Specifically, the sawmills Estill and Darlington in the US state of South Carolina will be closed permanently due to “an extended period of persistently weak market conditions and sustained financial losses, which have made continued operations at these facilities no longer viable”, as Canfor states in a press release.
Approximately 290 employees working at both mills will be affected by the closures. The cumulative output of the two production sites is currently around 350 Mbft of Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) a year (approx. 560,000 m³/yr of 2-by-4 equivalents).
The Darlington sawmill has been part of the Canfor group since 2007. The Estill mill only became part of it in 2020.
The two closures follow an extremely difficult fiscal year for Canfor. In 2024, the group accumulated losses of CAD 669 million (approx. €436 million; see article Canfor’s difficult previous year mitigated in Q4). Canfor also closed down mills in Western Canada last year. Despite the current measures, the company remains committed to the southern US. The acquisition of a SYP sawmill in Arkansas was announced in the summer of 2024, and there are also plans to further expand the group’s sawmill in Alabama.
Canfor currently operates 13 sawmills in the US, eight in Canada, and 12 more in Sweden through a 77% stake in the Vida Group.
