PLC applauds LPHoulton SmartSide investment announcement

HOULTON - The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine applauded an announcement Feb. 17 by LP Building Solutions, a Tennesseebased manufacturer of engineered wood building products, that it will invest approximately $150 million to convert part of its LP Houlton mill in New Limerick to manufacture SmartSide, an advanced engineered wood strand siding.

“This announcement is great news for loggers and their communities in northern Maine as they look to move forward after the toughest year they have experienced in living memory,” Dana Doran, Executive Director of the PLC, said. “LP’s willingness to invest in the future of Maine’s forest economy and continue to provide a market for Maine wood is a hopeful sign for the logging industry. More than anything else, Maine loggers need markets, and those markets have suffered greatly in the last 12 months.”

LP buys poplar roundwood and some other hardwood for its siding, and the investment in SmartSide manufacturing capacity is expected to increase the company’s consumption of local and sustainably sourced fiber by an estimated 30 percent.