Okoumé Plywood is a product of very high quality and it is a specialty of Gabon. Today the volumes of Okoumé logs for production of plywood are limited by Sustainable Forest Management, which consists of restricted wood harvesting, allows the forest to regenerate naturally. It also ensures the continuity of Okoumé being available for tomorrow. Nevertheless, the ban on export of logs, has kept the good qualities and volumes for plywood plants located in Gabon.
Although, the market of Okoumé Plywood has reduced to about 500,000 cbm per year in the last forty years, but it remains a very attractive market because of its price (USD 700-900 per cbm) and which explains high proportions of exports of Okoumé plywood to Europe from Gabon. Currently, around 120,000 cbm of 100% Okoumé plywood is produced per annum in Gabon and more than 80% of this is exported to Europe. Moreover, Europe put anti-dumping duties for import of Okoumé plywood from China in May 2017. Similarly, USA also
levied anti-dumping duties for import of plywood from China on 17th Nov 2017. This provides an attractive opportunity for establishing plywood unit in Gabon SEZ and exporting it to markets in Europe and USA.
Apart from fresh logs coming from Gabonese forests that are under sustainable management, Gabon SEZ offers another possibility of cheap and sustainable raw material for production of 100% Okoumé Plywood. As of date, the total processing capacity of face veneer unit in Gabon SEZ is around 42,000 cbm per month and slated to be in the range of 50,000 to 60,000 cbm per month by end of year 2018. The efficiency of the face veneer peeling in terms of output product to raw material input varies from 55% to 65% and most of the wood waste coming from these face veneer peeling unit is in the form of central core of the log, which cannot be peeled further for face veneer with thickness in the range of 0.3 mm to 0.6 mm. It is estimated that approximately 16,000 cbm of central core of log is available as a potential raw material for core veneers of plywood.
This raw material i.e. central core of log after face veneer peeling is expected to be available at a very cheap rate between Euro 15 to Euro 20 per cbm. Lower diameter (40- 60 cm) Okoumé logs can also be sourced from Okoumé plantation owned by Gabon SEZ SA for production of plywood and same is available at a rate of around Euro 60 per cbm.
Plywood Manufacturers in Gabon
Rougier [French Company] & Cora Wood [Italian Company]both produce around 40,000 cbm of plywood every year. There are few more [around 6 nos.] local and Chinese manufacturers in Gabon. One unit is already in production in Gabon SEZ and producing around 7,500 cbm of plywood.
In recent months, four investors have signed up for industrial plots in SEZ for plywood manufacturing. In total, they will be putting up 7 plywood presses and these are likely to be in production by Q3 of 2019. Few existing face veneer plants are in discussion for installing plywood press. One more investor is in advance stage of discussion to establish a plywood unit with around 12 plywood presses.