Conifex Timber Inc. is temporarily curtailing sawmill operations at its Fort St. James, British Columbia, Canada, sawmill for a two-week period commencing Monday, November 12, 2018, due primarily to log costs and current lumber market conditions. An additional two-week curtailment is planned around the Christmas period, resulting in a total reduction of approximately 15% of Conifex’s BC lumber production for the quarter.
“We have made the difficult decision to temporarily curtail our Fort St. James sawmill in 4Q due to the combined impact of increasing log costs, deteriorating log quality as the availability of commercially viable mountain pine beetle timber reaches an end, falling lumber prices, and punitive lumber export duty impositions,” said Ken Shields, Chair and CEO. “We are working on a priority basis to position Fort St. James for long term sustainable production in the lower lumber price, higher log cost environment we envisage for the balance of 2018 and 2019 and will be seeking to mitigate the impacts on our employees as much as possible.”
Conifex and its subsidiaries' primary business currently includes timber harvesting, reforestation, forest management, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, and value added lumber finishing and distribution.
