On 16 November, EPF Chairman Martin Brettenthaler was delighted to meet with President Emmanuel Macron during his State visit in Switzerland. Together with five other Swiss CEOs of companies, crucial discussions took place for the business community. This was an excellent opportunity to represent both SWISS KRONO Group and EPF, shedding light on core advocacy messages from the wood-based panel industry.

 Interview by EPF Chairman on Radio Télévision Suisse

Brussels, 16 November 2023

On 7 and 8 November, the EcoReFibre consortium met in Paris for the M18 General Assembly.

Hosted by FCBA technological institute, the meetings dealt with the project’s main achievements until now, work in progress and next steps.

Insightful presentations on the state of play of each of the work packages and demos as well as technical discussions towards joint efforts related to industrial trials contributing to the project deliverables were at the core of the discussions. Interactive workshops dedicated to demonstration and dissemination/exploitation missions were on the agenda to foster further sharing of knowledge, dialogues and collaboration between partners.

The first test results of lab trials are so positive that partners discussed ways to undertake the industrial trial to succeed in industrialisation of the technologies.

The consortium experts also agreed to expand the work to develop and share best practices and recommendations for improving and developing new collection schemes for clean wood and fibreboard waste at industrial scale for the industry to enable increasing recycling rates.

This General Assembly was also marked by the lab tour of FCBA’s Furniture Department, by the promotion of the projects’ multilingual online survey and by the release of EcoReFibre’s first newsletter. If you are interested in this project, the link to sign up is available here.

Brussels, 16 October 2023

On 10 October, 25 experts from EPF member companies met in Leutkirch (Germany) to discuss and develop strategies regarding the latest advancements and best practices in terms of fire and explosion safety. Networking and sharing best practices took centre stage, fostering knowledge and learning exchanges among attendees.

“Safety is of highest priority”, Dr Frank Hermann, CEO of Pfleiderer underlined in his opening address, stressing on the wealth of expertise to help preventing and managing incidents, keeping them as harmless as possible. The day started with insightful presentations by Mr Gonzalo de las Alas-Pumariño and by Mr Timo Gauck from Pfleiderer, a leading player in the engineered WBP industry. The spotlight was on a case study involving an explosion with no injury in a silo and sifter in the factory in Leutkirch which occurred in November 2022. Participants delved into the measures and conclusions drawn from this specific incident, sparking discussions on how this experience could be used to enhance safety protocols in other plants as part of the sector wanting to become a Role Model Industry.

Participants furthermore evaluated contributions gathered from member companies on protection and preventive guidelines, specifically related to screens and air sifters. These will now be further enhanced with the goal to establish an EPF state of the art reference for both processes. In a next step, best practices will also be developed for dry mills, potentially other processes.

Following the meeting, participants visited the areas at Pfleiderer Leutkirch’s facilities where the incident took place. Thanks to this visit, participants had the privilege of witnessing a wide variety of cutting-edge technologies, versatile production and gaining insights into the manufacturing processes, control measures, and most importantly the safety features that underpin the plant’s operations.

The next Task Force meeting will take place online on 7 December. It will be followed by a physical Task Force meeting on 17 and on 18 April 2024, on the kind invitation of EGGER, in Unterradlberg, Austria. This continued collaboration of the Task Force members within the European Panel Federation reaffirms the industry’s commitment to advancing worker safety and constant progress.

About EPF – the European Panel Federation has members in more than 30 European countries and represents the manufacturers of particleboard, MDF, OSB, hardboard, softboard and plywood. The EU wood-based panels industry has an annual turnover of about 25 billion euro and creates over 100,000 jobs directly. Contact us at info@europanels.org.

Brussels, 12 October 2023

The European Panel Federation (EPF), representing the European manufacturers of particleboard, MDF, hardboard, softboard and plywood strongly welcomes the cascading use of wood principle being enshrined in EU law. Following adoption by the European Parliament in September, the Council formally adopted the revised text of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) on Monday 9 October.

The legislation not only highlights the importance of wood as a renewable resource but also sheds light on the need for responsible and efficient use and on the strengthening of sustainability criteria, aligned with EPF’s advocacy calls for at least 60% of Europe’s roundwood harvest to go to material use, to be cascaded through multiple cycles, and ultimately incinerated for energy at end of material life. As highlighted in Article 3(3), ‘Member States shall take measures to ensure that energy from biomass is produced in a way that minimises undue distortive effects on the biomass raw material market (…) with a view to ensuring that woody biomass is used according to its highest economic and environmental added value’.

EPF further applauds the key decisions of legislators not to give subsidies for the burning of industrial grade roundwood (IGRW) and to carry out a report by the European Commission on market distortions and the limitation of support schemes by 2027.

By encouraging the cascading use of wood and these takeaways, the legislation supports a circular and resource efficient-oriented approach, which resonates with EPF’s longstanding commitment to optimal use, responsible and sustainable practices within the wood-based panels industry.

EPF represents the European manufacturers of wood-based panels being particleboard, dry process fibreboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB), hardboard, softboard and plywood. EPF has members in 30 European countries. The EU wood panel industry has a turnover of about 25 billion euro every year and creates directly over 100,000 jobs. The production of wood-based panels in the EU-27 (+EFTA) in 2022 was an estimated 59.8 million m³. www.europanels.org