Resolute's Ignace, Ontario Saw Mill to Restart Production in July

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Resolute Forest Products announced its decision to extend the shutdown at Ignace, Ontario saw mill into July this year. It had announced shutdown initially on April 11, for a period of two months, which is about to expire. The mill was supposed to resume operations this week. The deteriorating market conditions and technical issues with the saw mill’s kilns are cited as the reasons for the extension of downtime.

According to sources, the saw mill will now resume production only in July, while the kilns will remain out of service until mid-September this year.

Meantime, company spokesperson said that the impacted workers will be eligible for unemployment benefits for the extended period. At the same time, the affected employees are being assisted by the company in pursuing job opportunities at its nearby Atikokan and Thunder Bay mills.

Resolute had recently allocated investment of $5.4 million towards optimization of Atikokan, Ignace and Thunder Bay sawmills. 

It must be remembered that many major Canadian lumber companies including West Fraser, Canfor, Conifex Timber and Western Forest Products have announced extended production curtailments, citing challenging lumber market conditions, high log costs, constrained log supply and falling lumber prices. The U.S. import tariffs too have played a key role in the sector’s downturn.
Incidentally, the Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. have dropped significantly from 645 million board feet in 2017 to as low as 514 million board feet in 2018.