Century Plyboards is looking to triple its medium-density fiberboard (MDF) capacity to 1,800 cubic metre from the current 600 cubic metre per day by way of both greenfield and brownfield projects at a total estimated investment of almost Rs 850 crore.

The firm is also mulling to establish a greenfield factory for manufacturing plywood in Punjab at an evaluated investment of about Rs 200 crore.

Century Plyboards Chairman, Sajjan Bhajanka, told the media that the proposed plant is likely to be the largest plywood unit in the nation, with a total capacity of 1 lakh sq m per day.

It will come up in two phases; in the first phase we will have 50,000 sq m a day, and in the second phase, the firm will add another 50,000 sq m a day. The company is in the process of purchasing land for the unit, Bhajanka told the media.

The greenfield plant for MDF in Andhra Pradesh is likely to start operations by September 2023, while the brownfield project at its current unit at Hoshiarpur in Punjab will be functional by September-October this year.

In Andhra Pradesh, the company has procured the land and machinery for our greenfield plant, which is anticipated to entail an investment of about Rs 600 crore. This is likely to come up by September 2023. The company is also expanding our existing MDF unit at Hoshiapur by around 60% from 600 cubic m per day to 1,000 cubic m per day at an investment of Rs 250 crore, he said.

This apart, the firm is also in the process of optimising the capacity of the recent plants. It had already increased the capacity of all its plants by more than 20% in the last year.

MDF consumption in the country is likely to grow further as several furniture parks are anticipated to come up soon. Century Ply’s MDF and particleboard segments offered the highest ever earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin to date, with MDF and particle board reporting margins of 32% and 29% respectively, during the fourth quarter (Q4) ended March 31, 2022. This was pushed by demand across both categories.

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