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COMMENTATORS ARE PREDICTING THAT AUSTRALIA WILL BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN ENGINEERED TIMBER BY NEXT YEAR WITH DEMAND EVIDENCED BY MAJOR EXPANSIONS SUCH AS THAT AT HYNE TIMBER.
With the Maryborough, Queensland business’s new $20 million GLT plant expected to come on line in the second half of 2019, Hyne Timber’s Strategic Relations Manager, Katherine Fowden told Built Offsite the highly automated plant had a key role to play in Australia’s emerging engineered timber landscape.
“GLT plays a crucial complementary role to CLT; CLT enables the production of floors and ceilings while GLT enables the production of beams and columns,” she said, adding that of particular note was Hyne’s ‘circular economy’ that would enable the company to use its own soft wood by product as feedstock for the plant.
Recent changes to the National Construction Code (NCC) to increase the range of buildings, up to an effective height of 25 metres, in which fire-protected timber construction systems could be used, were helping drive demand for GLT, she said.
“We have distribution throughout Australia as well as in South East Asian markets. With the number of commercial projects opening up in this space, we certainly have the capacity to deal with commercial builds. We have our own CNC machines and can produce custom solutions if required.”
Fowden said Hyne’s new plant would employ over 42 new staff in a range of roles from admin to freight. “We’re particularly grateful to the Queensland government which has provided grant funding for the project,” she said. International developments indicate growing demand for GLT, with Norway recently revealing the world’s tallest timber tower, while in Sweden master planning has been undertaken for a 5000-residence precinct comprising 31 GLT towers in Stockholm. ■
