Victorian firm eyes NW timber-mill investment

A VICTORIAN firm that recently sold the Heyfield mill to the Victorian Government says it can now focus on a timber-mill investment in North-West Tasmania worth tens of million of dollars.

The Hermal Group sold the company Australian Sustainable Hardwoods and the mill for a reported figure of about $50 million to the Victorian Government on September 14.

Hermal accepted a Victorian Government offer to buy the mill after VicForests cut its timber supply to 80,000 cubic metres, about half what it said it needed to remain viable.

Spokesman James Lantry said the group was looking at an investment in the state’s North-West to process plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens which could create hundred of jobs. He said the Heyfield mill transaction had absorbed a good deal of the company’s energy. “Only in the last two weeks have we been able to refocus,” he said.

“We are formally talking to the Tasmanian Government and the Co-ordinator-General.”

Mr Lantry said the company was looking at investment in state-of-the-art timber processing saws from Germany.

“We have also secured the ability to obtain supply from a couple of large suppliers,” he said. The company was also willing to buy pulpwood from smaller suppliers if suitable volumes could be negotiated.

Mr Lantry said the mill would probably start with a volume of 60,000 to 100,000 cubic metres and gradually increase to 300,000.

“Under no circumstances are we wanting to process any native timber,” he said.

Mr Lantry said a development application for a 20-30ha site at Heybridge was likely to be lodged by the end of the year.