What is shuttering ply, and which build should you order?

What is shuttering ply and how is it different from normal plywood?

Shuttering ply is plywood made as a mould face for wet concrete: it holds the pour until the concrete sets, then strips clean and goes back into the form. Normal plywood is made to stay where it is fixed. Shuttering ply needs a waterproof glue line, a hard face that releases from concrete, sealed edges and a flat, stable thickness.

The word changes by market. UK and Indian sites say shuttering ply or shuttering plywood, Gulf and South-East Asian sites mostly say film-faced plywood, Australia says formply and North America says form plywood. The job is the same: a sheet that survives the pour, the strike and the next pour. The panel we press for that job is film-faced plywood: dark phenolic film on both faces over a cross-laid hardwood core.

Normal plywood fails on a pour in three predictable places. An interior glue line softens in a wet cycle and the veneers open. A sanded wood face takes up water and cement paste, so the concrete grabs it and the face tears at stripping. An unsealed edge drinks water and swells, so the joints between sheets step and leave marks on the wall. Every part of a shuttering panel is chosen to stop one of those three failures.

Shuttering plywood types: softwood, film-faced and anti-slip

Three panels are sold as shuttering ply, and they give very different pour counts. A buyer who orders by the name alone can receive any of them, so the type belongs on the first line of the enquiry.

1. Softwood shuttering ply. A pine or poplar-cored sheet with a rough sanded face, sold by UK and Irish merchants for small pads, trench sides and hoarding. It has no film, so concrete marks the face and the sheet is usually used once or a few times.
2. Film-faced shuttering ply. A hardwood-cored sheet with phenolic film pressed on both faces and painted edges. This is the panel contractors in the Gulf, India, Africa and Europe use for slabs, walls and columns, and it is what our two mills make every day.
3. Anti-slip film-faced ply. The same build with a patterned film on the top face (rice, hexagon or wire-mesh pattern) for walkways, platforms and truck floors. It is a deck and floor panel, and its smooth back can still face concrete. See our anti-slip plywood page for the patterns.

Inside the film-faced type, the glue splits the market in two. A melamine (MUF) glue line is the common premium grade for slabs and walls on regular programmes. A phenolic glue line is the grade for long programmes, wet climates and repeated wall pours. Both carry the same phenolic face film, which is why a quote must name the glue as well as the film.

How our 18 mm film-faced shuttering ply is built, layer by layer

Our 18 mm shuttering ply has five parts from face to face: phenolic film, a smooth hardwood face veneer, the cross-laid Acacia or Eucalyptus core, the back face veneer and a second phenolic film, with water-resistant paint on all four edges. Each part answers one problem on the pour.

• The film is phenolic-impregnated paper pressed into the face. It gives the concrete a smooth, non-absorbent surface to release from, and it takes the abrasion of vibrators, rebar chairs and cleaning. Its weight is an order field, from 120–125 g/m² up to 165, 185 or over 200 g/m².
• The face veneers under the film are smooth hardwood. A rough or patched face veneer shows through a thin film after a few pours, so the face veneer is chosen for the film it carries.
• The core is Acacia or Eucalyptus veneer, each layer laid at right angles to the next. Cross-laying keeps the sheet stiff in both directions and stops it cupping when one face is wet and the other is dry.
• The glue lines are MUF or phenolic. The glue decides how many wet cycles the bond survives before the plies start to open at the edges.
• The edge paint closes the end grain on all four sides. End grain is where water enters a sheet; an unpainted edge swells long before the face wears.

Two quotes for “18 mm film-faced shuttering ply” can describe two different panels. Core grade, how the core veneers are joined, the glue system, film weight, edge sealing and tolerance all change from one offer to the next, which is why we start a specification from the application and the pour target, then fix each of those lines on the technical sheet. Our 18 mm film-faced plywood note goes through that sheet line by line.

