- Canfor (TSX:CFP) announced that it will close two of its sawmills based in Northern British Columbia by the end of the year
- The Vancouver-based logging giant will shut down its Plateau and Fort St. John operations, affecting around 500 employees, and will remove 670 million board feet of annual production capacity from its B.C. operations
- Canfor blamed the mill closures on “increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber,” as well as persistent challenges accessing economic fibre, ongoing financial losses, weak lumber markets and increased U.S. tariffs
- Canfor (TSX:CFP) stock opened trading at C$14.02
Canfor (TSX:CFP) announced that it will close two of its sawmills based in Northern British Columbia by the end of the year.
The Vancouver-based logging giant will shut down its Plateau and Fort St. John operations, affecting around 500 employees, and will remove 670 million board feet of annual production capacity from its B.C. operations.
Canfor blamed the mill closures on “increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber,” as well as persistent challenges accessing economic fibre, ongoing financial losses, weak lumber markets and increased U.S. tariffs.
“Our company has proudly operated in B.C. for more than 85 years, supporting jobs and economic activity in communities around this province. During that time, we have always been prepared to manage through challenging times and market fluctuations, recognizing the cyclical nature of our business. However, in recent years, increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber to support our manufacturing facilities has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in our B.C. operations,” Canfor’s president and CEO, Don Kayne, said in a news release.
He added that with the dramatic reduction in available timber supply, the company intends to explore opportunities to divest some of its Northern B.C. tenure, which may help support other forest companies in the province facing the same significant challenges in accessing economic fibre.
According to data from Statistics Canada, B.C. lost more than 40,000 forest-sector jobs over the past three decades.
In a statement, Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen said this news is a significant hit to the community and the families directly affected.
“City Council has worked closely with industry partners like Canfor through recent challenging times, and we remain committed to advocating for better regulatory conditions to support our local economy and workforce,” she said.
The forest company’s problems aren’t limited to B.C., the company also announced that it will reduce production at its southern U.S. operations.
Canfor Corp. is an integrated forest products company involved in manufacturing high-value, low-carbon forest products. The company operates through two segments: lumber segment and pulp and paper segment. The company’s solid wood products include dimension lumber, specialty lumber and engineered wood products.
Canfor (TSX:CFP) stock opened trading at C$14.02 and has lost 21.46 per cent since the beginning of the year.
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(Top photo: File)