More than half of the wood based panel production of the facility in Radauti built by Austria's Egger group will go abroad, says Georgios Natsos, chief financial officer with Egger Romania.

"The construction of this new production facility in Romania can cover the local domestic demand, as well as the demand of other East-European countries. Egger is an international group and has facilities in Austria, Germany, UK, France and Russia. Our reasons for investing in Romania are primarily linked to market opportunities, the local tradition in wood processing, infrastructure, and also to the possibilities to keep growing," says Georgios Natsos.

Egger is currently operating the biggest investment in the domestic wood processing industry, with the Austrian group having earmarked around 500 million euros for a project due to be carried out in several stages.

"The project will have two to four phases depending on the development of the market and of the overall economy. In the first stage, we will invest about 210 million euros," explained Natsos. Investments will be finalised within three to five years, with no other project to be started in the meantime. Sixty percent of the necessary amount for investments were secured from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), with the financing agreement signed in late 2005. Natsos specified the Austrian group "doesn't have other investments in Romania yet."

Since the end of last year, when construction works for the plant of Radauti started, 35 million euros have been spent of the 210 million euros allotted for the first stage.

"We will start with the chipboard production, the impregnation, as well as the lamination. The major product will be MFC (melamine faced chi pboard) in order to serve the furniture industry. In the next phases we plan to produce OSB (Oriented Strand Board u