Swiss Krono is moving ahead with the conversion of its particleboard production at Sully-sur-Loire, France, to oriented strand board (OSB), with particleboard manufacturing scheduled to end by August 2026. The conversion will allow the company to concentrate its French OSB expansion at its existing industrial site after shelving plans earlier this year to build a new OSB plant in southwestern France.<\/p>\n
Once the conversion is completed, Sully-sur-Loire could reach an OSB production capacity of around 800,000 m\u00b3 in the medium term, making it Swiss Krono's largest OSB manufacturing site in France.<\/p>\n
Particleboard production to end<\/strong><\/p>\n Swiss Krono plans to phase out both raw and melamine-faced particleboard production at Sully-sur-Loire by August. The particleboard line, which has been in operation since the late 1980s, will then be progressively converted to OSB production.<\/p>\n The restructuring has already begun to affect the workforce. According to French regional newspaper La R\u00e9publique du Centre, Swiss Krono has launched a voluntary redundancy programme affecting 65 employees at the 350-person facility. The newspaper reported that the proposed job reductions are directly linked to the planned cessation of particleboard production.<\/p>\n Although the company has not disclosed detailed technical information about the conversion, the project marks a significant change for one of France's largest wood panel manufacturing sites.<\/p>\n Orpinia project abandoned<\/strong><\/p>\n The Sully-sur-Loire conversion follows Swiss Krono's decision in January to abandon its proposed Orpinia OSB project in Lot-et-Garonne.<\/p>\n The greenfield investment, first presented in 2024, would have required approximately \u20ac340 million, created around 130 jobs and added between 340,000 and 600,000 m\u00b3 of annual OSB production capacity.<\/p>\n At the time, Swiss Krono cited the prolonged downturn in residential construction, weaker demand for wood-based building materials and uncertainty surrounding France's MaPrimeR\u00e9nov' renovation programme. The company also said the operational challenges created by the fire at Sully-sur-Loire required it to redirect financial and management resources towards its existing French operations.<\/p>\n \"The restart of our OSB unit in Sully-sur-Loire is now our absolute priority and mobilises all our resources, teams and investments,\" Swiss Krono France President Vincent Adam said when announcing the cancellation of the Orpinia project.<\/p>\n Fire accelerated the reorganisation<\/strong><\/p>\n Swiss Krono's investment priorities changed after a fire broke out at the Sully-sur-Loire plant on 9 September 2025.<\/p>\n The incident damaged one of the site's recently commissioned dryers, forcing the shutdown of approximately 60% of operations, including OSB production. The fire occurred only one year after the company had completed a \u20ac124 million investment programme that included two new dryers, a biomass boiler and flue-gas condensation equipment.<\/p>\n Production gradually resumed during the first half of 2026, but the incident accelerated the group's decision to reorganise its French manufacturing operations around its existing industrial base.<\/p>\n Sully-sur-Loire becomes the centre of French OSB production<\/strong><\/p>\n Instead of developing a second production site, Swiss Krono is now concentrating future OSB expansion at Sully-sur-Loire.<\/p>\n Converting the existing particleboard line allows the company to build additional OSB capacity using infrastructure that has already benefited from substantial recent investment, while avoiding the cost and complexity of constructing a new manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n If the project proceeds as planned, Sully-sur-Loire could produce around 800,000 m\u00b3 of OSB annually in the medium term, replacing the capacity growth originally planned for the cancelled Orpinia project.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Swiss Krono is moving ahead with the conversion of its particleboard production at Sully-sur-Loire, France, to oriented strand board (OSB), with particleboard manufacturing scheduled to end by August 2026. The conversion will allow the company to concentrate its French OSB … Continue reading