Mercer Purchases Germany’s HIT
Mercer International Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the parent company of HIT (Holz Industrie Torgau) for €270 million. HIT owns, among other things, 100% of a timber processing and value-add pallet production facility in Torgau, Germany and a wood processing facility in Dahlen, Germany that produces garden products.
The HIT facility is a modern, high performance, fully integrated wood processing facility and its production capabilities include wood pallets, lumber, biofuels (briquettes and pellets), garden products and bio-electricity. HIT is the world’s largest producer of EPAL wood pallets used for shipping and, in 2021 sold 295MMBF of wood pallets. Sawmill residuals are used to produce biofuels in the form of wood pellets and briquettes. HIT has the ability to process up to 410MMBF of lumber today, with various potential high return investment opportunities to expand capacity.
The acquisition includes five biomass-fueled power plants with the ability to generate up to 15 MW of electricity.
Post-acquisition, Mercer becomes the largest German pallet producer and will have a combined annual lumber capacity of approximately 960MMBF with incremental electricity generation capacity.
The European flat wooden pallet market traditionally focuses on block pallets. The largest share of the European wood pallet market are standard format block pallets, most of which are part of exchange and pooling systems. Within the German market, 80% of wood pallets are exchanged in open pooling systems, while 20% are exchanged in closed pooling systems.
Mercer International Inc. is a global forest products company with operations in Germany, U.S. and Canada with a consolidated annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes of pulp, 550MMBF of lumber, and 140 thousand cubic meters of cross-laminated timber.
Latest News
Industry Patriarch Varn Passes
George W. Varn, Sr., who broke into the family turpentine business following World War II, and then along with a cousin built a chip mill and a sawmill in the late 1960s in Hoboken, Ga., called Varn Wood Products, and who became one of the patriarchs of the southern pine lumber industry, died September 4 in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., the same hospital…
GP To Build New Sawmill At Pineland
Georgia-Pacific plans to invest $120 million and build a new sawmill at its existing sawmill site in Pineland, Tex. Construction is expected to begin early next year and completed in late 2022. The new sawmill will replace the existing stud mill that was built in the 1960s. The new mill will have the ability to produce 450MMBF of…
West Fraser Buying New SYP Sawmill
West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has entered into an agreement to acquire the Angelina Forest Products (AFP) southern yellow pine sawmill in Lufkin, Tex. for $300 million (U.S.). The new sawmill began construction in 2018, commenced operations in late 2019 and is expected to progress toward full production capacity of more than…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.