At the beginning of June, the Croatian hardwood sawmill Slavonski hrast will start preparatory work for the replacement and expansion investments announced in 2015. From the end of July until October there will be a phased shutting down of production of oak lumber in order to facilitate the installation of new machinery. Lumber production has been expanded in the last few months by working additional shifts so that sufficient stock is available to maintain lumber deliveries during the interruption to production.
With the €6.5m programme of investments, the sawmill's product range in particular, which has until now comprised exclusively fresh and air-dried oak lumber, is to be supplemented by kiln-dried goods. Current plans foresee technical drying in future of 6,000 m³ of oak lumber, which represents roughly one third of total production. To achieve this, two drying halls with useful areas of 5,000 m² and 3,800 m² will be erected in Slatina, one of which will be used for air drying and one for finished goods.Mühlböck Holztrocknungsanlagen will supply Slavonski hrast with ten drying kilns, each boasting a volume of roughly 170 m³.