Uniboard USA Agrees to Sell 'Mega' MDF Mill
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Uniboard USA Agrees to Sell 'Mega' MDF MillMONCURE, NC -- Uniboard USA LLC, a subsidiary of Pfleiderer AG, has reached an agreement to sell its MDF and thermo-fused melamine (TFM) facilities in Moncure to a subsidiary of Paneles Arauco S.A.

Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012, were not disclosed.

Pfleiderer of Neumarkt, Germany going through a massive managerial and financial restructuring. Pfleiderer announced last month that it was looking to sell unnamed "North American business."

Uniboard's versatile Moncure plant opened in February 2010 and represented a $160 million investment. Though dubbed as the “Moncure MDF Mill,” the plant’s more than 120-foot-long Dieffenbacher press also is able to produce particleboard, high-density fiberboard (HDF) and low-density fiberboard (LDF) in thicknesses ranging from 3/16 inch to about 1-1/4 inches.

In addition to the Moncure MDF mill, Aurauco also purchased a nearby facility that houses a pair of TFM lines.

The MDF and TFM plants primarily services manufacturers of cabinets, closets and other panel-based products in the southeastern United States, with a large volume of capacity being shipped to the Pergo laminate flooring plant in Garner, NC. Pergo also is a subsidiary of Pfleiderer.

The sale does not appear to impact Laval, QC-based Uniboard Canada's operations. Pfleiderer's press release states that Uniboard Canada will continue to service the Canadian and U.S. markets with its full range of particleboard, MDF, thermo-fused melamine and laminate flooring from its mills in  Sayabec, Val d'Or, Mont Laurier and Laval.

Arauco, based in Santiago, Chile, is a diversfied forest products company. It produces plywood, millwork and mouldings, MDF panels, lumber and pulp. The company's subsidiary - Arauco USA - is based in Atlanta, GA.

As part of the agreement, Arauco will license the Uniboard Melamine collection for sales in the U.S. Southeast "providing a seamless transition for the customer base," the release stated.

 

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