An additional 16 million board feet of capacity will be removed from Tolko’s lumber production as a result of the company extending downtown at its Soda Creek and Armstrong lumber mills.
“As the recent rash of curtailments and closure announcements indicates, current market and cost conditions are making it difficult to operate in B.C.,” Vice President, Solid Wood, Troy Connolly said in a news release Wednesday.
“And, with significant increases to stumpage rates set to take effect in July of this year, we expect conditions to remain challenging.”
Connolly added these decisions are difficult.
“As a family-owned and operated business, we’re proud of our communities and our employees,” he said.
“While we prefer to remain operational, industry conditions are challenging right now, and we want our people and their families to have time to prepare.”
The mills took downtown during the weeks of May 27 and June 3.
Also temporarily curtailing production is West Fraser. The company announced Monday it will be temporarily curtailing production for one week in June at its five sawmills in Williams Lake, Quesnel, Chetwynd, Smithers and Fraser Lake due to sustained weak pricing in global lumber markets and high log costs.
“100 Mile has been down over since Christmas; six weeks they’ve lost and Chasm would be been the same so it’s tough for the members right now,” First Vice President of United Steelworkers Local 1-2017, Paul French told MyCaribooNow.
“I’m totally concerned because there’s going to be an increase in log costs come July when the new formula kicks in and of course this is something that the previous government initiated so it’s kind of scary what’s coming next.”