Media reports about a recent announcement of Canfor’s entering into a joint venture agreement to open a wood manufacturing plant in China have caused the company to issue a news release in reply
“A small number of media outlets in British Columbia have ran factually incorrect reports about the recent announcement of our joint venture with Tangshan Caofeidian Wood Industry,” said Canfor president and CEO Don Kayne. “Specifically, reports that this initiative will mean that Canfor will be exporting raw logs to China are completely inaccurate, as are suggestions that the announcement is connected to the closure of our Quesnel facility.”
Canfor listed a number of points that it said set the record straight:
• Canfor does not export raw logs. All exports from the company’s Canadian and U.S. facilities are shipped as manufactured lumber, pulp and paper.
• The closure of Canfor’s Quesnel facility was necessary due to a lack of available fibre owing to the mountain pine beetle epidemic in the region. The facility was profitable and would have continued operating as such had there been sufficient fibre to supply the mill.
• The proposed facility in Caofeidian will be a secondary manufacturing operation that will custom cut Canfor lumber into specific dimensions for individual customers on an on-demand basis. This is work that must be done in-market.
• Logs from the B.C. Interior will not be processed at the Caofeidian facility, and the facility is in no way intended to undertake work that is being done or could be done in the Quesnel mill or any of Canfor’s other facilities.
• In fact, Canfor is entering into a supply agreement with the new facility, which will ensure that finished lumber from B.C. continues to flow to China. By partnering with the facility Canfor can build on its current market share and not allow species from other countries to service the secondary industry in China.
