Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd facts for kids
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| Industry | Forestry, timber products |
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| Founded | 1971 |
| Headquarters | Whirinaki, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand |
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Key people
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Tony Clifford, managing director |
| Owner | Oji Holdings |
Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd is a company that makes products from wood. It is located in Whirinaki, which is a town near Napier, New Zealand. The company manages forests, cuts timber, and makes things like wood pulp and lumber. Wood pulp is used to make paper, and lumber is wood cut into planks for building. About 360 people work for Pan Pac.
The company started in 1971. It was first mostly owned by a New Zealand company. Back then, it made a type of wood pulp called mechanical pulp. Today, Pan Pac is fully owned by a Japanese company. It now makes a different kind of pulp called thermo-mechanical pulp.
Contents
How Pan Pac Started
Pan Pac was created by a company called Carter Consolidated Ltd. This company had been working with timber since 1896. In the late 1960s, Carter Consolidated wanted to find a use for all the wood scraps from their forests and sawmills. They learned that Japan needed a lot of wood pulp.
So, they decided to look into making pulp to sell to Japan. To make enough pulp to be profitable, a mill would need to produce 400 tonnes every day. This meant they needed more wood than their scraps could provide. They also needed a sawmill to process the larger trees.
In 1969, the New Zealand government offered to sell cutting rights for a huge amount of timber from Kaingaroa Forest. Carter Consolidated won the rights to cut 220 million cubic feet of timber. The rest went to another company.
Becoming an International Company
On May 3, 1971, Carter Consolidated teamed up with two Japanese companies, Oji Paper Company and Kokusaku Pulp. They formed a new company called Carter Oji Kokusaku Pan Pacific Ltd. This was a "joint venture," meaning different companies worked together on a project.
At first, Carter Consolidated owned 60% of Pan Pac, and the two Japanese partners owned 40%. Over time, the ownership changed. By 1993, Pan Pac became fully owned by Japanese companies. In 2007, Oji Paper Company (now called Oji Holdings) became the sole owner of Pan Pac.
The Mill in Hawke's Bay
The Pan Pac mill was built in the Hawke's Bay area. This location was chosen for a few reasons. One reason was that forests in Hawke's Bay could supply wood later on. Also, Napier's port was the closest port to Kaingaroa Forest, which made it easier to ship products.
The specific site in Whirinaki was picked because it had the Esk River. This river provided a large source of water, which is very important for making pulp.
Building and Expanding the Mill
Construction of the mill began in 1971. It took about 18 months to build and cost $12 million. The mill officially opened in March 1973. When it first opened, the pulp mill could produce 400 tonnes of pulp each day.
Between 1974 and 1976, the mill was expanded in a "Stage 2" development. This cost another $12 million. New equipment was added, which helped increase production to 600–700 tonnes of pulp per day.
In the early 1980s, the company needed to change the type of pulp it made because of market demand. From 1981 to 1982, the mill was updated to produce thermo-mechanical pulp instead of mechanical pulp. This upgrade cost $30 million and involved adding new machines.
Today, the Pan Pac site has both a pulpmill and a sawmill. It also has a chipmill (where wood is turned into chips), two boilers, and a power plant that generates electricity.
What Pan Pac Produces
Pan Pac produces about 220,000 tonnes of wood pulp each year. This pulp is then sent to Japan. The company also produces around 200,000 cubic meters of timber every year.
Impact of Cyclone Gabrielle
On February 14, 2023, the Pan Pac site was severely affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Water from the Esk Valley flooded into Whirinaki, causing a lot of damage to the company's facilities. The managing director, Tony Clifford, stated that it would take many months for the site to recover from the damage.