The shuttering plywood manufacturing process at our mills

Shuttering plywood is made in eight steps at our mills in Chi Linh, Hai Phong: veneer intake, drying, core lay-up, glue and press, sizing and sanding, film press, edge sealing, then marking and packing. The film goes on only after the core panel is pressed, sized and sanded flat.

1. Veneer intake. Acacia and Eucalyptus veneers arrive from plantation logs and are sorted for the face, the core and the reject pile. Face veneers are kept smooth and whole for the film.
2. Drying. Veneers are dried before glue goes on, because wet veneer weakens the glue line and steams in the press.
3. Core lay-up. Workers lay the veneers crosswise, one direction on top of the other, to the ply count of the ordered thickness. A gap or overlap here becomes a soft spot or a bump under the film.
4. Glue and press. MUF or phenolic glue is spread on the veneers and the stack is pressed. Hot pressing for phenolic, weather- and boil-proof bonds runs at about 130–145 °C.
5. Sizing and sanding. The pressed core panel is trimmed square and sanded to an even thickness. This is the step that sets the ±0.5 mm thickness tolerance the film then keeps.
6. Film press. Phenolic film is laid on both faces and pressed into the panel, so the film bonds to the face veneer and closes it.
7. Edge sealing. All four edges get water-resistant paint, the amber or coloured band you see on a stack of formwork panels.
8. Marking and packing. Panels are marked as the order asks, stacked flat on pallets, strapped and covered for the container.

Our production process page shows the lines behind these steps. The two pressings are the reason a film-faced sheet stays flat: the core is pressed and calibrated first, and the film press works on a panel that is already flat.

How many pours does phenolic glue shuttering ply give compared with melamine glue?

Phenolic glue shuttering ply gives up to about 25 pours, against about 12–15 pours for melamine (MUF) glue, when both are handled properly, coated with release agent before every pour and kept with sealed edges, including every cut edge. Budget film-faced panels typically give about 4–10 pours under the same care.

The pour count is a target for a build and a site, not a fixed property of the sheet. The glue sets how long the plies hold together in wet cycles. The film weight sets how long the face lasts under vibrators and cleaning. Site practice sets whether either of them gets the chance: a panel dropped on its corner, stripped with a steel bar or stacked wet in the sun loses pours that no glue can give back.

The way to choose between them is cost per pour: divide the delivered price of a sheet by the pours you expect from it on your site. A phenolic panel that costs more per sheet often costs less per pour on a job that will use it twenty times, and a MUF panel is the better buy where the programme ends after a dozen. Our note on pours per panel works through the arithmetic, and the phenolic film-faced plywood and melamine film-faced plywood pages list each build.

Is shuttering ply waterproof if the cut edges are not sealed?

No. A shuttering ply sheet is water-resistant only while its film and edge paint are whole: once a cut edge is left bare, water enters the end grain, the core swells at that edge and the glue lines there take wet cycles they were never protected from. Paint every cut edge before the panel goes back into the form.

The film and the glue are waterproof in the sense that matters on site: a phenolic or MUF glue line does not dissolve in a wet pour, and the film does not let water through the face. Wood, though, still takes up water through any surface that is open. The end grain at an edge is the most open surface a panel has, and a fresh saw cut exposes it along the whole cut.

What happens at an unsealed edge follows a fixed order. The edge swells first, so the joint with the next sheet stands proud and prints a line on the concrete. Then the outer plies near the edge lift, because the swollen wood pulls on the glue line every time it wets and dries. Finally the film lifts at that edge and the sheet is cut back or thrown away, often after a third of the pours it could have given.

The habit that prevents it is short:

1. Cut panels on a clean bench, not on the deck.
2. Paint the cut edge with an edge sealant or a water-resistant paint the same day.
3. Seal drilled holes for tie rods the same way.
4. Repaint chipped corners when the panel is cleaned after stripping.

What is the difference between structural plywood and shuttering ply?

