News in mill capacity changes

In reporting on their Q1 2021 results, Interfor Corporation announced capacity-expanding spending projects. Interfor stated that the company has received Board approval to proceed with strategic capital investments at its sawmills in Castlegar, BC and Perry, Georgia of approximately $35 million and US$30 million, respectively.

West Fraser Timber Company released their Q1 2021 earnings report on Thursday (5-6-21) in preparation for their earnings call on Friday, May 7, 2021. In the report, West Fraser announced in their lumber segment they expected to invest approximately $150 million at five of their U.S. South lumber mills under the strategic capital program.

Increasing timber sales from the San Juan National Forest is boosting the supply of available timber to the eight operational sawmills in Montezuma County, Colorado. The local mills are taking that timber and creating everything from wood paneling, plywood, excelsior, flooring, construction lumber, mine cribbing, to furniture.

NewLife Forest Restoration, on Friday (4-23-21) held a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new 425,000 square foot sawmill facility in Bellemont Arizona. NewLife currently holds the largest contract with the United States Forest Service for logging operations associated with the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, also called 4FRI.

Biewer Lumber Company, with corporate headquarters in St. Clair Michigan, held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday (4-21-21) at the site of their new state-of-the-art sawmill in Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi. When operating at full capacity the mill will provide over a hundred new jobs in the area.

West Fraser Timber Company has announced that it is once again producing and shipping OSB panels to customers from their Chambord, Quebec mill. The Chambord facility had been shuttered since 2008 but returned to life when West Fraser took possession of the mill via its acquisition of Norbord.

The Quesnel Investment Corporation (QIC) has announced that it has sold the mill operation assets of the bankrupt C&C Wood Products Company, which they bought in 2020, to Kandola Forest Products (KFP) a Williams Lake forestry company. QCI says it intends to continue to operate the logging portion (Westside Logging) of the business separately.

EACOM Timber Corporation, a major Eastern Canadian wood products company, which owns and operates seven sawmills, a remanufacturing facility, and an engineered I-joist plant, today announced it was investing $8.9M to equip its Elk Lake sawmill with a new, state-of-the art, continuous dry kiln (CDK). The CDK kiln is expected to be fully operational by early fall and will allow for continuous drying of lumber, reducing production bottlenecks and energy consumption.

Paper Excellence has announced that due to its inability to access ‘economic fiber’, they intend to permanently close their pulp mill in Mackenzie, B.C. The closure of pulp and paper mills in B.C. has been predicted. The result of the permanent closure of several sawmills over the past several years.

British energy company Drax, which owns the world’s largest biomass power station, located in the United Kingdom and wood pellet mills in the southern United States, has announced that purchase of wood pellet producer Pinnacle Renewable Energy, originally announced in late February 2021, has been officially completed.