West Fraser to acquire U.S. south OSB mill
Maryam Farag
Business Operations Manufacturing acquisition Business manufacturer manufacturing mill US
West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. has entered into an agreement to acquire Georgia Pacific’s oriented strand board (OSB) mill near Allendale, South Carolina for approximately $280 million.
The Allendale facility, which initially began producing OSB in 2007, has been idle since late 2019 and has an estimated stated capacity of approximately 760 million square feet (3/8-inch basis).
The company intends to invest an estimated $70 million of additional capital to upgrade and optimize the facility in preparation for its restart and this upgrade is anticipated to take approximately nine months to complete.
The mill is expected to directly employ approximately 135 people and be one of the lowest cost mills in the company’s OSB portfolio after the optimization is complete and the mill has ramped up to full production, a process that typically takes 18-24 months after restart.
