New cross-laminated timber plant for Leoben
At Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG, 2020 takes off with a large investment of some 130 million Euros in a modern cross-laminated timber production facility at its Leoben location. With this, the largest ever investment in the Group's history, the Mayr-Melnhof Holz Group consistently pursues its strategy of growth, accelerating its forward integration and underlining its position as one of the leading companies in the timber industry in Europe. Together with the existing location in Gaishorn, Mayr-Melnhof Holz will be able to meet the strongly increasing demand for timber construction solutions for residential and industrial buildings with two state-of-the-art cross-laminated timber plants. The Federal Government, the State of Styria, the City of Leoben and SFG have promised their support, making a significant contribution to this investment's realisation which will simultaneously boost the region’s economy.
Directly next to the existing sawmill in Leoben, not only a new state-of-the-art cross laminated timber plant is being built in a multi-stage process lasting three years, but also a high-performance re-grading and planing plant as well as a fully automated high-bay warehouse. In a further step, the company intends to comprehensively modernise the sawmill.
"The supply of raw materials from the Styrian forests, the existing infrastructure, a well-trained workforce, and the supply of sawn timber from the directly adjacent sawmill make Leoben the optimal location for this investment in the future, which, processing the carbon-neutral material wood, also makes an important contribution to sustainability and active climate protection", says Richard Stralz, CEO of Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG, who is pleased with this investment boost, which will not only improve the competitiveness of the Mayr Melnhof Holz Group, but also secure existing jobs and create new ones.
About cross-laminated timber
Cross-laminated timber is a solid wood building element made from several layers of sawn timber permanently cross-laminated to form panels. This crosswise structure guarantees dimensionally stable and stiff building components with excellent structural and physical properties. A high degree of prefabrication in the factory makes cross-laminated timber an optimal, high-quality building material. Today, wood can – in many cases – replace conventional building materials, such as concrete and steel, that emit high amounts of CO2, thus having two positive effects on the climate: Firstly, by storing carbon dioxide and secondly, by preventing additional carbon emissions during the production process of conventional building materials which are then replaced by wood. As a natural and regrowing building material, cross-laminated timber makes a significant contribution to active climate protection.