Milestone for the new Siempelkamp plant at Mekong Wood MDF Joint Stock Company: On June 3, the Vietnamese company produced the first board at its location in the district of Cam Khe in the province of Phu Tho. Mekong Wood MDF Joint Stock Company, previously known in the market for trading in wood-based panels, is paving its way into wood-based panel production with this plant.

For its entry into the production of wood-based panels, the Vietnamese company chose Siempelkamp as a partner in 2022 – not least because of Siempelkamp’s excellent reputation in the Southeast Asian market.

Mekong Wood MDF Joint Stock Company called on Siempelkamp’s strength as a system supplier for the wood-based materials industry for this project. From the planning and supply of the entire process technology to the supervision of the installation and the start-up of the complete plant, the full range of services of the Siempelkamp Group is represented. In addition to Siempelkamp Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, BÜTTNER, CMC, Sicoplan and Pallmann are involved in the plant concept with their core competencies.

At the heart of the system is the ContiRoll in 8′ x 47.1 m format. It contains the NEO press infeed, a special infeed geometry that is specially designed for processing acacia. This order was the second time that the concept was requested by a Vietnamese customer. With the extended, highly flexible inlet heating plate, the mat can be vented more easily. It also prevents blow-outs and steel belt damage even at high production speeds. This system design significantly increases availability, capacity and operational reliability. The EcoScan NEO measuring system for the forming line has also been installed in the meantime. It offers plant operators two major advantages: high-resolution analysis of the basis weight distribution and reliable detection of foreign bodies directly after the pre-press.

The MDF plant has an annual capacity of over 400,000m³. The thickness range of the boards is focused on 15 to 17 mm, but a range of 3.5 to 32 mm is possible. The feed material is largely made up of the local raw materials acacia and eucalyptus.

“We are pleased to have managed this project well, quickly and successfully together with our customer under difficult conditions – e.g. delivery bottlenecks – to a successful commissioning.

Thank you for this great cooperation,” says project manager Holger Jansen. Siempelkamp sales manager Ulrich Kaiser adds: “This order confirms once again that we enjoy an excellent reputation in the Vietnamese market. The MDF plant for Mekong Wood MDF Joint Stock Company is the sixth one that Vietnamese customers have requested from us so far. The trust that our customers there place in Siempelkamp technology and our team is a great compliment and an incentive for us to continue our full commitment.”