by Web Editor | May 12, 2017 | News
Residents and officials eager for a new siding plant to open in northeast Minnesota are going to have to wait a bit longer. Louisiana-Pacific — which last year announced the purchase of a former mill in Cook, Minn., to expand its thriving engineered wood siding business — now says it will first convert a mill the company operates in British Columbia to make siding.
In a conference call with analysts, LP’s chief operating officer Brad Southern said it makes sense to develop the Canadian site first because of its proximity to the company’s West Coast customer base, and because the mill is already staffed and operating.
But that doesn’t mean a northern Minnesota plant is off the table. The Cook location and another site in Quebec “are likely options for future siding expansion,” said Southern. He added the company is “continuing our planning process for both locations with a focus on Cook.”
Still, the earliest the Cook mill would likely open is 2020, Southern told analysts. The company would first need to construct buildings and equip the entire mill. “The advantages of Cook, though, is it is a larger mill,” said Southern. “Cook gives us a lot of upside on volume. It’s a beautiful piece of land, a beautiful site to construct the mill and then expand it.”
State legislators and economic development officials on the Iron Range have had high hopes for the Louisiana-Pacific plant as something that could kickstart the region’s wood products industry.
From MPR News: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/05/08/hotly-anticipated-northern-minn-wood-siding-plant-delayed
by Web Editor | Jul 20, 2015 | News
Uniboard is proud to announce an investment of over $29 million at its Sayabec plant. Two major investments being announced today at Sayabec are an innovative wood fiber mat-preheating unit to expand capacity in particleboard line 2, as well as a new short-cycle thermally fused laminate press adding capacity for high-end surface structures and finishes.
Both investments will allow Uniboard to increase productivity and improve its product offering and service to our customer base in Canada and the United States. The announced investments will be implemented in early 2016. The particleboard investment will continue to position the Uniboard Sayabec facility as one of North America’s preferred particleboard producers while the thermally fused laminate investment further confirms Uniboard’s leadership and innovation position in the North American laminate arena. Both investments will strengthen Uniboard’s overall network of particleboard, MDF and thermally fused laminate facilities that are located in Sayabec, Val-d’Or, Mont-Laurier and Laval, Quebec. Uniboard employs a skilled workforce of 380 at its Sayabec site and over 800 people within the entire corporation.
Since its original start-up as Panval in 1982, Uniboard’s Sayabec plant has seen a series of investment and expansion steps leading to today’s highly integrated mega site with 2 particleboard lines and 4 high speed short-cycle thermally fused laminate (TFL) presses. In 2012, Uniboard further solidified its position in the industry when it was acquired by the owners of Kaycan Ltd., a leading manufacturer of building products in North America, with its head office located in Montreal, Quebec. The Kaycan group of companies offers a full range of products for both the exterior and interior of the home, including vinyl, aluminium and engineered wood siding products, PVC windows and patio doors, particleboard, MDF, thermally fused laminate and laminate flooring.
From PR Newswire: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/uniboard-to-invest-into-particleboard-capacity-expansion-and-a-new-thermally-fused-laminate-tfl-line-at-its-sayabec-plant-515009931.html
