Canfor Plans New Sawmill In Louisiana

Canfor Corp. announced it will invest $160 million to build a new sawmill near DeRidder, La. The facility will have an annual production capacity of 250MMBF on a two-shift basis and will employ 130. Startup is expected to commence late in the third quarter of 2022.

The investment in Louisiana is in addition to the $300 million of 2021 capital spending, including about $200 million for the solid wood and pulp operations in Western Canada and $100 million for the solid wood operations in the U.S. South.

Given the decision to build a new facility in Louisiana, Canfor will not be proceeding with the greenfield project in Washington, Ga. that was announced in 2018.

BID Group reported it has received the order from Canfor to deliver the greenfield sawmill complex in Beauregard Parish. The new operation will incorporate the full spectrum of BID’s processing technologies including equipment, software, automation systems, artificial intelligence enabled optimization, and plant-wide Industry 4.0 solution, Oper8.

BID’s Integrated Solutions Team will provide the design, engineering, planning, fabrication and installation services. The sustainment of the plant’s operational life cycle excellence will be supported by BID’s Reliability program, which will provide comprehensive service, parts, consumables and upgrades. The project will incorporate leading-edge solutions from Rockwell Automation, BID’s strategic partner.

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