Poor weather conditions have prompted Western Forest Products to extend shutdowns at three of its sawmills.
Poor weather conditions have prompted Western Forest Products to extend shutdowns at three of its sawmills.
Heavy rainfalls, localized flooding, followed by an early snowfall in November, resulted in a short-term log shortage, leading WFP to shut down its Alberni Pacific Division, Chemainus and Somass sawmills the week before Christmas, in addition to the normal shutdown period between Christmas and New Year’s.
“Although we expect and plan for some weather outages, this year’s unusually severe November, and prolonged snow ground cover into December, have resulted in harvest levels being about 50% of the approximately one million cubic metres we would normally expect for the November and early December period,” president and CEO Reynold Hert said of the situation. “Outside log purchases are also affected since other timber harvesting operators have been impacted by the unusual weather.”
The company further confirmed that additional downtime may be needed on a periodic basis in the first quarter of 2007, until the log inventory is reestablished.
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