Weyerhaeuser to shutter three iLevel plants

Federal Way, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser will “indefinitely curtail” operations at three iLevel building products plants because of “slow customer demand.”

The curtailments include an oriented strand board (OSB) plant in Drayton Valley, Alberta; an OSB plant in Wawa, Ontario; and a laminated strand lumber plant in Deerwood, Minn. Work will halt at the plants before the end of the year, the company said.

"The decline in North American housing starts has reduced demand for wood products, requiring us to rationalize our supply of OSB and engineered wood," said Steven Rogel, chairman, president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser. "We remain committed to these markets. This move enables our remaining plants to better execute our customer strategies."

The Wawa and Drayton Valley plants are two of nine OSB mills in the Weyerhaeuser system. Wawa has an annual production capacity of 470 million square feet of OSB, while Drayton Valley has a capacity of 415 million square feet annually, the company said.

The Deerwood plant can produce six million cubic feet per year of engineered strand lumber and is one of three such plants owned by Weyerhaeuser.