Rumasal: Forest to Sawmill

Pablo: I studied business administration in Santiago. I graduated eight years ago and decided to return to Maule to work in Rumasal’s forestry operations, starting out as a harvester operator.

Rumasal was founded in the municipality of Constitución in 1990 by my father, Mauricio Muñoz Rojas. My father has a technical degree in forestry from the Catholic University of Maule in Talca. He started from scratch, working with oxen and seven workers. Rumasal began as a sawmill and grew from there. Eight years ago, we wanted to implement timber harvesting internally as it was previously done by contractors from outside the company. I decided to start working on our own harvesting in forests owned by the company. That is how it all started; with a harvester, a three-wheeler and a Tigercat 604 skidder. I started to build everything up from there. This is when I became familiar with Tigercat machines, and I fell in love with them. As we grew, we decided to buy more Tigercat machines. We are really happy. Eight years after starting our own forest harvesting, not only are our forestry operations more productive, but they are also safer. There are now more than 200 workers at Rumasal, distributed between the sawmill, forestry operations and transport. The Rumasal sawmill is located in Constitución.

Pablo: Rumasal’s work starts in the forest with harvesting and continues to the sawmill. We are one of the few companies in Chile that performs its own harvesting, transport and sawmilling to produce and market the timber. Of the products we sell, 60% are for the domestic market and the remaining 40% for export. We produce different products with Radiata pine including green lumber, dry lumber, engineered lumber, dimensional lumber, impregnated wood, visual grades GS, G1 and G2, with machine grades C16 to C24.

Rumasal’s growth can be explained by the fact that we have efficient production that responds to the needs of the timber market. We make our strategic decisions with the long term in mind, which has allowed us to secure alliances with our customers. We pay close attention to the way in which forestry companies work in other parts of the world, and we develop our projects by importing firstrate machinery. This allows us to place the best Maule timber on the market.

Pablo: Our first Tigercat machine, and the reason why we like Tigercat, was the 604 skidder. We worked with the 604 skidder for two years with no problems at all. That’s when we realized we had to start learning more about the brand and incorporate more Tigercat products into our operations. We now have five Tigercat machines in total: the 855 feller buncher, the H855E harvester with the 570 head, the 635H and 620H skidders, as well as the 604, which already has more than 11,000 hours of operation.

Pablo: Since we didn’t experience any problems with the Tigercat machines, we started looking at options to incorporate a Tigercat harvesting head into our operations. That’s when we became aware of the 570 head, which we went to Uruguay to see, because it wasn’t available here in Chile. Ours was the first 570 head to arrive in Chile.

I really like this head because it offers excellent delimbing capability and is extremely powerful. It processes more than 500 cubic metres per day. Compared to other heads, I find the 570 to be much stronger and suitable for working with thick diameter logs. Although it’s very good for cutting, we have the 570 solely for processing, as we found it to be very robust and with high processing power. We have the feller buncher for cutting, which is enough for our production.

Pablo: When we first started, we were harvesting 300 cubic metres a day, which is equivalent to ten trucks a day. Now, after purchasing the Tigercat machines, we harvest around 30 truckloads per day, which is equivalent to more than 1 000 cubic metres. We work ten hours per day on site for five days. We cut more than 60 hectares (150 acres) and produce 20 000 cubic metres each month, which are sent to our Rumasal sawmill.

Pablo: I have found Latin’s support to be excellent. I like it a lot compared to the competition, as I find that Latin is more like a family business, which is what we need. We have been working with Latin and Tigercat machines for over eight years now. Latin has really treated us well. We also like Tigercat machines because they are productive and our operators are very comfortable in them. They feel safe and happy, which also makes us happy.

Pablo: As a company, we have forests to be harvested for over ten years. We want to continue growing as a company with Tigercat and Latin. We like new challenges at Rumasal. We are focused on evolving according to market needs and as a result we are constantly renewing and reviewing our production processes. Our approach has allowed us to become an efficient company and to be at the forefront of the domestic timber industry.

Protecting the environment is one of our concerns and our challenge is to continue contributing to the development of the municipality of Constitución. An essential aspect of Rumasal’s ethos is to have a good working environment and to work as a team. We are a family of 200 people and, together, we want to make an active contribution to the community.