L-P Restructuring Continues, More Mills For Sale

To finance the upgrade of other facilities better focused on the general retail market, Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Portland, Or., plans to sell seven more lumber and treating plants.

On the block are its sawmill in Chilco, Id., with companion finishing plant in Sandpoint, Id.; sawmills in Eatonton, Ga.; Hattiesburg and Philadelphia, Ms.; treating and lumber mill in Statesboro, Ga., and treating plants in New Waverly and Silsbee, Tx.

Bill Hebert, director of strategic planning, says the facilities for sale are more focused on local markets, while L-P is targeting the larger retail lumber market, which consists primarily of small dimensional lumber, such as 2x4s and 2x6s, and engineered wood products.

Other companies have shown interest in all of the properties, so L-P expects to complete the transactions by year's end. The proceeds will help fund "a focused, multi-year, capital improvement strategy, investing tens of millions of dollars, designed to increase mill capacity and efficiency, while upgrading quality and manufacturing flexibility on specialized lumber products."

With the sale, L-P would be out of the treating business. It recently sold its most modern treating facility, in Ukiah, Ca., to Sansome Partners (see Aug., p. l8).

The sale also would leave Moyie Springs as its lone plant in North Idaho, where over the past three years L-P has closed sawmills in Post Falls and Priest River and an OSB plant in Chilco. Since the beginning of the year, the workforce at Northern Regional Headquarters in Hayden Lake, Id., has been trimmed from 130 to 93, but reportedly no further cuts are planned.

Unlike L-P, buyers of the mills likely would have their own timber supply. Possible suitors of the Idaho facilities include large regional timberland owners Stimson Lumber Co. and Crown Pacific, which is currently building multi-million dollar mills in Bonners Ferry, Id., and in western Washington.

The day before the restructuring announcement, L-P permanently closed its Nature Guard cement fiber roofing plant in Red Bluff, Ca., unable to find

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