Tasmania

• Home
• Tasmania at a Glance
• Infrastructure
• Resource Industry
  • Forestry
    • Opportunities
    • Supply
    • Demand
    • Governance and Regulation
    • Major Projects
  • Mining
  • Agriculture
• Activity / Economics
• Planning and Development
• Tourism
• Business
• IRIS Maps
• Major Companies
• Governance
• Site Map

• Other Links
• BizTas
• Find Government Employee
• Service Tasmania Online

Smithton Rotary Veneer Mill

Ta Ann Tasmania, a joint venture between Forestry Tasmania and Malaysian company Ta Ann Holdings, have started construction of a rotary veneer mill in Smithton. When complete, the site will be a fully integrated log processing facility with the rotary peel veneer mill and log merchandising facility, similar to the recently opened mill in Geeveston.

Bell Bay Pulp Mill

Gunns Limited is proposing to develop and operate a bleached kraft pulp mill in northern Tasmania. In February 2005 Gunns announced that Longreach, on the Tamar River (near George Town) is its preferred site for a pulp mill. Output of the mill would be in the range of 500,000 to 1,300,000 air-dried tonnes of pulp per annum.

Evercreech Plantation Development

Australia's biggest private timber company, Gunns Limited, has purchased one of Tasmania's largest dairy farms, Evercreech, a 3,250-hectare property in the state's north-east. Chairman John Gay says it will spend $10 million in the first year setting up plantation timber.

FEA - Expansion of Bell Bay operations

FEA is a joint venture partner with Integrated Tree Cropping (ITC) in the Tasmanian Fibre (TasFibre) processing facility at Bell Bay in Tasmania. The initial capacity of the mill was 300,000 tonnes of semi-processed wood products per annum.

In 2007, FEA will invest in expansion of its Bell Bay operations, resulting in an increase in jobs in the George Town area.

Kortas Veneer and Plywood Rotary Veneer Mill

Korean plywood manufacturer, Kortas Veneer Plywood Pty Ltd is planning a rotary veneer mill in southern Tasmania based upon the existing eucalypt pulpwood resource. This project is expected to add significant value to Tasmania's pulp grade regrowth log resource and generate more than $27 million in export income each year, as well as to create an additional 150 jobs.

Joint Ventures

Japanese investors have entered into the following joint ventures:

Tamar Tree Farms is a partnership between Gunns Limited and three major Japanese companies: Mitsubishi Corporation; Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd; and Tokyo Electric Power Company. This joint venture is establishing 1,650 hectares of hardwood plantations per annum on a mixture of freehold, State forest and private property in the north-east of the State.

Private Plantations Tasmania is a partnership between Forestry Tasmania, Daio Paper, Kawasho International, Nakabayashi & We'll Corporation, Nissen, Nikkei BP, Kobunsha, NBS Ricoh. This $30 million joint venture will create 500 hectares of hardwood plantations per annum on land owned by Forestry Tasmania in the north-east of the State.

Other Projects

13 projects have received a total of $1.5 million in the first round of grants under the Tasmanian Forest Industry Development Programme and the Tasmanian Country Sawmills Assistance Programme.

Projects include purchase and/or installation of mechanical harvesting equipment, a vacuum drying kiln, driers and moulder, electric pruners, a chipper, reconditioning chamber, forwarder, bandsaw, twin edger and other equipment and upgrade of a log sorting area.