A highly productive sawmill in Liberia uses Wood-Mizer technology to turn large-diameter rubberwood logs into export-quality sawn timber for furniture and flooring production plants in Asia.
The global demand for rubber motivated Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in 1926 to lease 1,600 square miles of jungle in Liberia from the government to produce rubber. Liberia’s location, soil and climatic conditions quickly made it the site of the largest natural rubber operation in the world.
Firestone’s natural rubber production activities in Liberia continued until the 1980s, when synthetic compounds and political instability in Liberia limited the company’s activities there. Events in Liberia during the civil war disrupted this cycle. When Firestone returned after the wars ended in 2003, it found that significant reserves of large-diameter rubberwood trees had reached the end of the rubber production lifespan and were ready for felling.
Continue reading – https://www.woodbizafrica.co.za/may-2024-issue-37/#may-2024-issue-37/22/