Conifex Timber Curtails Shift at El Dorado Sawmill

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Conifex Timber Inc. announced its decision to implement one shift operations at its El Dorado sawmill. The change is already in effect starting June 4^th onwards. The shift reduction is aimed at optimizing and upgrading of mill operations, on account of poor market conditions, the company press release said. Consequently, the company expects the U.S. South lumber production to be impacted by approximately 5 million board feet during the second quarter of 2019.

Earlier in May this year, Conifex Timber had declared temporary production curtailments at two of its B.C. area sawmills starting May 6, 2019. A four weeks production curtailment was declared at Fort St. James, British Columbia sawmill. Also, it had curtailed production at its Mackenzie, British Columbia sawmill for three weeks. The company had blamed continued high log costs and deteriorating lumber market conditions as the reasons for the decision. The above curtailments were expected to reduce Conifex’s B.C. lumber output by nearly 24 million board feet.

Off late, several lumber majors have announced production cutbacks. A couple of days back, West Fraser had announced suspension of all mill activities for a period of one week at five of its B.C. sawmills. Also, Tolko Industries had announced two weeks downtime at two of its B.C area sawmills.