News in mill capacity changes

Jacob Wadlington — a Trigg County Kentucky native who founded PJ Clark Lumber, based in Coppell, Texas, earlier this year — is returning to his family roots. Wadlington’s family has owned TW Lumber in Cadiz Kentucky and operated a sawmill there for over 25 years. Wadlington has announced that he will be opening a new lumber facility on Cerulean Road in Cadiz.

According to an article in the “Terrace Standard” newspaper, just weeks after announcing it was spending $100 million in Port Alberni, the San Group, based in Port Alberni, B.C., is now expressing its interest in building a sawmill in the Terrace, B.C. area. According to the article, the sawmill would process wood the company already acquires in the area and typically ships out for processing.

Huber Engineered Woods LLC (HEW), a subsidiary of J.M. Huber Corporation, announced today (6-21-21) that it will build a new oriented strand board (OSB) facility in Cohasset, MN. The plant will increase the company’s production of innovative ZIP System® and AdvanTech® structural panels.

PotlatchDeltic Corporation is confirming reports of a fire at their Ola, Arkansas, sawmill on the morning of Sunday June 13, 2021. The fire occurred in the primary log breakdown area of the mill. The planer mill, kiln and shipping department were not impacted by the blaze.

Resolute Forest Products Inc., announced on Thursday (6-10-21) that the company was making an additional capital investment of $50 million in its wood products operations to support its continued growth.

Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LP) announced that on Tuesday (6-8-21), it had broken ground on a $150 million conversion project at their mill in New Limerick, Maine (commonly known as LP Houlton) to turn out the LP siding and trim products.

Canfor Corporation announced today (6-8-21) that it will be investing approximately $160 million USD to construct a new, state-of-the-art sawmill near DeRidder, Louisiana. The facility will have an annual production capacity of 250 million board feet on a two-shift basis and will directly employ about 130 people, plus create significant additional indirect jobs.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2021, San Group announced that over the next year it plans to invest $100 million (CAD) into its Port Alberni forestry operations. There are four projects that will receive money from the investment. The largest portion of the investment of $50-60 million is part of an agreement to ship lumber via container ships from the city’s deep seaport.

According to the Federal Reserve Board, North American softwood sawmill capacity is at its greatest level since the Great Recession. Capacity increased by 1.4 billion board feet in the last year. And the vast majority of that increased capacity — 1.1 million board feet — is coming from the Southern U.S.