Carter Holt signs US marketing deal

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Monday 11th February 2002

Forestry company Carter Holt Harvey (NZSE: CAH) has announced an alliance with one of North America's largest composite panel manufacturers to market its customwood medium density fibreboard.

The company says California-based SierraPine will be its exclusive agent in the region, allowing the NZ company to tap into its customer networks and product lines.

Head of CHH's Pinepanels division, Ian Myers, say the alliance presents some exciting opportunities to significantly grow business in a very sizeable market.

"We see considerable benefit in aligning ourselves with a strong domestic supplier, like SierraPine, who can provide us with extensive market coverage and who have solid customer relationships already in place.

"We believe the partnership will benefit both companies and most importantly, our customers."

SierraPine will broaden its product line by offering customwood's thin and ultra thin panels and will also market ultra light panels. Customwood MDF is made from 100% radiata pine.

"For SierraPine, the alliance with Carter Holt Harvey significantly enhances the company's product offering, positioning SierraPine with the widest range of MDF products in the US market."

Carter Holt Harvey is the leading manufacturer of MDF in the Asia-Pacific region and has a 40% share in the Australian market.

The company's output is split evenly between its plants in New South Wales and North Canterbury and the MDF exported to North America will come from both those plants.

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