgers, two single circular re-saws and one double circular board edger. The mill was upgraded in 2012 and drying capacity increased by 100% with three new state-of-the art chamber kilns with a capacity of 50 m3 per chamber.

The company has mastered the technique of sawing and drying Eucalyptus successfully through the development of a proprietary control software. In addition to the sawmill Burapha also operates a wood processing unit (glue lam/furniture factory). The main products are roof shingles, flooring, ceiling, 4 side planed boards, glulam products and furniture. The main woods used are Eucalyptus and Plantation Teak.

More than 95% of the revenue is for the export market. The company’s customers are in Asia, Europe and North America. Since the production is not in large scale the industry is flexible and well suited to adapt to specific customer requests.

PLYWOOD

The company have recently initiated the second step in its expansion by establishing a veneer and plywood processing facility. The plywood project is partly financed by a loan from European Development Banks  who did an extensive due diligence prior to the signing of the loan agreement.

The mill will produce 50,000+ m3 plywood per annum, mainly Eucalyptus plywood with and option of face and back veneer in plantation teak, Okoume, Walnut or different films (phenolic and melamine). The mill will be producing long grain plywood both 2440x1220 mm and 2400x1200 mm in thicknesses between 4 and 45 mm. Furniture LVL up to 150 mm can be produced at customer request.

The plywood production will start first half of 2021 and Burapha is now looking for potential customers for the plywood. Please contact our Sales team (see CONTACTS) if you wish to discuss this further.

PULPMILL

The future purpose of the Eucalyptus plantations is to be able to have Areas large enough to support a midsize pulp mill. The next expansion phase is to establish an additional 11,000 ha and reach 15,000 ha of Eucalyptus plantations. This would be the first step in building a plantation base large enough for supporting a pulp industry. The wood grown in the plantations will, until the pulp mill is in place, be processed in the existing Burapha owned industry and the plywood.