OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
Weyerhaeuser has announced the planned reopening of its Hudson Bay, Sask. oriented strand board (OSB) plant, which has been shutdown since July of 2008. The company says a majority of the plant’s workforce will be recalled by July 6th.
“The Hudson Bay OSB mill is important to our OSB system, and we expect its resumed operation will help us optimize production across our facilities as the market recovers,” says Cathy Slater, vice president iLevel Engineered Wood Products. “Our initial emphasis will be providing extensive safety and operational training and making sure returning associates can run the equipment safely and reliably. By taking this step now, we’re able to make arrangements for securing the contract harvesting and hauling capacity necessary to deliver wood to the facility and are able to refrain from paying significant closure costs that were not incurred as part of the original curtailment.”
The mill has an annual capacity of 550 million square ft. of OSB (3/8 inch basis) and employed about 170 people in 2008. The company has said that volume will be limited in 2010 and future volume is dependent on customer demand and other economic factors.
While it was good news for Weyerhaeuser employees in Saskatchewan, Tembec employees in northern Ontario received word last week of temporary shutdowns this summer. The company has said affected operations include the Kapuskasing, Chapleau, Cochrane and Hearst sawmills. Kapuskasing will be shutdown for one week, Chapleau will be down for three weeks and both Cochrane and Hearst will be curtailed for six weeks.
The company blamed the “rapid and significant appreciation of the value of the Canadian dollar” for the curtailments, along with “continued weak markets for lumber” and “the related need to manage inventories and working capital.”
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