Economic Feasibility Analyses 3549 



28-25 $24.7 MILLION— WAFERBOARD PRODUCTION 

 COSTS COMPARED WITH THOSE FOR PLYWOOD^^ 



It seems likely that structural flakeboard (waferboard), mostly made of hard- 

 woods, will be a strong competitor of softwood plywood for residential roof and 

 wall sheathing, and for floor decks. North American flakeboard plant locations 

 and capacities are shown in figure 24-1 and table 24-1. Because structural 

 flakeboard (fig. 24-2) and sheathing plywood compete for the same markets, 

 entrepreneurs need data comparing southern production costs of the two prod- 

 ducts. Springate and Roubicek (1981b) provide such a comparison between Vi- 

 inch-thick, three-ply southern pine C-D exterior sheathing plywood and com- 

 petitive 7/16-inch-thick structural flakeboard made of southern hardwoods (a 

 mixture of species with 60 percent having specific gravity, based on ovendry 

 weight and green volume, less than 0.60, and the balance of denser species). 



Production data for the two operations are shown in table 28-5; on a yg-inch 

 basis, the plywood plant has annual production of 106,667,000 square feet and 

 the structural flakeboard plant 110,000,000. 



Capital cost of the plywood plant is estimated at 20,360,000, and that of the 

 flakeboard plant at $24,650,000; annual returns on investment, before income 

 tax, are estimated to be 2.6 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively, based on net 

 fob-mill sales prices of $211.66 and $201.08/thousand square feet of '/2-inch- 

 thick plywood and 7/16-inch flakeboard, respectively. 



Table 28-5. — Production data for comparable plants manufacturing '/2-inch southern 



pine three-ply CDX sheathing plywood and 7/16-inch structural flakeboard made of 



southern hardwoods (Springate and Roubicek 1981b) 



Structural 

 Plywood flakeboard 



Statistic plant plant 



Annual production, million square 



feet 80.0 ('/2-inch basis) 94.4 (7/16-inch basis) 



Annual production, million square 



feet Ys-inch equivalent basis. . . 106.7 1 10.0 



Operating days per year 240 320 



Shifts per day 2 3 



Panels produced per day (4 by 8 



feet) 10,417 ('/2-inch thick) 9,219 (7/16-inch thick) 



Number of presses and size Two presses, 4 by 8 feet. One press, 4 by 16 feet, 



36-opening) 24-opening) 



Wood required annually, and cost 36,000 Mbf Doyle scale of 92,400 cords of pulpwood at 



peelers at $306/Mbf $31 /cord 



Resin and wax cost, annual $814,000 $2,959,000 



Employees 108 67 



^"^ Abstracted from Springate and Roubicek (1981b). 



