In for the long run: White River Forest Products cashes up to make high-tech improvements.

AuthorRoss, Ian
PositionNEWS

Frank Dottori has lofty expectations for White River Forest Products. The sawmill, located halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay, is undergoing a $20-million overhaul over the next two years with a high efficiency production line arriving this summer, buttressed by a much-needed financing package.

"Our objective is very clear," declared Dottori, CEO of the 140-employee operation, "we want this mill to be one of the lowest cost mills in Eastern Canada, and that will be by significantly increasing the yield on every tree coming in and in addition to the production level."

The company finalized a new loan agreement in April involving Scotiabank, RoyNat and Comerica, which allows them to produce more board feet with a new production line.

Dottori was reluctant to divulge exact numbers on the financing package, since it involves another mill and private equity, but it provides enough to install a new $15-million state-of-the-art, high-speed COMACT line this summer, plus some working capital.

The fledgling company's plan from the outset was to replace two of the mill's three saw lines with one high-tech line. But a lack of financing had handicapped the company from making the upgrades sooner, said Dottori, the plain-spoken industry legend and founder of forestry giant Tembec, who joined the operation in mid-2013.

The mill is currently running at 110 million cubic metres of board feet, but the plan is to push capacity north of 150 million and improve productivity and the yield on wood.

"The line will run more than the other two put together," said Dottori. "As a matter of fact, this new line will increase capacity with 20 per cent more production than the three lines put together."

Outfitted with 14 scanners, the new equipment will optimize grade recovery which will maximize the lumber produced from a saw log. New debarkers are being added and they'll be upgrades to the planer infeed.

"When we take a tree right now we're getting half in lumber, half in chips. This thing will give us three-quarters in lumber and a quarter in chips. It's a very significant cost reduction. It converts more of the tree into lumber."

The two antiquated lines will be removed this summer to make space for the installation of the new line by Sept. 1, followed by a 30-day commissioning phase to "get the bugs out."

Commercial production is pegged for Oct. 1.

Plans are in place for 2016 to increase the mill's drying capacity by 25 per cent, he said.

"We've got...

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