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Canfor Pulp declares force majeure on Prince George pulp mill in Prince George, following fire

Vancouver, BC — Canfor Pulp declared a force majeure at its Prince George unbleached and semi-bleached softwood kr…

Vancouver, BC — Canfor Pulp declared a force majeure at its Prince George unbleached and semi-bleached softwood kraft pulp mill in Prince George, BC, following the January 15th fire that damaged its woodchip processing and chip in-feed facilities, according to a report by ForestWeb.

CPLP expects to lose about 28,000 air-dried tonnes of pulp and it will not produce any market pulp during the outage, a company executive told Forestweb. All told, the pulp mill/dryer will be down for a full six weeks, he said.

“It is expected to take five weeks to implement interim measures to provide chip feed to the digesters and recommence pulp production at this mill,” the company said in an announcement to customers. CPLP said it would be contacting customers to discuss supply options aimed at minimizing any impact the force majeure might have on their business.

In order to keep the Prince George mill’s approximately 150,000 tonnes/year kraft sack paper machine running during the pulp outage, CPLP is trucking pulp to it from its 315,000 tonnes/year Intercontinental mill, also in Prince George.

One line of the two-line, two-digester 300,000 air-dried tonnes/year Prince George pulp mill feeds the paper machine.

The other line feeds a pulp dryer, to produce more than 150,000 tonnes/year for the market (about 120,000 tonnes/year of unbleached kraft pulp (UKP) and 35,000 tonnes/year of semi-bleached kraft pulp.)

In a press release, CPLP said it would be necessary to replace the chip screening facility. Once CPLP restarts pulp production, it intends to operate the mill utilizing a modified chip screen and feed system until a new chip screening facility can be built.

CPLP’s total market pulp capacity in Prince George is 1.060 million tonnes/year, produced at three mills. The third, Northwood, produces 590,000 tonnes/year of northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp.