Canfor Continues to Watch Markets

By 250 News

Canfor President Jim Shepherd says  the company continues to watch the markets to see if further shutdowns will be necessary.  He says the company is well aware of the impact a shutdown has on the employees, the communities and the businesses who work with Canfor, but Canfor's prime objective is to NOT lose cash.

The company has just come through a rough 3rd quarter, with a loss of $51.6 million dollars.  The loss blamed on the high Canadian dollar, the drop in demand for lumber and the 15% tax.  Shepherd says on the short term there will be market challenges,  but the long term picture is more promising "We need to carefully balance suppy and demand" said Shepherd. 

The Mackenzie sawmill operations are down  this week and next, while the PolarBoard operations in Fort Nelson will be down the last two weeks of November and a further two weeks at the end of December.

As for the Duty refund, Shepherd says most of it should be back in Canfor's hands by the end of this year, and certainly all of it will be returned within 6 months.  He says the hold ups are processing  and administrative in nature.  Canfor figures that when all the dust has settled and all the taxes paid,  it will get $536 million  dollars CDN of the  US$803 million it had paid into the Duty pot.  "We have no specific plans for the money" says Shepherd although growing Canfor is a possibility.

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