Argentina advances mass timber industry with first cross-laminated timber plant

Published on August 28, 2026 Time: loading...

Argentina is taking a major step toward industrial-scale mass timber production with the development of its first cross-laminated timber plant in Gobernador Virasoro, Corrientes.

Cambium Build is scheduled to begin installing Slovenian machinery at the facility next month. The final container carrying equipment for the production line is now travelling to the Port of Buenos Aires.

Ledinek Engineering has shipped the final equipment for the project. On-site installation work is expected to begin in September.

The development places Argentina behind several neighboring South American markets that have already established industrial mass timber facilities. Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil have developed production capacity ahead of the country.

The Virasoro project is expected to change that position.

Major Investment Supports Corrientes Development

Pablo Baldomá presented the project during a seminar organized by the Asociación Forestal Argentina in Posadas. The event also featured executives from ArPulp, Acon Timber, and Central Puerto.

Manuel Chiappe said four projects in Corrientes represent more than US$2.5 billion in investment. Argentina’s national undersecretary for agricultural and forestry production told attendees that the country had not experienced private investment on such a scale for many years.

The provincial government launched the Cambium Build investment at Casa de Gobierno on June 1.

More than $20 million is being invested in the plant. The facility covers 4,800 square meters and is being built on the former Pomera Maderas sawmill site.

Around 60 people are currently working on construction. Baldomá expects the work to be completed between December and January.

Once operational, the facility is expected to create 300 direct and indirect jobs.

Manuel Sobrado described the investment positively at its launch. “We fell in love with Corrientes,” he said, while the Insud executive director added that investments remain and expand wherever business conditions are favorable.

His group has maintained operations in the province for twenty years across tourism, livestock, and energy.

First High-Precision Processing Line

Argentina currently has no plant producing cross-laminated timber or glulam to international certification standards.

However, Forestal Las Marías and technologically advanced sawmills in Misiones and Corrientes already manufacture components to order for individual projects.

The Virasoro facility will introduce complete high-precision processing. Its initial production capacity is set at 15,000 cubic meters annually.

The plant will incorporate several stages of timber processing. Finger jointing, planing, structural grading, and panel pressing will form part of the production process.

Pine from Corrientes and Misiones will be used. Pablo Baldomá explained the company’s ambitions for domestic timber quality and certification.

“Our idea is to advance the first structural grading line in Argentina,” Baldomá said.

The company currently sends elliottii pine from Corrientes and Misiones to Europe for certification because timber in Argentina is still graded visually.

That process is expected to change with the new industrial line.

South America Expands Mass Timber Capacity

The Argentine project is entering a regional market where mass timber production has already gained industrial momentum.

Ledinek sales engineer Ambrož Ahec identified several factors that have limited the expansion of mass timber across South America.

“Fear and prejudice about the quality and safety of the material, a lack of industrialisation, and ignorance,” Ahec said.

Ledinek has more than 400 employees across 56 countries. The company has supplied or helped assemble plants in Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil.

In Uruguay, Arboreal has operated a cross-laminated timber and glulam production line in Tacuarembó since 2022. The company describes the facility as South America’s largest CLT and glulam line.

The operation produces 50,000 cubic meters of product annually. Its output is shipped to markets ranging from Brazil to the Dominican Republic.

The World Bank’s IFC and the ILX Fund committed $40 million to the facility in May. The investment supports thermally modified wood and a 15 percent increase in direct employment.

Arboreal’s production model emphasizes project-specific manufacturing.

“Each piece is designed, machined, and adapted to the project before it reaches site,” Carlos Mazzey said.

The manager of Arboreal’s mass timber technical office said an 80-square-meter house can be assembled in one week by three people.

Cuts and drilling are completed before the timber leaves Tacuarembó. Architects and engineers are supported by a technical office in Montevideo from structural design through production.

Regional Projects Demonstrate Timber Potential

Chile has also advanced timber construction technology.

The six-story Torre Experimental Peñuelas opened at the Lago Peñuelas reserve in November 2018. It was developed by Chile’s housing ministry and the Universidad Católica’s timber innovation center.

At the time, it was described as Latin America’s tallest timber building.

Researchers at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile have subsequently tested radiata pine panels through multiscale modeling and shake-table testing. The work has focused on high-rise applications in one of the world’s most seismically active countries.

Brazil has demonstrated the commercial potential of large-scale timber construction as well.

Urbem supplied nearly 700 cubic meters of CLT and more than 600 cubic meters of glulam for Latin America’s largest mass timber structure. The shopping mall in Atibaia was completed in seven months without a structural concrete pour.

Timber houses are now being assembled in under 10 days across four Brazilian states. Analysts estimate that the country’s market is addressing a housing gap of 5 million homes.

Argentina Faces Forestry and Market Challenges

Cambium Build is developing its new facility while Argentina’s wood products market remains under pressure.

Wood product prices were 20.7 percent higher year over year through July. The wholesale index increased 31.1 percent during the same period.

Daniel Vier, president of CADAMDA, highlighted the conditions required for timber to make a greater contribution to housing and regional development.

“With a robust forest industry, adequate regulation, and financing, wood can help resolve the housing deficit and boost regional economies,” Vier said.

CADAMDA estimates that a square meter of timber structure accounts for 4 kilograms of carbon dioxide and 22 kilowatt-hours, compared with 40 kilograms and 143 kilowatt-hours for steel.

Regional delegates at the Posadas seminar also raised concerns about plantation growth. Corrientes has 500,000 hectares of plantations, but the estate has not expanded. Harvested land is being replanted instead.

Misiones has not exceeded 12,000 hectares of new planting annually for a decade. Entre Ríos has declined to 100,000 hectares.

Despite these constraints, Corrientes expects the new facility to create a platform for future exports.

“In a short time we will talk about taking CLT containers anywhere in the world,” Governor Juan Pablo Valdés said at the plant’s launch.

For now, the movement is in the opposite direction. Slovenian machinery is being transported through the Port of Buenos Aires for installation at Argentina’s first industrial CLT plant.