Weyerhaeuser announces reopening of Hudson Bay OSB mill in Saskatchewan

Weyerhaeuser is reopening its OSB plant in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan in September. Production at the mill has been curtailed since July of 2008.

The majority of Hudson Bay's workforce will be recalled by July 6. 170 people were employed at the mill in 2008.

"The Hudson Bay OSB mill is important to our OSB system, and we expect its resumed operation will help us optimize production across our facilities as the market recovers," says Cathy Slater, vice president, iLevel Engineered Wood Products. "Our initial emphasis will be providing extensive safety and operational training and making sure returning associates can run the equipment safely and reliably. By taking this step now, we're able to make arrangements for securing the contract harvesting and hauling capacity necessary to deliver wood to the facility and are able to refrain from paying significant closure costs that were not incurred as part of the original curtailment."

Hudson Bay's annual capacity is 550 million square feet of oriented strand board (3/8-inch basis).

Weyerhaeuser has said that volume will be limited in 2010, and future volume is dependent on customer demand and other economic factors.

Source: Weyerhaueser