Jun 24, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. Austrian sawmilling group Mayr-Melnhof has become the latest big name casualty of the global economic downturn with the news that it is closing its sawmill in Amstetten (Austria). The company blamed the “difficult economic situation in the domestic and international timber industry” and the loss of key sales in the UK and US for its decision to close the plant from September 30 this year. A spokesperson for Mayr-Melnhof said the collapse of the housing markets and the construction crisis in the US, Britain and the United Arab Emirates had had a big impact on exports of heavy timber – with no easing of the situation expected. The mill employs 74 people, to whom Mayr-Melnhof has offered additional financial support. The sawmill has a spruce log sawing capacity of around 200,000 cubic meters. The Mayr-Melnhof Wood Group has a Eur 640 million annual turnover, with a head office and sawmill in Leoben, mills in Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Russia, and four wood-processing plants.