Major Canadian sawmill operator cuts lumber production
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
June 22, 2001
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Slocan Forest Products Ltd. is cutting lumber production and will lay off workers because of slumping markets.
Output from the company's sawmills in British Columbia will be slashed by 60 million board feet this summer, and 30 million board feet in the fall, the Vancouver-based company said.
Slocan's annual capacity is 1.5 billion board feet, about 375 million per quarter.
Chief financial officer Ron Price said most of the company's 4,000 directly employed and contracted workers would face temporary layoffs as Slocan sawmills are shut down for two weeks in the third quarter and one week in the fourth.
The "market-related curtailment" is intended to balance supply with anticipated lumber demand for the rest of the year, Price said.
Slocan lost $2.8 million in the three months ending March 31, compared with a profit of $20.7 million in the first quarter last year, but blamed that loss on pulp and paper operations and building product sales, saying lumber operations were profitable.