ARAUCO’s Teno Mill celebrates five years in operation

The mill is one of the most modern of its kind in America and produces the popular antimicrobial VESTO panel.

ARAUCO’s panel mill is located on kilometer 2.5 on La Montaña road, in Teno commune. This modern facility is celebrating five years of production of the popular VESTO melamine panel.

Teno Panel Mill is one of the most modern facilities of its kind around the world. It operates under the highest environmental standards and state of the art technology, with a production capacity of 300,000 m3.

VESTO is an antimicrobial panel that has a certified negative carbon footprint, which underlines the company’s commitment and conviction to contribute to improve people’s lives by developing sustainable forest products.

VESTO is mostly used to manufacture furniture for bathrooms, kitchens, homes, hospitals and stores. It eliminates bacteria, fungi, and viruses with 99% effectiveness, which considerably reduces the risk of infection, allergies and sources of contagion in areas where daily activities take place.

Last year, Teno Panel Mill achieved the one million cubic meter mark for panel production, which was a milestone in the short life of this production facility that today confirms its commitment to the area and its residents.

Andrés Saenz-Laguna, Teno Panel Mill’s manager, said that “these first five years in operation mark a milestone in the life of this mill and ARAUCO, because we’ve been able to produce a high quality product which we’re very proud of and pleased with”.

He also added, “We expect to continue to work with the same commitment and maximum efficiency, embracing new challenges as an industry and also contributing to the development of this location and its residents”.

VESTO has consolidated an important share of the national market and is currently being exported to Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. It is considered by some of the most important customers around the world as an innovative and high quality product with over 40 designs, assembled in a number of collections.

Nelson Bustos, Arauco’s Public Affairs Assistant Manager, said that “the operation of Teno Mill created opportunities for employment; for example, the Training School prepared the mill’s future employees, and the years of work being conducted by Arauco Educational Foundation contribute to the improvement of education and culture among the commune’s residents. We´re very happy for this, and it motivates us, once again, to reaffirm our commitment to Teno and the people who live here”.

TIMBER BUSINESS

Arauco is currently one of the primary producers of timber (production capacity of 9.7 million m3), and a wide variety of products: sawn timber, plywood, panels, remanufacturing and mouldings, for architecture, design, construction, packaging and remodeling.

The construction of a new particleboard panel mill in Michigan, United States, started last year. This US$ 400 million investment will have a production capacity of 800,000 m3 and is estimated to begin operating toward the end of next year.

In addition, the purchase of 50% of Spanish company Tafisa last year created Sonae-Arauco, a company that produces and sells different types of wood panels and sawn timber.

The facilities are located in Spain, Portugal, Germany and South Africa and have a combined production capacity of 4.2 million m3 of wood panels.

With this investment, Arauco will rakn as the world’s second producer of wood panels.