WFP shut downs

May 08, 2008

More North Island forest workers are off the job at the end of this week.

Western Forest Products announced April 29 that it was shutting down many of its Vancouver Island operations, including Jeune Landing and Woss, until June.

“I regret to inform you that due to continued deteriorating market conditions, our forecasted lumber sales program for 2008 has been significantly reduced, especially for commodity grade lumber,” wrote Trevor Boniface, Vice-president of Timberlands in a letter to employees last week.

“While we knew 2008 was going to be one of the most difficult years in recent history for the forest industry, the continued reduction in United States housing starts due to the subprime mortgage fiasco, extremely depressed commodity lumber prices, continued strong Canadian dollar, lumber border tax to the US, challenging Japanese market and the high cost of harvesting on the Coast are all contributing to a profoundly negative impact on our business,” explained Boniface.

The Englewood operation out of Woss was shut down in April because of snow levels, but will continue to be shut down until a tentative date of June 16, says the letter.

The Jeune Landing operation near Port Alice shuts down Friday with a tentative return date of June 23.

Five other Vancouver Island WFP operations are scheduled for similar shut downs.

“Market conditions will continue to be monitored over the coming weeks and any potential change in the return to work date will be conveyed as soon as possible,” wrote Boniface. “We will also be looking at every opportunity to improve the current situation.”

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WFP shut downs

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