A replacement woodyard at Resolute Forest Products’ Augusta, Georgia mill will likely be operational this month. The Augusta mill currently processes both wood and waste paper to produce approximately 400,000 tons of newsprint each year. The new, $30 million, three-acre woodyard will transition the facility to a pulping process that uses virgin Southern pine trees. The facility will no longer use waste paper to make pulp once the woodyard is complete.
Interfor has completed a new, $2.8-million Dual Path Kiln at its Swainsboro, Georgia sawmill. The prior kiln at the mill was destroyed in a fire over the 2012 Labor Day weekend. Construction of a new kiln at Interfor’s Baxley mill is also underway. The company expects the Baxley kiln will be operational late this year.
Interfor acquired the Swainsboro and Baxley mills from Rayonier in March. The deal also included a mill in Eatonton. A fourth mill in Thomaston was acquired from Keadle Lumber Enterprises in May. All together, the mills provide Interfor an annual production capacity upwards of two billion board feet.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation has struggled to return its Thomasville, Alabama OSB mill to operational capacity. Following a meteoric rise in housing starts, the company restarted the mill this past spring (read more: Pellet Manufacturers Face Increasing Competition from OSB Mills).
CEO Curtis Stevens attributed the difficulties to unanticipated maintenance work and software issues related to bringing the mill back online after a five-year absence. An explosion curtailed operations at the then-new mill in May 2008.
Georgia-Pacific has announced it will stop making uncoated freesheet paper at its Crossett, Arkansas mill sometime in November. The company citied reduced demand for uncoated freesheet paper and higher raw material costs as reasons to shut down uncoated free sheet production at the mill.
The shut down will remove 93,000 tons - just under one percent of national capacity –per year. The mill will continue to produce tissue, paper towels and bleached board.
After a four-year closure brought about by weak demand for wood products, Weyerhaeuser plans to resume production on its Trus Joist TJI joists and Microllam LVL lines at its Evergreen, Alabama facility. The restart is expected to lead to the hiring of 100 new employees by the end of 2014.
Increased customer demand for engineered wood products was cited for the decision to bring the Evergreen Trus Joist plant back online. The facility has an estimated annual production of 120 million lineal feet of TJI Joists and two million cubic feet of Microllam LVL.
J.D. Irving, Limited Sawmills Division plans construct on a new softwood sawmill in Ashland (Nashville Plantation), Maine. The $30 million investment includes biomass boilers, dry kilns, and a planer mill. The company will procure the round wood log supply for the new mill from its own woodlands and other timberland owners throughout the state.
Lumber produced at the mill will be certified by the Forest Stewardship (FSC) Council or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI); consumers will have the choice between the two environmental certifications. The new mill is expected to open in late Spring 2014 and create 60 permanent jobs.
Forest2Market: July 14, 2023
