Tropik Wood Industries has re-advertised its call for a tender that will help its new chip mill.
Chief executive officer, Vimlesh Kumar, said the re-advertisement was also placed in New Zealand.
“Given the complexity and specialised nature of work, the tender is also called out in New Zealand through invitation to tender,” he said.
Tropik Wood is calling on reputable engineering companies to demonstrate their ability to build a scraper conveyor for the new mill.
The new mill will process other native species of wood.
“The response to our earlier advertisement was poor,” Mr Kumar said.
“To ensure that we provide fair opportunity to all potential bidders, the tender subcommittee decided to re-advertise to give more time for potential bidders to study the scope and bid.
“By doing this, it will also ensure that the company gets the best value through competitive bidding.”
Mr Kumar said the current chipping plant at Drasa was old and obsolete.
Improving productivity
“It does wood-chipping at a rate of 600 to 700 tons a day (24 hours),” he said.
“The new chipper is a different setup and has the capacity to do 2200 tons per day (24 hours).”
The increased capacity promises to achieve substantial savings in terms of production costs, Mr Kumar said.
“The rate of the chipping will be aligned to our forest sustainability since we cannot over harvest our forests,” he said.
Markets
Tropik Wood has established a market in Japan and China.
Volumes for 2022 have already been secured, Mr Kumar said.
A budget of $15 million has been allocated for the new chip mill, which when established will employ at least 30 people.
It is among moves by the company to diversify its operations.
The new chip mill will process native species such as mahogany and raintree.
The tender closes on September 24.
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