Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited
August 10, 2000

VANCOUVER, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Western Canada-based Slocan Forest Products (Toronto:SFF.TO - news) said on Thursday it will shut down its timber operations for two weeks in late August because of a glut in the North American lumber market.

Slocan said that its sawmills have been operating at a profit despite oversupply in the market, but that curtailing the operations ``will enable the company to keep inventories in balance.''

The company said the shutdown and another one already planned for the Christmas season would reduce its lumber production by about 100 million board feet.

Slocan is the latest western Canadian timber producer to put the brakes on production. Weyerhaeuser Canada (NYSE:WY - news) this week said three mills in Interior British Columbia would shut their rough lumber production lines for five days each.

Weyerhaeuser did not estimate how much production would be curbed and said planers and kiln dryers at the mills would continue to operate at normal rates. ``All we're trying to do is reduce our rough-lumber inventories,'' a company official said.

Canfor Corp last month said it planned an additional 80 million board feet of curtailments. The timing and extent of the shutdowns would vary from mill to mill, the company said.

Slocan has an annual production capacity of 1.5 billion board feet of lumber, 30,000 cubic meters of laminated beams, 300 million square feet of plywood and 510 million square feet of oriented strand board (OSB).

Slocan announced the shutdown after the close of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, a day that saw its shares close 5 Canadian cents higher at C$9.00. They have traded between C$8.50 and C$14.50 in the past 52 weeks.

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