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Acquisitions, new growth. Builders FirstSource has acquired Bama Truss and Components, a Shelby, Ala., maker of multi-family and light commercial structural components with annual sales of approximately $25 million. Its product offerings include wood roof and floor trusses, wood panels and steel roof trusses. Pro-Build will construct a new truss plant using a robotic system that automates cutting, material handling, fabrication and stacking. The location will be in a high-growth market in the southeastern United States, with operations expected to begin in the second quarter of 2008.

Sell-off. Weyerhaeuser has agreed to sell its Kamloops, British Columbia-based sawmill to International Forest Products (Interfor). The deal includes timber harvesting rights. Temple-Inland plans to sell 1.55 million acres of timberland to an investment unit of Campbell Group, a Portland, Ore.-based timberland investment management company. The deal also includes a 20-year fiber supply agreement for pulpwood and a 12-year fiber supply agreement for saw timber.

Closings and openings. Banks Lumber will close its two Elkhart, Ind., units and consolidate them into one location at White Pigeon, Mich. The company was purchased by Universal Forest Products last year for $47 million. Pope & Talbot will temporarily shut down two sawmills in British Columbia to reduce its softwood lumber production to meet falling demand. Canfor will reopen its MacKenzie, British Columbia, mill ahead of schedule but on a modified schedule to reduce labor costs.

Still feuding. The United States and Canada are headed into binding arbitration over the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement signed last October. The United States claims that the Canadian government is funding a forest management program in Ontario and Quebec and that excess volumes of lumber are crossing into the United States. The dispute will be reviewed by the London Court of International Arbitration.