CANFOR MILL REOPENS
Good news on Canada’s forest industry has been making headlines lately, including an announcement this week that Canfor Corporation will restart its Quesnel, B.C. sawmill in June.
In a company-issued news release, Canfor said, “the decision to restart operations in Quesnel comes as a result of the Company’s ability to find alternative markets for the mill’s softwood lumber.” The news release went on to explain that the Quesnel mill will produce approximately 200 million board feet of spruce-pine-fir lumber annually, all of which will be in metric sizes (about 700,000 cubic metres) for various markets in China. The reopening of the mill will put about 155 employees back to work.
“This is a good example of Canfor’s commitment to China,” said Canfor president and CEO Jim Shepard. “It marks the first time our company has aligned a sawmill to one country. Providing this dedicated production into the Chinese market shows our confidence in the growing demand in this developing market.”
Canfor is a Vancouver, B.C.-based major integrated forest products company with operations in B.C., Alberta, Quebec, Washington State and North and South Carolina.
In other news, Avrim Lazar, the CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), said, “Canada’s forest industry is on the verge of a strong recovery, although a focus on expanding new markets remains vital.” Lazar was speaking to the media while in Vancouver for the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Forest and Paper Industry Conference. He added, “the biggest market (for forest products) is still the U.S., but we’re growing like crazy in China.”
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