by Web Editor | Sep 13, 2017 | News
Alpha Pre-Engineered Panel Expanding Operations To Meet Increased Demand
Alpha Pre-Engineered Panel Systems Inc. wants to expand its Clarington operation. The company manufactures raw and finished wood products for the building industry — including pre-engineered floor, wall and truss systems.
Alpha Pre owns two facilities in Clarington, one on Cigas Road and one on Baseline Road, and has approximately 170 employees.
The demand from the housing industry for Alpha Pre products means the company needs to increase production, according to a letter from Derek Frankfort, general manager of Alpha Pre-Engineered Panel Systems Inc. to Clarington council members. To increase production the company wants to build additions to both its facilities.
“Obviously, the planned expansions of both facilities will require increased plant and office personnel, and many local contractors to aid in the construction,” said Frankfort in his letter to council.
Alpha Pre wants to expand the Baseline Road plant with a 2,000-square-meter addition onto the adjacent lands to the east. The company already owns the land but needs to have it rezoned from Agricultural to General Industrial.
From DurhamRegion.com: durhamregion.com.
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by Web Editor | Aug 3, 2016 | News
Kronospan Plans $362 Million Expansion In Alabama
Kronospan announced plans for a $362 million expansion of its operations in Oxford, Ala. The expansion will consist of four projects: two laminate flooring and decorative paper impregnation lines; a particleboard and thermally infused laminate line; an expansion of the KronoChem resin plant; and development of a furniture cluster. Kronospan plans to hire an additional 160 persons for its workforce. Startup for the expansion projects will roll out from late 2016 through 2018.
“We sincerely appreciate the State of Alabama, acting through the Dept. of Commerce, the city of Oxford and Calhoun County, for supporting our expansion project and making it a reality,” comments Tim Pack, CFO of Kronospan. Once the expansion project is completed, Kronospan will have invested $650 million and will employ more than 270 at its Oxford operations. Kronospan will utilize the services of the local Alabama Career Center to recruit for the expansion. Hiring will be undertaken in phases and include a job fair in the near future.
Kronospan is a leading manufacturer of wood-based panel products and related value-added products. The company is privately owned, with more than 40 manufacturing and distribution sites throughout the world.
In 2008, Kronospan started up operations at Oxford where it currently manufactures MDF, HDF and resins. Notwithstanding very difficult market conditions in the housing industry, Kronospan has maintained its level of employment at the Oxford facility since startup.
In December 2015, Kronospan made another significant investment in the United States when it acquired Clarion Industries in Shippenville, Pa. Clarion Industries produces MDF, HDF and laminate flooring. The Pennsylvania operations employ 320.
The monthly Panel World Industry Newsletter reaches over 3,000 who represent primary panel production operations.
Panel World is delivered six times per year to North American and international professionals, who represent primary panel production operations. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative. Contact us today!
by Web Editor | Apr 10, 2013 | Taking Stock
Story by Rich Donnell,
Editor-in-Chief
One of the comments I continued to hear from many industry professionals as we waded through the muddy recession together and as new housing starts sank to 500,000 annually (and even lower, but I couldn’t bear to watch anymore), was “just wait until we reach 1 million housing starts again. It’ll seem like 2 million!”
The point being that a doubling of housing starts would create such euphoria in manufacturing that 1 million might as well be 2 million. Everybody would be so delighted at the increased business, and running so hard in their business (and so unaccustomed to being so busy) that nobody would have time to pay attention to 1 million, or 2 million.
Well, are you starting to feel that way yet?
Among other things, our report in this issue on the domestic composite panel industry beginning on page 22 reveals several of the latest housing forecasts and all of them top 900,000 for 2013, followed by an increase to more than 1 million in 2014. Indeed these forecasters have been adjusting their figures slightly upward with some regularity.
I must say that we as a publisher of magazines in the building products industry have been busier as of late. Your activities, or lack thereof, in the mills and in equipment manufacturing shops trickle down, for better or worse, to us, just as new housing or no housing trickles down to you. Right now, it’s for the better. It’s easy for us to quickly research what years were better or worse. We simply go into our library, look at the annually bound issues, and can tell by the thickness of those bound volumes. The thicker the year the better, meaning more pages per issue, more advertisements, more articles.
However, I’m going to stop short of announcing that today we should be euphoric. And I’m guessing that most of you are in agreement with me.
(Then again, those who have not been in this industry for very long, say for just a handful of years, perhaps are feeling euphoric. Perhaps 1 million might as well be 2 million, compared to when they joined the industry, when it was 500,000. They’re too young to know any better.)
But for most of us, and especially for the ones of us who’ve been around a long time, say 30 years or so, this should not be euphoria. One million housing starts is what it says it is, 1 million, not 2 million. We can remember when 1 million housing starts was not very good; that it was an indicator of recessionary times; our bound volumes of magazines were not very thick in those years of 1 million.
And so to go back to the premise of this column, our friends may have been overstating it a bit when they said 1 million would seem like 2 million. Not to take anything away from the 500,000 where we were to the 1 million we’re now entering. The latter is certainly more enjoyable than the former. New projects. More jobs. Renewed spirit. Thicker magazines. No small matters, those. But, no, it’s not 2 million. You’ll know 2 million when it comes again. There will be no mistaking it. And you’ll say 1 million couldn’t hold a candle to 2 million.
Here’s to 2 million!
