B.C. Lumber Mill Signals Month-Long Temporary Shutdown

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The acute shortage of wood supply has led to temporary suspension of production at a B.C. area lumber mill. According to Norbord Inc.-the world’s largest producer of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), it has decided to implement temporary shutdown of its OSB mill located in 100 Mile House, British Colombia, on account of shortage of wood. Under the current circumstances, the suspension is expected to last nearly a month from around May 14, 2018.

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The company cited several reasons leading to the shortage of woods. Firstly, the wildfires that hit the province during summer last year had caused extensive damages to logging areas surrounding the mill facility. Coupled with this, the severe cold weather conditions during winter caused constraints for loggers to access the forests. Incidentally, this affected the mill operations badly, as it is the time when the mills generally build their annual log inventory to cater to improved market conditions following winter slump. In fact, the above two factors impacted the wood supply, which in turn led to continuous breaks in production for almost a month during this period.

The Norbord management stated that the 100 Mile mill continue to receive log deliveries during the temporary shutdown period. The decision will curtail the total annual production from the mill, which is estimated to have a production capacity of around 440 million square feet of lumber per year. Further, the shutdown is feared to have an impact of approximately USD 5 Million in Q2 2018 financial results. Meantime, the company noted that customer orders will be met by increased production from its other OSB mills.

Norbord is a leading global manufacturer of wood-based panels. It employs approximately 2,750 people across 17 facilities located in the US, Canada and Europe.