Gateway to Recovery
A new Prince George bare-bones sawmill is targeting beetle kill timber,
maximizing the return from this abundant resource.
by Bill Tice
The Prince George area holds many opportunities for value-added wood producers to further process low-grade lumber, but Sandy Long saw something most other companies didn’t — the opportunity to make gains with what he calls “value added timber.” Long is the secretary treasurer and general manager of Gateway Forest Products Ltd., a private company that was established in 2004 and processed its first log in November 2005.
“We saw the need for an outlet for low value fibre and there is lots of it here in the Prince George area with the infestation of the mountain pine beetle,” explains Long. “A few years ago we had three different companies interested in establishing a mill for what we knew would be a large volume of beetle killed wood. My family company, Longwood Production Ltd., was one and the other two, who both became major partners in this venture were Prince George, BC based family businesses owned by the Simms and Schroeder families.”
For Long, who has an extensive background in the forest industry, including a number of years in management positions with Canfor, the objective was to find a niche market for the lower value timber.
“Both myself and my son, Eric, saw this coming. He is a registered professional forester (RPF), so between us we have a lot of experience with the wood basket here in the Prince George region, and he has taken the role of woodlands manager at Gateway. You can always find a market for high value timber, but we recognized a real need for an outlet for the low value fibre.”
Armed with this knowledge, Sandy and his partners designed a mill to meet the log profile they knew they could access. “The larger companies are scooping up the bigger diameter timber so we designed our mill to efficiently handle the small stuff,” he explains. “We have a single small-log line, which these days is actually more of a medium-log line. Our best diet is wood that is in the 6-in to 12-in diameter range. To access this timber, we felt it was important to form alliances with small and large producers in the area, and we have been successful at that. We do get some larger diameter pine along with spruce and Douglas fir, and we trade this with other producers for the wood that fits our plant. For the really small timber, such as the 4- to 6-inch logs, we are working on a plan to merchandize this out to producers that are smaller than us that can benefit from it, or to the pellet and energy grade businesses. The drum I beat is cooperation for mutual benefit, as we feel this is necessary for as many companies as possible to benefit from this huge fibre supply that is rapidly deteriorating.”
Budget Mill
For Sandy and his partners, the mill became a reality on November 1, 2004, when they broke ground on an 18-ha site they lease from BC Rail, situated between the Prince George airport and the city centre. With a number of other wood products plants in the area, the site is served by rail and the Gateway property has its own rail spur. For the most part, Gateway secured used equipment from different sources and then reconditioned it on site. “We largely bought modern milling equipment with up to date controls and then upgraded it when we got it here,” explains Sandy. “It may not be the absolute latest gear, but it is very capable of accomplishing what we need it to do.”
A year after breaking ground, the mill started up. Products range from 2x3 6-ft to 2x10 16-ft, with one of the most popular being 9-ft studs cut from 18-ft logs. It is all rough lumber, which is then shipped over to nearby Dollar Saver Lumber for drying and planing. “We could set up kilns and a planer here, but at this point, it is better for us to send our product to Dollar Saver,” notes Sandy. “They need additional wood, so it is a win-win situation.”
Right now, Sandy says they are able to produce up to four million bdft per month, but he adds that the mill is capable of running 8 to 10 million bdft monthly. For 2007, they want to produce 40 million bdft, which is a target he says they should not have any trouble meeting. “We will run two 10-hr shifts, four days per week and we can always run a third shift if the demand is there.”
Most of the wood coming into the mill for production is cut to length (CTL) in the woods. Logs are sorted for size and quality, and then peelers for plywood production and house logs for the log home industry are removed and traded on the open market or through existing relationships. Size sorts include below seven inches, 7 to 10 inches, and 10 to 13 inches.
From the infeed, the logs are pushed up an incline to a 21-in VK Brunette debarker. The debarked logs are stored in sort bins and then processed through a simple X-Y scanner and an Optimil log turner before going through a Cancar (USNR) Chip-n-Saw infeed and an Optimil canter line. Downstream is a Ukiah (USNR) double vertical arbour 10-in saw box, which breaks the cants down into rough lumber before they are deposited onto a landing table. Next in line is an unscrambler, which is followed by a sort station where the rough lumber is directed to either a Schurman (USNR) edger with USNR optimization, or to a 20-bin Newnes sorter and automated stacker. The stacked lumber is then loaded onto Gateway’s own Super B truck for the 5-km trip to Dollar Saver, while chips are sent to Canfor’s pulp mills in Prince George.
Maximizing Throughput
Sandy says the biggest challenge now is getting the maximum potential out of all of the equipment. This was the case with the edger, which he says was not originally running. “We had been flying on one wing without the ability to edge, but with the edger now running we are seeing a major improvement. This piece of equipment will be a key part of the mill, and now runs at 400 fpm. It can run much faster if needed, and another mill in the area has two similar edgers running at about 1,100 fpm.”
For markets, Sandy says they are selling both in the Prince George area and to other parts of North America. A small amount of product is shipped overseas. “We are putting product into the local yards such as Home Hardware, and then we are working with Delta Pacific Lumber Sales Inc. in White Rock, BC, for domestic and international sales,” he says.
When asked about the new port being built in Prince Rupert, which is directly west of Prince George, Sandy says it will provide additional shipping options. “Right now our primary focus is on North America, but we are very flexible when it comes to markets. If the sales lead us to China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and India, we ill be there. The Asian markets will be served with container traffic and with the new port, we will be well positioned to move in that direction if we need to.”
Other challenges for Gateway include financing a project of this magnitude. “We have been working with HSBC, and they have been very supportive when it comes to financing this venture,” adds Sandy. “It is always difficult to go through the process of securing financing, but between the working relationship we have developed with HSBC and the cash our shareholders have been able to invest, we have done alright.”
The mill has around 35 employees plus management, and Sandy says they have kept some of the jobs in the family. “Our philosophy is that we have set this up largely as a family operation and by doing that we are supporting new generations of the families who had the foresight to invest in Gateway. But we are also providing jobs here in Prince George for nonfamily members, both at the mill and at spin off operations such as logging and silviculture. The bottom line is that we are seeing a lot of red trees out there, and we don’t want them to go to waste.”
