Columbia ready to throw switch: Rutherglen veneer plant preps for spring restart.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: North Bay

The sight of steam emanating from the boilers and lofting out the stack at the Rutherglen mill for the first time in five years was almost greeted like papal smoke signals by Mattawa area locals in February.

The pent-up anticipation behind the spring restart of the Columbia Forest Products veneer plant has been so great, manager Peter Loy keeps the chain on the gate to prevent hopeful job seekers from entering the premises to drop off resumes.

"We're not manned up to greet everyone," said Loy, who's well aware of the buzz it's created in the rural northeastern Ontario community located halfway between North Bay and Mattawa.

It's an especially good feeling for Loy, who began his career on the same production floor in 1982, before progressing up the ranks to become plant manager just prior to the 2010 shutdown.

Back then, North American veneer producers were being hammered by cheap Chinese imports at the same time the U.S. housing market took a dive.

Efficiencies were good at the Rutherglen mill, outfitted with a top-of-the-line rotary lathe and a state-of-the-art German-made dryer, but with the Canadian dollar at par and operating costs high in Ontario, the cost structure to keep going was not.

Columbia shuttered the mill, laying off 55, but it didn't completely walk away. The company held onto the asset with the intention to re-evaluate the business in three to five years.

With the homebuilding market on more solid footing, Columbia is pumping US$1.5 million into the sprawling 100,000-square foot plant as a skeleton crew of current and former employees was refurbishing equipment in early February.

Not much structurally had to be repaired, said Loy, of the almost pristine, embryonic state the machinery and infrastructure were left in.

"The guys did a wonderful job of putting it to bed five years ago and prepping it to sit. They've done a really good of taking care of the place."

Loy has set an unspecified April startup date, beginning with 25 employees cutting and drying hardwood veneer on a single shift.

"Walk before you run."

More value-added activities, like reviving the splicing department, could happen toward year's end.

He declined to reveal first-year production numbers or the mill's capacity except to say they'll run at a 60 per cent pace initially before ramping up to a normal rate over three months.

"So much depends on what markets are going to do."

He describes North American veneer demand as "murky" for 2016, but obviously the...