Sawmill and bandmill blog

Canfor Unveils World's Largest Sawmill

February 9, 2004, Houston, BC – David Emerson, President and CEO of Canfor Corporation (CFP:TSX) was joined
by Premier Gordon Campbell, Forests Minister Mike DeJong, Mayor Sharon Smith and guests to unveil the recent
capital upgrades to Canfor’s Houston sawmill. The $26.4 million capital investment increases the mill’s annual
capacity by over 30% from 450 million board feet to 600 million board feet. The Houston sawmill will now be the
largest capacity sawmill in the world.
“This investment reflects Canfor’s focus on high return capital projects that fit our overall strategy to enhance the
productivity of our mills and lower our conversion costs,” said President and CEO, David Emerson. “The magnitude of
this project alone is significant, reducing Canfor Houston’s mill conversion costs by 24% and the entire Wood
Products Group’s cost structure by 4%. By ensuring that our mills are among the most efficient in the world, Canfor is
in a position to run our operations continually and serve our customers consistently. This, in turn, creates stability for
contractors, suppliers, workers and the community tax base”.
The Houston capital project includes new scanning equipment to increase volume recovery from the logs, two new
planers, two new “Machine Stress Rating” machines, new trimmer/sort lines and additional dry kiln capacity. Plant
Manager Dennis Hotte stated that, “The investment that went into the Houston mill not only increases our capacity
and drastically reduces our conversion costs through economies of scale but also allows us to produce more
premium grade, higher margin lumber, which is good for the company’s bottom line.”
Canfor also completed major capital project upgrades at the Prince George and Fort St. John sawmills in 2003.
These projects, along with a large number of smaller, high return capital projects and management initiatives, are part
of the Company’s ongoing Cost Reduction/Margin Improvement program.
Canfor Corporation is a leading Canadian integrated forest products company based in British Columbia. The
company has extensive woodlands operations and manufacturing facilities in BC, Alberta and Quebec, and a lumber
remanufacturing plant in Washington State. Canfor is a major producer and supplier of lumber, bleached kraft pulp,
specialty kraft paper and plywood for markets around the world. The common shares of Canfor Corporation are listed
on the TSX. The operating company is Canadian Forest Products Ltd. from which the name Canfor is derived
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For more information, please contact:
Lee Coonfer
Manager, Corporate Communications
Canadian Forest Products Ltd.
Office: 604.661.5225
Cell: 604.209.7097

Quoted from the Canfor website

posted by Super sawyer @ 10:53 AM