Forestry & Paper
The large and important forestry and paper sector still has great potential for growth in KwaZulu-Natal.
KwaZulu-Natal’s manufacturing sector received a boost in 2009 when Vietnamese furniture manufacturer Navifico announced that it would be investing more than R100-million in a factory near Pietermaritzburg.
The forestry and paper sector – and its related downstream manufacturing enterprises such as furniture – is a very important part of the KwaZulu-Natal economy. Pietermaritzburg in particular has become a node of furniture manufacture. With the raw material of forests nearby (in the Midlands and further north) and a tradition of skilled craftsmanship in the area, the region has been growing as a site for furniture manufacturing for a number of years. It is estimated that as many as 4 000 jobs will be created by the Vietnamese company’s investment.
South Africa’s forest product exports grew nationally from R4.7-billion in 1997 to R12.2-billion in 2007, an increase of 160%. The forest product export sector is made up of paper (45.2%), solid wood (23.3%) and pulp (28.9%). Imports, weighted towards paper products, cost the country R9.8-billion annually, clearly indicating scope for increased domestic production.
The sector employs approximately 462 000 people with some two million dependants. Pulp and paper made up 12% of KwaZulu-Natal’s exports in 2009.
High concentrations of timber plantations are found in five regions: northern KwaZulu-Natal, Midlands, southern KwaZulu-Natal, Zululand and Maputaland. KwaZulu-Natal is a leader in forestry and timber, with close to half a million hectares – 38.5% of the land in the province – allocated to timber plantations. Of this area, 70% is devoted to hardwoods (eucalyptus and wattle being the major species) and the balance to pine, the only softwood grown in large quantities in South Africa. The percentage of privately owned forest land is 93.4%.
Between 30 000 and 40 000 hectares of land are suitable for new afforestation and several outgrower projects are under way. Indigenous forests also have high value as traditional use or conservation areas.
Processing and production
KwaZulu-Natal is a major centre for the beneficiation of timber products, with more than half the country’s timber coming from the province. Sawn timber, furniture, manufactured wood products and chipboard are just some of the items made. Wattle bark is used to make a tanning agent.
Wattle extract and charcoal are other products that are exported, primarily from the Kranskop and Sevenoaks regions. The country’s largest hardboard plant is at Estcourt and South Africa’s only woodchip export plants are located at Richards Bay.
NCT Forestry Co-op Limited is a key timber marketing entity with more than 2 000 members and three wood chipping mills. The Ikusasa Group also assists new companies in the sector with marketing.
The pulp and paper-processing industry is dominated by two large companies, Mondi and Sappi, which also control large tracts of forested land. Mondi has 220 000 plantation hectares on 330 000 hectares of land, while Sappi manages and owns about 230 000 hectares in KwaZulu-Natal.
Mondi’s Richards Bay facilities produce pulp, linerboard and wood chips and its paper mill at Merebank, south of Durban, has a capacity of 600 tons per day.
The Sappi mill at KwaDukuza produces 110 000 tons of paper and 60 000 tons of pulp annually, and is the only producer of coated graphic paper in the country. Its Tugela Mill, at Mandeni, is the only one in the country to manufacture high performance container board packaging, while the Sappi mill at Stanger produces 110 000 tons per annum of fibreboard, speciality and tissue paper.
Nampak produces crepe paper at Verulam, Rafalo produces tissue paper and SA Paper Mills is another paper producer.
Pietermaritzburg and other parts of uMgungundlovu District specialise in furniture manufacture. Several pole companies, such as Pole Africa and Montrose Timber and Trading, are also based in the area.
Education
The country’s main research institutes are the Institute of Commercial Forestry Research in Pietermaritzburg, and the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), both in Pretoria. In KwaZulu-Natal, the University of KwaZulu-Natal offers a degree in Forestry and the Durban University of Technology has a Pulp and Paper Technology diploma.
Institutions such as the Forestry and Forest Products Research Centre ensure that the competitive advantages in forestry that KwaZulu-Natal enjoys because of its soil and climate are exploited in sustainable ways. The unit is a collaborative effort between the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the natural resources and environment operating unit of the CSIR.
