FORT ST. JAMES, B.C. - Canadian sawmill giant Conifex Timber is temporarily curtailing its operations at one of its British Columbia sawmills for two weeks. 

 

Conifex says high log costs and current lumber market conditions forced its hand. This will reduce the company's output in British Columbia by 15 percent for the quarter.

 

“We have made the difficult decision to temporarily curtail our Fort St. James sawmill in Q4 due to the combined impact of increasing log costs, deteriorating log quality as the availability of commercially viable mountain pine beetle timber reaches an end, falling lumber prices, and punitive lumber export duty impositions,” said Ken Shields, chair and CEO. “We are working on a priority basis to position Fort St. James for long-term sustainable production in the lower lumber price, higher log cost environment we envisage for the balance of 2018 and 2019 and will be seeking to mitigate the impacts on our employees as much as possible.”