Remembrances Every Five Years
Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Timber Processing August 2024
Always one to have fun with numbers, let’s have some fun now. You’ll notice that this issue marks the 46th time Timber Processing has published the Annual Lumbermen’s Buying Guide. That means the first one was published in 1979. So, beginning with 1979, and in five-year intervals, here are some tidbits that were also published in the Buying Guide in those respective years. (For us oldtimers, it might even jog our memories—always a good thing.)
1979: Owens-Illinois approved the construction of a 60MMBF southern pine lumber sawmill on a 35 acre site southeast of Lake Butler, Fla.
1984: Employees at LP’s sawmill in Truckee, Calif. voted to decertify the Lumber Production and Industrial Workers Union as their bargaining agent, bringing to total 12 decertification elections at LP operations since the beginning of the strike the previous year.
1989: Eighty-eight forest products industry companies approved a proposal to establish a new nationwide coalition, the American Forest Resource Alliance (AFRA), in order to combat increasing attacks by preservationists on the industry’s timber supply.
1994: Sierra Pacific Industries acquired Michigan-California Lumber’s sawmill in Camino, Calif., saving the 105-year-old mill and its employees from termination.
1999: Champion International announced plans to build a $61 million sawmill on Champion land north of Cantonment, Fla.
2004: International Paper sold its Weldwood of Canada subsidiary to West Fraser Timber for $1.26 billion, including seven sawmills, making West Fraser the third largest lumber producer in North America.
2009: Oregon state police and Douglas County sheriff’s deputies arrested more than 20 protesters who were blocking a logging road in the Elliott State Forest near Reedsport. Some had chained themselves inside an overturned van, others had attached themselves to buried chunks of concrete.
2014: Canfor purchased Balfour Lumber, including a sawmill at Thomasville, Ga., and the Beadles Lumber sawmill in Moultrie, Ga., with a combined capacity of 210MMBF.
2019: Two new southern yellow pine sawmills started up, including Rex Lumber at Troy, Ala. and Angelina Forest Products at Lufkin, Tex., while Westervelt finished clearing ground for its sawmill at Thomasville, Ala.
2024: Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products began a new chapter by shipping lumber out of its new SYP sawmill in Weldon, NC, called Roanoke Valley Lumber.
2029: ?????
Latest News
Canada Gives $642 Million To Firms Hit By U.S. Softwood Lumber Tax
The Canadian government will give C$867 million (US$642.2 million) in financial support to Canadian lumber producers and exporters to help them withstand the impact of new U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood exports. In April, Washington imposed preliminary anti-subsidy...
Idaho Industry Teams Up With Colleges To Fill Sawmill Jobs
Idaho Industry Teams Up With Colleges To Fill Sawmill JobsIdaho’s sawmills once relied on the brute strength of their workers to turn logs into lumber. Now, they need more employees like Jeremy Lozano-Keays. The 30-year-old electrical technician is part of a team...
Florida’s Rayonier Offers $807 Million In Friendly Offer For Tembec
Montreal-based lumber, paper and pulp producer Tembec has received an $807 million US offer to take over the company from Florida-based conglomerate Rayonier Advanced Materials. Jacksonville-based Rayonier is offering Tembec shareholders $4.05 Cdn per share, or 0.2302...
Analyst: Canfor Corp., West Fraser Timber Merger Speculation
Analyst: Canfor Corp., West Fraser Timber Merger SpeculationRecent activity at West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has revealed that British Columbian billionaire Jim Pattison owns a significant minority stake in the company, prompting speculations of a merger with rival...
Time To Invest
Article by Dan Shell Managing Editor Roughly a decade after the wheels came off the U.S. housing market and threw the economy into a tailspin that resulted in historic lows for lumber prices and a major drop in housing starts, signs within and outside the industry are...
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.