Structural plywood is plywood whose strength and stiffness are declared for a building that stays up for decades; shuttering ply is plywood chosen for how it survives pours and strips from concrete. The same sheet can be both: our film-faced panels are covered by a CE factory production control certificate for structural plywood, and certified to the Australian formwork plywood standard.

In Europe the dividing line is the Construction Products Regulation. Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 defines factory production control as the documented, permanent and internal control of production in a factory. Structural plywood carries a CE mark only when that control is in place and checked. The harmonised standard for wood-based panels in construction is EN 13986, which covers characteristics, evaluation of conformity and marking of wood-based panels for use in construction.

Our CE route is EN 13986:2004+A1:2015 under AVCP System 2+, with factory production control certificate 0407-CPR-2146 from Istituto Giordano, notified body 0407. Its scope is plywood for structural use in dry, humid and external conditions, 3.6–30 mm, with MUF or phenolic glue. A panel ordered as structural CE plywood therefore falls inside 3.6–30 mm, and its performance values per thickness come on the declaration of performance. The CE marking page shows the certificate, and the structural CE plywood page lists the panels inside its scope.

The use classes come from the plywood standard itself. EN 636 specifies requirements for plywood for general purposes or structural application in dry, humid or exterior conditions. Formwork is wet work, so shuttering ply is ordered as humid or exterior plywood, and the bonding class behind that comes from the EN 314 tests. EN 314-2 specifies requirements for bonding classes of veneer plywood according to their end uses. Its companion part, EN 314-1, sets the test methods.

Other markets use their own names for the same question:

Which thickness and sheet size of shuttering ply suits slabs and walls?

Slabs and walls are usually formed with 18 mm shuttering ply in 1220 × 2440 mm or 1250 × 2500 mm sheets; 21 mm goes on wider support spacing, heavy walls and fair-faced work, while 12 and 15 mm cover edges, kickers, columns and curved forms. The support spacing in your formwork design decides the final thickness.

Thickness buys stiffness. A thicker panel bends less between joists or studs, so the concrete face stays flatter and the joints stay closed. It also adds weight that the crew lifts on every strike. Our mills press 9–40 mm, and the everyday formwork thicknesses are 12, 15, 18 and 21 mm.

The sheet size follows the formwork system. 1220 × 2440 mm (8 × 4 ft) is the standard in the Gulf, India, Africa and the UK merchant trade. 1250 × 2500 mm is the common size for European systems and beam decks. We press both, cut to a cutting list for frame systems, and press nothing larger than 1250 × 2500 mm. Length and width tolerance is ±2 mm and thickness tolerance ±0.5 mm. Our 21 mm film-faced plywood note covers the heavier sheet in detail.

Which core is better for shuttering ply, Acacia or Eucalyptus?

Both cores make good shuttering ply; the choice is weight against stiffness and freight. Acacia is lighter, about 580 kg/m³ in our planning, so a 40HC carries about 47 m³ and crews lift less. Eucalyptus is denser, about 650 kg/m³ and measured 650–750 kg/m³, so a sheet is heavier and stiffer, and a 40HC reaches its weight limit at about 43 m³.

What changes for the buyer is mostly the container and the crew. A lighter Acacia sheet means more cubic metres per container and less freight per sheet. A denser Eucalyptus sheet holds nails and screws a little better and feels firmer under foot on a deck, but every sheet weighs more and the container fills by weight before it fills by space.

The glue and the film decide the pour count more than the species does. A phenolic glue line on Acacia outlasts a MUF glue line on Eucalyptus on a long wall programme. Choose the core for the weight your crew and your container can take, then choose the glue for the pours you need.

How much does a sheet weigh, and what does 30 kg shuttering ply mean?

A shuttering ply sheet weighs its density times its volume: an 18 mm sheet of 1220 × 2440 mm holds 0.0536 m³, so it weighs about 31.1 kg at 580 kg/m³ (Acacia) and about 34.8 kg at 650 kg/m³ (Eucalyptus). When an Indian listing sells “30 kg shuttering plywood”, the kilograms describe the sheet weight, not the thickness.

