The Western Forest Products Chemainus sawmill is going into another production curtailment this week.
“Western is forecasting tight log inventories that require us to temporarily curtail operations at our Chemainus sawmill,” confirmed Shari Burnett, WFP’s content and media manager. “Log supply has been constrained by weather earlier in the year and a lack of harvesting permits leading to a temporary log shortage.
“The temporary downtime is anticipated as early as March 22, for up to two weeks. The situation is fluid and subject to log supply.”
Burnett added the company is working hard to secure logs with the desire to operate consistently. Opportunities are being offered to some employees for temporary work at other WFP locations where possible.
One long-time employee at the Chemainus mill said his understanding was the curtailment in production would begin as soon as the current log supply has been exhausted. He conceded a tight log supply and weather have made it hard to get logs delivered.
The employee added information about the curtailment was delivered in a memo placed on lunchroom tables.
He hoped the downtime would be short and a start-up could occur by March 30.
Related story: Curtailment at Chemainus sawmill ending next week
The previous curtailment lasted nearly three weeks from Feb. 2-22.
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don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
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