BUSINESS INTERVIEW

Mayr-Melnhof Holz Paskov s.r.o. is located

in Staříč in the Frýdek-Místek Region,

where it operates the largest sawmill in the

Czech Republic. They annually process

around 1.5m cubic metres of spruce wood

and produce more than 100,000 tons of

pellets. The company specialises in the

manufacture of sawn wood for industrial

processing, but they also supply secondary

sawmill products like sawdust or shavings

and are also an important supplier of chips

for dissolving pulp production, which

is later processed into environmentallyfriendly textile fibres. The company is

a part of Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG

international concern with its registered

office in Leoben, Austria.

Mrs Director, you have worked in the

Mayr-Melnhof Holz Paskov from the very

beginnings, that is, eighteen years. It is

not very common for a wood processing

company to have a female director. How

did you get into this field?

I joined Mayr-Melnhof Holz Paskov in

2003; I was successful in the competition

which I applied to via a job agency.

I basically switched ‚from heavy industry

to heavy industry‘--I had previously worked

as a financial director in the steel and

engineering works in Vítkovice. You can

say that it was not a big change for me;

moreover, I don‘t manage the production

directly. But I did not have any closer

relationship to the wood processing field

before, that‘s true.

Who are your customers and what

products do you offer?

Our main product is sawn wood, i.e.

boards of various width, length and quality.

These are dispatched either fresh, or we

dry them in our own drying rooms to the

humidity needed for further use, based on

the customer’s request. The biggest added

value is represented by dried and smooth

boards. The dried sawn wood can be used

mostly in the construction industry, where

it is processed, thanks to its irreplaceable

qualities, into a number of products, such

as laminated or cross-glued girders, squared

timbers or surface elements of floor, wall or

ceiling and roof constructions. Production

of these construction products takes place

mainly in our sister companies in Austria

and Germany. The produced sawn wood

is also used in the production of packaging

and transport products. We gradually added

pellets -- since 2006 we have been making

this high-quality heating medium from

sawdust and shavings that are produced

during sawn wood production. Important

secondary products are chips that we supply

to the Lenzing Biocel Paskov company. From

what I mentioned above, you can clearly see

that we work as per the ‚no waste principle‘:

we process 100 % of the valuable wood

material, nothing goes to waste. We burn

the bark in our heating room and supply

the whole plant with heat. 80 % of our sawn

wood is dispatched both within Europe and

more distant destinations, which includes

Japan, South America and countries in

Northern Africa. Of course, we supply

also within the Czech Republic. It is very

important for us to provide our customers,

who request more and more, with a timely

supply within their needed quality, service

and special range of products.

You are located in the region of FrýdekMístek. Why did the management of the

parent company decide to place one of

the largest wood processing plants in

Europe specifically in this area?

The strategic location of our plant played

a big role here. It enabled continuous

supplies of round logs that we buy from our

contractual partners -- the state enterprise

Lesy České republiky (Forests of the Czech

Republic) and private owners from the

Moravian-Silesian Region and also Slovakia

or Southern Poland. We process only wood

from sustainably cultivated forests, mainly

from Jeseníky and Beskydy. We are also

very strict with the value chain observing,

as our sawmill is a PEFC certificate holder.

Another important factor was also the

synergy between the Mayr-Melnhof Holz

Paskov sawmill and the neighbouring

company Lenzing Biocel Paskov, purchaser

of our secondary product, which is chips

that are transported to their premises by

a conveyor system directly linked to our

production line.

How many employees does your

company currently have?

The current number of the sawmill

employees, together with the MayrMelnhof Pellets Paskov pellet factory is

350. We appreciate the long-term work

relationships very much and we are happy

that we have loyal employees. Currently,

we have enough of our own personnel, we

are an eminent employer in the MoravianSilesian Region and I would like to thank

our employees for their professionalism,

commitment and loyalty which they show

in their demanding jobs.

Do you have any space for innovation?

What are the current trends and how

do you meet them?

The space for innovation is huge. It is

very important to have the newest, latest

technology in Mayr-Melnhof Holz Paskov;

the continuous modernization of the sawmill

was always a priority for our owner. The

common denominator of all realized and

planned innovations is bigger productivity,

bigger depletion of the entry material,

increased added value of the products

and, of course, automation of production.

A group of innovation regulations can be

basically divided into the organizational

field, including more effective processes in

production and technological field. In the

technological field, we realized several big

projects and we keep preparing others.

Could you be more specific?

We finished construction of a third biomass

boiler with the power of 12MW, which was

an addition to already operating devices with

a total power of 20MW. We successfully

finished the construction of four more

drying rooms with the additional annual

capacity of 120,000 m³. We further realized

the full automation of round log supply

management and supply registration from

the gates up to the entry into the sorting line

with the ‘electronic supply note’, which has

already been successfully used in the MayrMelnhof Holz Leoben sawmill in Austria.

We also plan to implement the automation

of the production of the drying room sawn

wood packages. Last but not least, we are

going to focus on the installation of scanners

which will help with quality assessment,

because they automatically detect sawn

wood defects. This is another device that will

make the sorter‘s work significantly easier

and will increase the accuracy of the sorting.

You invested in new technologies and

equipment in the past. What are the

other projects that you managed to

finish?

We have finished several projects over the

past years. For example, the installation

of higher-performance suction on the

cutting line has reduced the dusting and

pollution of the machines and increased

technical availability. We also installed new

main ripping saws, which increased the

performance of the cutting line by 60 %. An

important change was also the installation

of five new devices for 3D measuring

of the round logs in the warehouse and

before entering the cutting line. The result

is more accurate measuring of the shape

and size of the round logs and consecutive

control of the cutting so that the highest

depletion possible is achieved. We also

installed the vapour recovery system for

the residual heat from the drying rooms

because sustainability and ecology play

a very important role in all companies of

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