Mpumalanga Business 2019/20 edition

OVERVIEW
Forestry and paper
Sawmills are generating energy.
Sustainability is the modern watchword but finding a way to
use resources for people is also popular.
The MTO Group, which has 39 900ha of plantation
under management in the Lowveld, teamed up in 2018
with mountain-bike enthusiasts of White River and Nelspruit to
develop a set of trails through the hilly landscape of the area.
One of the biggest operations in the forestry and paper sector
in Mpumalanga is Sappi’s Ngodwana mill. The mill produces
330 000 tons of paper pulp for its own consumption, 250 000
tons of dissolving wood pulp (DWP) and 380 000 tons of paper
(newsprint and kraft linerboard used for packaging) annually.
Exports account for 70% of the mill’s product.
Ongoing investment at Ngodwana Mill will contribute R13-
billion to the provincial economy over 20 years. Sappi’s other large
facility in the province, the Lomati Sawmill in Barberton, produces
kiln-dried Southern African pine lumber from sawlogs supplied
by Sappi Forests.
The mill generates its own energy through co-generation
(steam and electricity from renewable and other sources). In 2017
Sappi built a sugar extraction demonstration plant at Ngodwana.
Findings from the experiment will help to improve the process
of extracting bio-renewable chemicals. Sappi is partnering with
Valmet, a Finnish company.
Other forestry companies are looking into energy generation,
including AFCOL. Mpumalanga has 40% of South Africa’s forestry
resources. This fact presents an opportunity to exploit the sector’s
byproducts in the biomass-to-energy field.
The Zebra Pellets plant in Sabie is to be converted by national
utility Eskom into a torrefied pellet plant. The wood will be provided
to the plant (owned by the Industrial Development Corporation)
and then heated without the use of oxygen (torrified) which creates
a coal-like product without the carbon.
SECTOR INSIGHT
The MTO Group plants 18
trees every minute.
Forestry accounts for about
8% of Mpumalanga’s gross
domestic product. The sector
comprises logging, saw-milling,
wood product and pulp and
paper manufacture. Pulp and
paper are the main exports,
along with sawn lumber, wood
chips and wattle extract. Most
sawn timber in South Africa is
used in the construction sector.
Mpumalanga has the ideal
climate and topography for
forests. Sabie and Graskop
represent the hub of the industry,
but commercial forests are also
found to the east and south
along the Swaziland border.
About 11% of the land mass is
forested, with 4% of that being
natural forest. The province is the
national leader in total hectares
under forest (514 000ha) and in
export earnings.
Plans to develop an
Agriculture and Forestry
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