New Delhi Sawmill Getting More From Their Logs in India and Africa

Near the heart of the New Delhi timber market, Mr. Vikas Choudhry, partner at Sree Rani Sati Overseas, was happy to share with me how they have improved yields from the logs they are processing at their company.

Mr. Choudhry runs a Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill, which uses thin-kerf blades to cut his teak logs that are imported from Africa. The sawmill bandsaw blade used is much thinner than that on the traditional sawmill machines used in India, thereby getting more sellable timber from each log, because less of the log is wasted as the thinner blade passes through.

“We were using Wood-Mizer sawmills in Africa, so we already knew this machine before we imported it for use in our sawmill in India,” Mr. Choundhry shares. “The traditional bandsaw that we are using in India, the thickness of the blade is 3 mm and something. And the Wood-Mizer consumes only 1.5 mm. That is the reason we imported the Wood-Mizer.”

“We are importing different types of woods like teak, hardwood, pine. Basically all the wood species imported to India, we specialise in it.” The sawmill is very well organised, with lots of light throughout the production area.

“We produce everything from planks to moulding - from 6 inch planks to 25 mm mouldings. That is our product.”

The LT15 sawmill is equipped with additional bed sections that make the sawmill longer, enabling Mr. Choudhry’s workers to cut longer logs, or simply to increase their production level by loading two logs at a time on the bed. Boards can be offloaded from one cant while the sawmill is busy cutting the other one.

Mr. Choudhry shared this advice for other sawmillers and wood producers in India - “I would advise sawmillers who are using the local bandsaw machines in India, that they should go for Wood-Mizer, because whatever the cost is, I know we can recover it within a year. 

“The benefit of Wood-Mizer is that your production cost will be low,” Mr. Choudhry concluded. “And the second major benefit about it is that you don’t need a specialized operator for this, sometimes I too enjoy operating it. Yeah, that is a major benefit.”

According to Bobby Joseph, country manager for Wood-Mizer in India, more and more sawmillers are following Mr. Gupta’s example to improve profitability – “I have experiences with customers where they, in order to produce a 5mm thick piece, first a 10 mm piece is sawn in the traditional mill, then they use the double-side planer… then they do the sanding… which means the waste is 50%! The same customer now has purchased the Wood-Mizer Horizontal multi-head resaw, in which 6.0 mm thick sections are sawn (instead of the 10mm), then sanded and finished. Now the saving per sawn section is 4.0 mm.”

Bobby continues, sharing that last year was Wood-Mizer’s best in India so far – “The growth of Wood-Mizer in India is mainly due to some factors –
1) We give simple but effective solutions to customers,
2) The advantage we offer in terms of higher recovery,
3) The strong service backup we offer to our customers, and
4) Our blades are much cheaper per cubic metre compared with any other imported sawmill, which gives a big advantage to the customer. Per cubic metre cost is much lower, and recovery is much higher. These are aspects that customers definitely look at. And that is exactly the reason why we are growing.”

“Wood-Mizer sawmills are a perfect solution for customers looking for a higher recovery,” Bobby shares. “Somebody who is importing timber like teak, Wood-Mizer can help to get a little more from the timber they have imported... For the customers who are looking for a higher yield, we proudly offer the thin-kerf technology as the solution.”