Indian buyers often order by weight because weight is a quick check on density and glue. The same 30 kg means very different panels at different thicknesses:

A 30 kg sheet at 18 mm is close to our 18 mm Acacia panel. A 30 kg sheet at 12 mm, or a 50 kg sheet at 18 mm, implies a density far above plantation hardwood veneer, so weigh a sample sheet on a scale before you compare offers by the kilogram. Our plywood sheet weight calculator gives the weight for any thickness and core.

Shuttering plywood prices in the UK, India and Saudi Arabia (November 2026)

In November 2026, shuttering plywood prices on retail and trade sites ran from about £20–26 for an 18 mm softwood sheet in the UK to SAR 102.64 with VAT for an 18 mm film-faced sheet in Saudi Arabia. Indian listings showed ₹60–90 per square foot for film-faced sheets. Our own price is an FOB Hai Phong offer per cubic metre for the build you specify.

Each row below is a listed price as shown on the day we checked it; local prices move with stock, exchange rates and VAT.

Before the 15% VAT, the Saudi sheet price is about SAR 89.25. An 8 × 4 ft sheet holds 32 sq ft, so ₹90 per sq ft is about ₹2,880 a sheet and ₹60 per sq ft about ₹1,920 a sheet. The UK rows are softwood sheets without film; the Saudi and Indian rows are film-faced. A container price per cubic metre turns into a sheet price only after freight, duty and local delivery, which our construction plywood price drivers note breaks down line by line.

How many sheets of 18 mm shuttering ply fit in a 40HC?

A 40HC holds about 880 sheets of 18 mm Acacia-core shuttering ply in 1220 × 2440 mm (16 packs of 55 sheets, about 47.2 m³), or about 795 sheets with a Eucalyptus core (15 packs of 53, about 42.6 m³), where the weight limit stops the load first. These are planning figures until the packing list is made.

The planning model stacks packs about 1,000 mm high, 16 packs for Acacia and 15 for Eucalyptus, and caps the load at a planning payload of 28,000 kg of panels, which the carrier and route confirm. Sheets per pack are 1,000 mm divided by the thickness, rounded down, then capped by weight.

For 1250 × 2500 mm sheets at 18 mm, the planning figure is 848 sheets (16 × 53, about 47.7 m³) with Acacia and 750 sheets (15 × 50, about 42.2 m³) with Eucalyptus. Every figure in this section is a planning figure: real sheets are weighed before final loading, and the packing list is the number that counts. The 40HC loading page shows how packs go in.

Film weight and colour: what the face does on each pour

The film weight, written in grams per square metre (g/m²), is the number that sets how long the face lasts; the colour does not. Heavier film carries more phenolic resin into the face and takes more vibrator, rebar and scraper wear before the wood shows through.

Black and dark brown film are both phenolic-impregnated paper. Colour helps a site tell grades or suppliers apart and shows release-agent coverage on the face, but a black sheet with a light film wears through sooner than a brown sheet with a heavy one. Write the film weight on the order beside the colour, and ask for the film brand if your site has a preference.

A heavier film does not change the glue line. A 185 g/m² film on a MUF glue line still has the bond life of MUF, so a buyer who wants twenty pours orders the phenolic glue and a film weight to match. The face finish follows the film too: a smooth film gives a smooth fair-faced finish, and an anti-slip pattern belongs on decks and walkways, not on a concrete face that will be seen.

Site practice that sets the pour count

Release agent on every pour, sealed edges, careful stripping, cleaning and flat dry storage are what turn a rated pour count into real pours. A panel that skips them loses pours whatever its glue.

