Recently Reopened BC Sawmill Forced To Close
A northwestern British Columbia sawmill has shut down after only a few months of it’s reopening, due to a rapid decline in lumber demand.
The Kitwanga Sawmill near Hazelton reopened July 8, 2011 with optimism that the B.C. forest sector was rebounding from a steep downturn, but mill owner Pacific Bioenergy announced recently that they have temporary shut down because of market events that were completely unforeseen when they started up this summer. The mill’s 45 employees and staff have been laid off temporarily.
Lumber prices have tumbled from a high in the $300 US range for 1,000 board feet in early 2011 to $229 US, which is below break-even for all but a handful of B.C. mills.
“We started the mill in the early summer period. All the experts leading up to that period in time were predicting stronger market outlooks,” said Wayne Young, Pacific Bioenergy’s president. Young also said the company is looking into options such as custom cutting lumber to keep the mill running until prices improve for commodity lumber. Pacific Bioenergy also has plans to build a pellet plant at Kitwanga.
Latest News
U.S. Housing Starts Take Another Dip, Single-Family Declines For Fifth Straight Month
U.S. housing starts, both single-family and multi-family, took a hard hit in July, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development monthly new residential construction report…
New Cleereman Optimized Edger Hits The Mark
Cleereman Industries/Cleereman Controls, which introduced their edger line in the spring of 2021, reports the installation of seven edgers and has sold more than 30. Jay Glime of G&G Lumber in Florence, Wis. and Jon Ritcher of Shamco Lumber in Iron River, Mich. both replaced existing manual edgers with Cleereman optimized edgers. Both of these mills average more than 40MBF per day with Cleereman optimized carriage lines…
Mercer Purchases Germany’s HIT
Mercer International Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the parent company of HIT (Holz Industrie Torgau) for €270 million. HIT owns, among other things, 100% of a timber processing and value-add pallet production facility in Torgau, Germany and a wood processing facility in Dahlen, Germany that produces garden products…
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.