PIONEERING PARTICLE BOARD TECHNOLOGY Sonae Industria is a global leader in the design and manufacture of wood based panels including particleboard and medium density fibreboard. Philip Yorke looks at the latest developments that are taking place at the company.
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onae Industria was founded in 1959 in Maiai, Portugal, which remains the site of its headquarters today. Initially the company focused on the production of high-pressure decorative laminates. However, its expansion and diversification began in 1971 when it took control of Novopan, a leading particleboard company located near Oporto, Portugal. At the same time, the first melamine surfacing production line was installed and the company began components production for the furniture and interior decoration industries. Following consistent growth over the years, it has become one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of wood-based panels.
Today Sonae Industria operates 34 plants located in nine countries on three continents, with almost 5000 employees and a consolidated turnover of more than €1.3 billion.
Multi-faceted producer Sonae Industria is one of the world’s largest and most diverse operators in its sector and is completely focused on the production of wood-based panels. The company operates three core divisions which cover raw board products, high value-added products and production processes. In the raw board products sector Sonae manufactures particleboard (PB), medium density fibreboard (MDF) orientated strand board (OSB) and
