New SYP Sawmill Stirs Up Dust

Looks like construction of the new Canfor $160 million southern yellow pine sawmill in DeRidder, La. is in motion, according to these photos taken by Senior Editor Jessica Johnson as she was passing through the area in early June on an assignment trip.

The greenfield project will be Canfor’s 16th U.S. operation. Canfor hired BID Group as the turnkey supplier. Running two shifts per day, the mill is expected to create 130 jobs, and 380 additional indirect jobs (across the logging, maintenance and industrial services, construction and retail sectors). Timber will be sourced from the sustainable, high-value resource in the DeRidder region; an estimated 1 million tons of sawtimber, or 38,000 truckloads of logs, will be required each year to meet the mill’s annual lumber production capacity of 250MMBF.

Canfor also recently announced it is investing $130 million to upgrade and expand its sawmill at Urbana, Ark.