West Fraser Cuts More Jobs

November 23, 2008

Two weeks after announcing it was shuttering its McDavid mill, West Fraser Timber Co, Ltd. continues to cut jobs.

West Fraser has announced that it is cutting the last 69 production jobs at its sawmill in Citronelle, Alabama, and completely idling the facility.  That announcement comes about three weeks after the Canadian company cut the Mobile County plant’s second shift.

The shut down of the McDavid mill cost 75 people their jobs.

Like the McDavid facility, the one in Citronelle will operated on a limited basis the next several weeks to process timber remaining on site. West Fraser has shut down or had large scale layoffs at 12 of 15 U.S. lumber mills.

The annual capacity at the Citronelle mill was 70 million board feet, but the plant was operating at about 43 million board feet per year, manufacturing 2×4 and 2×6 lumber.

The McDavid mill produced Southern Yellow Pine lumber and had an annual production capacity of about 200 million board feet. The mill had been running just one shift, producing about 75 million board feet.

West Fraser reported a lost of $2 million, or about a nickel a share, on sales of $848 million in the third quarter of 2008. The company reported losses for the first nine months of of 2008 $68 million, or $1.58 per share.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News