Skeena Sawmills Suspends Terrace, B.C. Sawmill Production for One Week Due to Lack of Logs

Skeena Sawmills has announced that they are temporarily suspended operations at their Terrace, B.C. sawmill this week. This is the result of a lack of sufficient log deck to justify operations. The mill is scheduled to re-open next week.

In an email dated November 23, 2021, company official Roger Keery said, “Going back to the second quarter of 2021, we have never been able to build an adequate log inventory to maintain production through these interruptions. We have had problems getting logs due to fire restrictions during the summer, rain, road washouts, and now snow.”

Keery went onto say, “This is particularly true of truck drivers, and this has limited their capacity to deliver wood. Keeping ahead of mill consumption has been a challenge all year. We lost more than a month of our chip production program this fall because of a shortage of chip truck drivers and now its logging truck drivers. This has caused ongoing difficultly in meeting our log production budget.”

On top of that, the mill’s sister company, the pellet-producing Skeena Bioenergy, is also being threatened with closure next door. Last week’s massive flooding in southern B.C. — which washed out rail tracks and bridges — is affecting its ability to ship out its product.