Nelson-based XLam helps make prefabricated buildings and has invested $35 million in the business, as it anticipates a boom in the market for prefab homes.
XLam is New Zealand’s only manufacturer of cross-laminated timber (CLT); panels of layered timber boards, currently radiata pine, used to make certain prefab buildings that can be largely constructed off-site.
The company expects a more than 30 per cent increase in domestic capacity as a result of a $5m upgrade at the Tahunanui plant, which is currently capable of producing enough CLT to build more than eight houses a week.
A $30m XLam factory opened in Australia in March, would also be able to supply timber for the New Zealand market, chief executive Gary Caulfield said.
Learn more:
Prefab buildings touted as part solution to housing shortage – Stuff, 11 May 2018
Solid wood: The environmental alternative for building – XLam website
