Navkar Plyboard’s ‘Sajawat’ wood based particle board unit runs at full swing with 150 cbm per day capacity. They will be able to get 100 percent capacity utilisation by next month. They had ventured in ply manufacturing nearly 12 years before at Bachau, Gujarat and six months before they started manufacturing wood based particle board. “We are producing plain and pre-lam boards and have Short- cycles press for prelam board and making all finishing such as SF, textures, glossy etc,” said Mr Shwetal Trevadia and Kamlesh Vora, Owners of Navkar Plyboard adding, “The particle board business is going on good but the market is becoming competitive with more units coming up in Morbi, Gujarat. Demand is improving day by day because it is cheaper by 30 percent than plywood and bears the similar strength. But, with coming up units the margin has reduced. Our unit is fully automatic so we can get its maximum output with less number of labours,” he added.
Wood based particle board demand is from across the country and the producers which are few mainly based at Gujarat are not able to meet the demand. There are only four plants of wood based particle board at Gandhidham and Navkar Plyboard is third who have started production. The raw material availability for the existing plants is optimum but it would be difficult if another plant comes in near future. They are catering the market of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, UP, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi, etc for their product.
“The speciality of our particle board is its size of being 8x4 ft manufactured with latest technology of Diamond roller forming machine, Six head sander, etc. The machine chipper and stacker are of latest technology so that it breaks into very small particle which reduces the gapping between particles to negligible and construct a high quality particle board with greater strength. With composition of chemicals we can achieve its water proof and exterior grade boards,” he revealed adding, “There is a tough fight in terms of price and manufacturers are also not united. The demand is from everywhere but the price war is there due to manufacturers’ individuality. The current market price is at lower base level and there is no option for further reduction. If any one goes below it, he will have to bear the loss in long run. We are not going with competition and maintaining a sustainable approach with quality and price. There is a demand in the market and the few supplying companies are unable to meet the demands.”