Header: Header: Header:

Interfor Permanently Closes Its Beaver-Forks Mill Operations

Interfor has pulled the plug on its West End operations, planning to close two facilities and consolidate production in Port Angeles, the timber company announced Thursday. The closure affects 52 workers at the Beaver sawmill and another 35 at the Forks planer mill, officials said. “To the greatest extent possible, we will be offering them positions at Port Angeles or at other operations in our company,” said Karen Brandt, director of public affairs for Interfor Corp. in Vancouver, B.C.

Interfor’s West End mill and planer, which work hand in hand, have been on hiatus for about a month. A curtailment of the Beaver-Forks operation was phased in beginning June 27, 2014. Employees were told Thursday that the closure was being made permanent. “It’s really about so many factors, like market conditions for finished products and timber supply problems for that mill,” Brandt said. “These issues have been a recurring theme on the North Olympic Peninsula.”

By closing the West End sawmill and planer, the company plans to “provide some extra investment in Port Angeles,” Brandt said. It plans to increase capacity and optimize operations at the Interfor Pacific mill just west of Port Angeles, which employes about 120, Brandt said. Brandt could not say how many West End workers would be transferred to Port Angeles. The company will evaluate existing opportunities and “where there might be further opportunities down the road as we begin to invest in that operation some more,” she said.

In announcing the curtailment of the West End operation June 24, Steve Kroll, Interfor general manager for Washington operations, said the Beaver mill has been particularly hard hit by difficult market conditions and a “challenging fiber supply that is further aggravated by the impacts from log exports.” The Beaver mill had been operating on a 40-hour-per-week schedule, which is “difficult to maintain,” Kroll said. The curtailment and closure of the Beaver-Forks operation was noted in a Thursday press release about Interfor’s second-quarter performance.

From the Peninsula Daily News: peninsuladailynews.com.

RELATED ARTICLES

Interfor Purchases Four Sawmills From GP

Interfor Is Purchasing WestRock Summerville Sawmill

Interfor Lays Off Gilchrist Staff

Latest News

Roseburg Names Tony Ramm Senior VP

Roseburg announced that Tony Ramm has been named Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Labor, overseeing the company’s human resources, benefits and compensation, recruitment, and environmental health and safety teams.

When He Talks People Listen

Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Editor, Timber Processing January/February 2024
Some of the smartest men and women in the industry have graced the pages of this magazine—and have won the award of Timber Processing Person of the Year. They’ve all been incredibly worthy of this recognition for innovation, commitment and love of the industry they serve. Perhaps none have been quite as innovative as the introverted sawmiller from Georgia named Levi Anderson Pollard, V, whose name is on two of the patents that changed the way the sawmilling world manufactures and dries lumber (and on so many other patents as well).

Industry Says Goodbye To Walter Jarck

Walter Jarck, whose career in the forest products industry spanned 65 years and ranged from logging machinery to engineered wood products, died January 3, surrounded by his children, in North Wilkesboro, NC. He was 92.

Find Us On Social

Newsletter

The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.

 

Subscribe/Renew

Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.

Advertise

Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.