Price of Melamine laminated board.

[danforhomedecor]

Any one knows the market price of Melamine laminated MDF (or praticle board) in Australia?

size:
16mm 2400x1200,
18mm 2400x1200.

I'm a new comer here and want to know the price. Thanks in advance.

[Master Splinter]

It's about $24 per 16mm sheet at Bunnies, for the Highly Moisture Resistant board $19 if you are buying a lot at a trade place. 18mm is about double the price of the 16mm, for reasons known only to the suppliers. Double again if you want it in colours other than white.

Try not to buy the imported chinese board that comes up cheap at auction houses from time to time - there seems to be absolutely no quality control on it (I've had boards which have had the green dye (supposedly indicating waterproof glue) come off on my hands as soon as it got wet. It didn't survive getting wet, either).

[danforhomedecor]

Thanks dude, you get the point. Oddly the price of 16mm board is the same (or slightly higher than )the 18mm board here in China. Cause some melamine MDF factories get used to produce 18mm board, so if you ordered them 16mm, they think it is customized work and ask for extra fee.

About the quality, the top concern here is the formaldehyde problem and less to the moisture regain. Though the market here is a bit chaotic, but don't generalize, some big company here in China have good quality control systerm.

I'm just curious about the Melamine board market in Australia. I know almost all such boards are imported from other countries, so what's the main source ( to be considered have good quality). And what's their advantages? Thanks again dude.

[Master Splinter]

I think we are actually net exporters of board products - Laminex have a manufacturing plant, so does Carter Holt Harvey - and a few others...

Australian Wood Panels Association Incorporated - Members

Australian Bureau of Statistics can provide details of imports and exports (by volume, value, port of origin and destination) by customs tariff code.

I have a love/hate relationship with Chinese made products - and yes, it directly relates to the chaotic nature of manufacturing there - you can never be sure if you will be getting good, standardised, quality controlled stuff, or absolute, lowest possible manufacturing cost 'looks good enough to get it out the door' knock-offs.

It's worse when said material turns out to be poisonous (melamine in milk, lead in paint on children's toys, some unnamed industrial chemical in plasterboard, for a few recent examples) - these sort of things do enormous damage to the reputation of Chinese suppliers.

For melamine coated boards, all the ones that I consider 'quality' seem to use three grades of chip - a coarse chip in the middle, a slightly finer chip on both sides of that, then a very fine chip layer immediately before the melamine coat so that you get a very fine surface finish for the melamine to adhere to. Probably means they can use a bit less melamine as it doesn't have to fill so many minor surface voids, or something like that. The fine finish also means that when you cut it with a saw, you don't get big chunks of chip being ripped loose so your board edge can be good 'off the saw' .

[danforhomedecor]

Sorry for my inaccurate market investigation. but still i think if a company have qualified products, it is lucrative to export such boards to Australia. And according to your defination about "quality", i think my products have such quality.

OK, Stop my promotion. Thank, Master Splinter. your information is quiet useful to me, now i have a clear mind of what i can do. And if you need any help in this field,
let me know.

But what you said "Australian Bureau of Statistics can provide details of imports and exports (by volume, value, port of origin and destination) by customs tariff code."
I surfed on the site, but failed to find a link where i can input the custom tariff code and get the information. Can you help me with that?

[Master Splinter]

Customised service - you'll have to call them during business hours and they'll work out a price for the report. (or you could email them)

9920.0 - Information Consultancy Services, 2007

If you want to try your boards on the Australian market, ship a containerload or three over and let us woodies buy them at a low, low introductory price and we'll give you feedback!! (Actually, with Woolworths entering the hardware market in competition to Bunnings in the next few years, they might be a good major distributor to approach)

[mikm]

Bunners in Canberra must be cheaper than Melbourne. Last time I looked at the price of an 8 x 4 sheet of 16 mm MR chipboard there, it was $33/sheet.