A Linden sawmill and its workers stand to benefit by supplying Chinese-owned Karlum South American Timber KSAT(Guy) Ltd., with lumber for its wood manufacturing operations in Linden.
It already has a purchase order to supply it with twelve 20-foot containers of sawn lumber in a venture expected to create over 30 jobs.
Empire Industries Ltd.,(EIL) at 263 Bulletwood St., Linden, is a producer of dressed and rough lumber and in April agreed to a purchase order from Jaling Forest Industry(JFI) Inc./KSAT (Guy) Inc.
"We would like to sub-contract some of the work," says Duke Hilliman, a director of EIL, adding that the 20 loggers who usually supply the firm would have to be doubled. "We alone...can't do 100,000 BM of lumber per month," he told Stabroek Business.
The Chinese owned KSAT (Guy) Inc., located in Kamaka, Linden currently employs 67 persons and is expected to employ up to 250 more workers in another few months. The company was established to export mixed hardwood flooring to China and is expected to be shipping 150 containers per month by October.
Apart from the purchase order for 12 containers of export grade sawn lumber, EIL also has a purchase order to supply an unlimited amount of chainsaw cut lumber as soon as possible at some $45 per BM.
The minimum delivery is for three containers per species of either greenheart, mora, bulletwood, tauronira, locust, tatabu and wallaba. The wallaba is priced at US$270 per cubic metre (M3) and the remaining species at US$296 M3.
According to an agreement signed between the two companies, the Chinese company will also assist EIL with three machines and will train workers to use the machines.
A deduction of 15% to 20% will be made from the output to be supplied until the machines are fully paid for. The full cost of the machines (band saws, planers and a multi-rip edger) are to be paid within five years.
Hilliman says the training is yet to begin. On August 14, in a meeting with EIL, KSAT (Guy) Ltd.,/JFI Inc., officials noted that within 45 days the three machines would arrive.
For the past four months EIL has not operated at its location because it was accommodating the operations of KSAT(Guy) Ltd. But within another month, EIL expects to be up and running and with the machines Hilliman expects to fill the 12-container order.
Empire Industry Ltd., agreed for KSAT (Guy) Ltd., which was searching for a suitable location, to occupy half of its factory, but due to the company's large-scale operations, the entire factory was eventually used.
From April where the agreement was signed to July, KSAT (Guy) Ltd, operated at EIL and also put in some new structures before eventually moving to a new site.
Denton Osborne, an associate of Empire Industries, believes that it is more beneficial when foreign companies allow local companies to partner with them, to enable greater economic benefits for the communities they are operating in.
Empire has exported greenheart, purpleheart and other species to Barbados, Jamaica and St. Lucia.