1. Coat before every pour. Apply a thin, even coat of release agent to the film. A dry face lets cement paste bond to the film and tear it at stripping.
2. Strip with wood, not steel. Lever panels with timber wedges or a stripping tool, never a crowbar on the face or the corners.
3. Clean the face at once. Scrape off paste with a plastic or wooden scraper and wash the face while the residue is soft.
4. Seal every cut and hole. Paint cut edges and tie-rod holes the same day, and touch up chipped edge paint after cleaning.
5. Store flat and covered. Stack panels flat on bearers, film to film, out of standing water and direct sun, and never on their edges in rain.
6. Handle by the long edges. Carry sheets flat, and do not drop them on a corner: a crushed corner is the most common reason a panel leaves the job early.

Pour counts in this note assume these habits. On a site that keeps them, the difference between a MUF and a phenolic panel shows up in the count; on a site that does not, both fall toward the budget range of about 4–10 pours.

Which Vietnamese factories supply film-faced shuttering ply to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf?

PK Ply is one of them: we make film-faced shuttering ply at our two mills in Chi Linh, Hai Phong, Vietnam, ship up to 150 containers a month across the two mills, and sell FOB Hai Phong, CFR or CIF to the Gulf and other markets. A Middle East port is typically 15–25 days at sea from Hai Phong, depending on carrier and route.

Vietnam has many plywood mills in the north of the country, and they serve different segments. Some press furniture plywood, some commercial and packing plywood, some budget film-faced panels, and some premium film-faced panels. Before you place a shuttering order with any of them, check five things:

1. Own presses. Ask which mill presses the panel and whether you can visit it or join a video call from the line.
2. The build in writing. The quote should name core species, glue system, film weight, thickness tolerance and edge sealing, not only “film-faced plywood 18 mm”.
3. Test evidence with its context. A bonding test should state the specimen, the method and the date.
4. Certificates with numbers. FSC chain of custody, CE factory production control and other certificates carry a number you can check with the issuer.
5. Terms that match a mill. A mill quotes per container, sets a production time after the deposit and loads at its own port.

Our answers: two own mills; the build fixed on a technical sheet for every order; an SGS specimen report with method and date; FSC chain of custody SGSHK-COC-370674 and CE factory production control 0407-CPR-2146; one 40HC minimum and loading at Hai Phong. The importing construction plywood from Vietnam note covers documents, duty and freight for the whole route.

Test reports and certificates behind our shuttering ply

Our shuttering ply is backed by an SGS test on a 21 mm phenolic specimen, an FSC chain of custody certificate, a CE factory production control certificate for structural plywood, AS 6669:2016 certification as formwork plywood and ISO 9001 quality management.

The SGS figures describe the specimen that was tested: one 21 mm Acacia-core phenolic panel, with its method and date. They show what that build achieves; a different thickness, core or glue gets its own report when a project calls for one. “Not detected” means below the 0.04 mg/m³ reporting limit, which is an E1 result, not an E0 claim. The full test is set out in our note on the SGS 21 mm phenolic specimen.

For FSC orders, the certified material can cover core, face and back, and the claim appears on the invoice. FSC labels products as FSC 100%, FSC Recycled or FSC Mix, and our certificate covers FSC 100% and FSC Mix plywood. The FSC plywood page shows the certificate scope.

How to write a shuttering ply specification for a container quote

A shuttering ply quote needs eight lines: application and pour target, core species, glue, film weight and colour, thickness, sheet size, edge sealing and quantity, plus the port of discharge. With those lines, two offers can be compared panel for panel and price per pour.

Our standard terms follow from that sheet. The minimum order is one 40HC, which carries one or two products and up to six by agreement. Production takes 15–45 days after the 30% deposit, and the 70% balance is paid against the scanned bill of lading by T/T or by irrevocable L/C at sight. We sell FOB Hai Phong, CFR or CIF.

Samples are free: new buyers book their own courier, and that cost can be credited against a real order. Send the eight lines through our specification form or by email to [email protected], and we return a build sheet with an FOB Hai Phong offer. You can also compare your current supplier’s sheet with ours line by line on the film-faced plywood page.