Canfor announces plans to close Chetwynd pellet plant

Canadian forest products company Canfor Corp. on Jan. 25 announced it will permanently close its pellet plant in Chetwynd, British Columbia, as part of a restructuring of its operations within the province.

Canfor celebrated the grand opening of the Chetwynd pellet plant in August 2016. The facility has the capacity to produce 100,000 metric tons of industrial-grade wood pellets annually.

The company said its British Columbia restructuring plan aims to better align manufacturing capacity with the available long-term fiber supply. Canfor’s Chetwynd sawmill will also permanently close as part of the restructuring, while the company’s Houston sawmill will close for an extended period to facilitate a major redevelopment of the site. Canfor said the facilities will close following an orderly wind down of operations that is expected to conclude early in the second quarter of 2023.

As part of the planned redevelopment of the Houston site, Canfor said it intends to build a new, modern, globally competitive manufacturing facility that employs state of the art technology to produce high value products from the sustainable timber supply in the region.