Another Forest Company Records Loss

By 250 News

Pope and Talbot has become the latest forest products company to release its 3rd quarter results, and the latest to show a net loss.

The company  which has operations throughout B.C. including  a sawmill in Ft. St. James and a pulp mill in Mackenzie, is reporting a net loss of $10.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2006.  That is compared with a net loss of $8.8 million reported for the same period in 2005.

On the pulp side of the ledger,  things look pretty good,  with the company reporting increased pulp revenues, up 20 percent to $125.7 million even with the problems at the Mackenzie mill in September.  There were some difficulties in the restart of the pulp mill from its planned annual maintenance shutdown, causing a loss of production of approximately 4,400 tons in the third quarter and an additional 1,800 tons in October 2006. The problems have now been corrected.

On the lumber side, the strong dollar and slumping lumber sales had an impact.

Now that the Softwood Lumber agreement is in effect, Pope and Talbot estimates it is entitled to duty refunds of about $127 million including interest.  It expects to get about $114 million before the end of 2006 and the balance  in the first quarter of the new year.

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