Tolko to temporarily shut down B.C. operations over holiday season
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2019 02:06:43 +0000
Forest-products firm Tolko Industries says it will be shutting down operations across B.C. for two weeks over the holiday season due to low lumber prices and high log costs.
The Vernon firm made the decision to take the downtime from Dec. 21 to Jan. 6 after looking at log costs, market conditions and “cumulative policy burden,” it said in a news release on Thursday. The last day of production will be Dec. 20, 2019. As well, the firm’s office in Vernon will be closed from Dec. 23-27.
The company also has divisions in Kamloops, Williams Lake, Armstrong, Coldstream, Lumby and Richmond.
“Staffing levels at all B.C. operations will be restricted to essential services during this period,” the firm said.
The downtime is due to low lumber prices and high log costs in B.C., Troy Connolly, vice-president for solid wood, said in a news release. He said it will reduce output by approximately 21 million board feet of lumber production and 10 million square feet of panel production.
Pino Pucci, vice-president for marketing and sales, said the firm would do its best to minimize impacts on customers.
“Our customers are understanding of current market conditions and aware of our ongoing commitment to serve them,” Pucci said.
In September, workers at Tolko’s Kelowna sawmill who were expecting to go back to work after a six-week shutdown learned that the facility was staying closed indefinitely. The mill had already reduced operations to a single shift in May at the cost of 90 jobs and the remaining 127 employees were reaching the end of a six-week curtailment when they received additional layoff notices.
Over the summer, Tolko also permanently closed its Quest sawmill in Quesnel with the loss of 150 jobs.
Thursday’s announcement is the latest in an ongoing crisis for B.C.’s forestry sector, which saw more than 20 sawmills close or curtail production over the summer and put some 3,000 sawmill employees out of work.
To the end of August, the cascading series of mill closures and production curtailments translated into an 11-per-cent drop in the volume of lumber exports, according to trade figures from B.C. Stats.
By value, the loss appeared deeper with the $3.4 billion in export sales reported by the statistical agency representing a 25-per cent decline from the same eight months of 2018.
— With files from Derrick Penner and Scott Brown