| WOOD - CONVERTING AND PROCESSING |
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Companies in this sector are involved in woodworking and the manufacture of wooden furniture and articles.
The closeness of the port of La Rochelle-Pallice, the leading French port for forestry products, and the port of Rochefort, specialised in Scandinavian wood, has led to the development of numerous wood converting firms.
The development of the wood energy sector since 1996 has meant that by-products from sawmills and the wood industry can be put to good use.
The wood converting business
• Packagings
: manufacture of barrels and handling palettes
• Wooden panels
• Corks
• Furniture
Number of companies
: 286
Woodwork : 154
Furniture : 132
Number of salaried employees
: 2,189
Woodwork : 1,535
Furniture : 654
Net turnover : €338 millions
(données au 01/01/2004)
 Businesses with more than 50 employees
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| THE WOOD ENERGY SECTOR |
Following an initiative of the Agency for the Environment and Energy Control and the Regional Council, the Charente Departmental Council committed itself to a programme of sustainable development in 1996. A departmental plan was put together and the implementation of wood-energy programme was entrusted to Charente Développement. The programme has a dual objective :
• Structuring the wood fuel supply stream,
• Setting up automatic wood boiler rooms in community housing schemes and public buildings. |
There are 45 heating installations [ see table ] using wood chips as fuel in the Charente department, with a total output of 11 mega watts.
The overall consumption of wood chips for one season's worth of heating is 5,500 tonnes (22,000 m³). Three Charentais firms have moved into the supply of wood fuel, which comes from various sources: sawmill by-products, cooperage waste, palettes and handling wood.
The use of wood energy meets several clearly identified needs : |
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the map of
installations
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• Burning wood in boilers is clean and environmentally friendly,
contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases,
• It encourages the safeguard and creation of local jobs,
• It provides an outlet for the by-products of the wood industry,
• It contributes to the energy balance by reducing fossil fuel imports (oil, gas)
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