New Weyerhaeuser sawmill up and running

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 11:43 PM PDT

The first logs rolled through Weyerhaeuser Co.’s new consolidated sawmill in Longview on Monday, marking a new era for the company’s lumber production in Cowlitz County.

The new, high-tech mill, located next to the company’s existing planer mill on Industrial Way, will be in the start-up phase for about three months as workers make sure it’s working properly, said Anthony Chavey, a Weyerhaeuser spokesman.

“They have to do some preliminary work before they get to full capacity,” Chavez said.

Weyerhaeuser is planning a public unveiling of the mill after it moves out of the start-up phase, which should happen in September, Chavez said.

The new mill replaces the 32-year-old Green Mountain mill outside of Toutle, which Weyerhaeuser shut down two months ago. The company had been planning to move its operations to the Longview site, which employes 230 people, since December 2006. The cost-cutting move eliminated 130 jobs. About 60 to 70 former Green Mountain employees took jobs at the new mill.

As the timber industry struggles with the collapsing nationwide housing market, Weyerhaeuser is treading where few other companies dare by opening a new, high-tech mill, said Paul Latta, a timber industry analyst who covers the company for the Seattle-based McAdams Wright Ragen.

“To me, it shows that they’re committed to the lumber business for the long-term,” Latta said.

The opening of the mill is welcome news to community leaders with the county’s unemployment rate hovering about 8 percent and the national economy nearing recession.

The new mill, however, puts people to work, said Ted Sprague, executive director of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council.

“We’re thrilled we can get any type of capital investment,” Sprague said.