Western Forest Products, Weyerhaeuser, and Interfor all this week announced sawmill upgrades or added shifts.
Sawmill Upgrades
Nanaimo, BC’s, Western Forest Products is spending $30 million to upgrade three Vancouver Island sawmills, as part of a $125-million capital plan by the company to become more competitive and line up new markets. The Duke Point, BC, operation is receiving $28 million in improvements to modernize the sawmill and its planer mill.
Another $2 million is being invested in the company’s Chemainus and Ladysmith sawmills, also in BC.
Meanwhile, Weyerhaeuser’s Philadelphia, PA, lumber mill continues its planned, 10-month, US$57 million expansion and modernization, the company said in a press release Saturday. The mill’s expansion will include five key additions to its operations over the next year.
Elsewhere, Interfor has added 50 new jobs at its Thomaston, GA, Sawmill, adding a second shift and doubling production. That mill now has 139 employees and a capacity of 170 million board feet of southern yellow pine lumber annually.