Wood products takes a hit

[Frank_Pender]

Weyerhaeuser will close mill next year.  The plan is to close a pulp and paper mill in Prince Albert early next year, eliminating 690 jobs.  The blame is on poor market conditions.  The paper section will cease about January 2 and the pulp portion until Spring. 

In some more great news of the folks in Georgia, Georgia Pacific is cutting more than 1,000 jobs in a "broad restructuring that aims to save $100 million per year".  They have indicated that they will idle as many as four tissue paper machines and about 70 lines that convert large tissue rolls into sizes that consumers can use, eliminates 850 jobs in North America.  The tissues affected are Angel Soft and Quilted Northern  tolet papers and Mardi Gras napkins.

 The thought is perhaps some of us might want to stock up on some of these products.

[beenthere]

Yeaahhh!!  Like when I'm gone, and my kids can ponder why the attic is stuffed full of rolls of toilet paper. 

That rumor went around years ago that there would be a toilet paper shortage, and there was such a buying frenzy, that indeed, there was a short term shortage created.  Best sense to me is 'steady as you go' so as to not turn the boat over. 
Sorry Frank, couldn't resist 'shootin' at your attempt to raise the value of toilet paper to keep those mills open. 

In the past, the newly mandated enviro laws make shutting a mill down easier than re-building it to meet the standards. Unfortunate that it happens, but a number of 'old' mills in Wisconsin bit the dust for that reason. A lot of other factors as well, not the least of which is competition from outside the country to supply the goods.

[Frank_Pender]

Beenther, thanks.  I do not have stock in either outfit, that I know of.   

[karl]

My daughter works for a manufacturer and supplier of chemicals for paper mills- they have been steadily decreasing size/employees because of  Chinese manufacuring of chemicals for less than half their cost, and because of import of paper and liquid pulp.

[Sprucegum]

The mill in Prince Albert closed a couple days ago.

They had done about $250,000,000 in upgrades only 3-4 years ago

[DanG]

Frank, folks don't need as much tissue when they can't afford to eat.

When the Great Depression was finally over, one fella didn't know what kind of tissue to buy.  He said he'd been eating soda crackers so long, he was just using a whisk broom!

[Frank_Pender]

Real clean story, Dan G!

[Percy]

Frank, folks don't need as much tissue when they can't afford to eat.

When the Great Depression was finally over, one fella didn't know what kind of tissue to buy.  He said he'd been eating soda crackers so long, he was just using a whisk broom!

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahhaahahahahahahahahahaha

[Mike_Barcaskey]

DanG, there's coffee on the computer screen, now where are the tissues

[Minnesota_boy]

If it was some of that freeze-dried coffee, just use the whisk broom. 

[Frank_Pender]

PZercy, your Western English humor is great.  The trouble with a whiskbroom is that, they are few and far between.  We do not see many of them around here, yet.  Perhaps with the paper shortage they might have a great comeback in this region.  I might have to start saving other forms of paper for special uses other than the Woodfurnace for the house and kiln.

[DanG]

I guess I knocked this train off the track, didn't I?

To get it back on;  A number of paper mills down this way shut down several years ago because of plastic grocery bags.  An incredible amount of brown Kraft paper was being used to tote canned goods home, before that.  It was a tough go for some folks for a while, but things seem to have worked out well.  The mill at Port St. Joe was the center of that county's economy.  Those that didn't work there, worked in the woods or hauling logs.  Now, with the stink of the mill gone, other businesses are moving in, and tourists are coming, too.  A huge OSB plant has been built North of there, and the log trucks are once again ruling the roads.  The million+acres of trees that were destined for grocery sacks are now being used to build houses.

[Tom]

........and now you can't get your groceries in a Kraft paper bag anymore.  They use those confounded plastic bags and put one item in each bag so that you leave the store with a whole arm-full of the things.   We'd still be using the Kraft bags if someone hadn't complained about cutting down the trees. 

Now we have to find some way of disposing of all these plastic bags.  The elected officials have gotten hold of it now and there is a regionally selective interest in imposing a special TAX on each and every bag used.  That's smart, eh? 

The Grocery Stores are upset because the paper sack cost 4 cents and the plastic bag cost 1 cent.  The tax has been recommended to be 15 or 18 cents a piece for the the plastic bag.  That should go a long way toward steering the public back to using paper now that the paper mills have closed. 

[karl]

Dang, I thought they used all those plastic bags so you had to make at least two trips into the house with your $150. "worth" of groceries and you would think you got more for your money.

I'm old enough to remember bringing groceries home in a box or the paper bags we took back to the general and feed store...........

[DanG]

There used to be a little grocery chain called Jewel-T.  They offered low prices via no-frills shopping.  Instead of placing items on the shelf, they'd just cut the box open and set the whole thing on there...stuff like that.  You had to bring your own container to ferry your stuff out to the car.  I don't know what ever happened to them.

Karl, I believe that everything on this earth has a purpose.  There seems to be a disproportinate number of things that are just put here to keep us humble.

[Furby]

There used to be a little grocery chain called Jewel-T. They offered low prices via no-frills shopping. Instead of placing items on the shelf, they'd just cut the box open and set the whole thing on there...stuff like that. You had to bring your own container to ferry your stuff out to the car. I don't know what ever happened to them.

We have Aldi and Save-A-Lot, pretty much the same deal.

[Frank_Pender]

Yep, you got that right, DanG; nails in logs.

[beenthere]

DanG I remembered them too.  Looked around and found, it appears, that they went in with Osco Drug and this short article sheds a bit of light on their operation. Maybe in Iowa yet.

Jewel T

[submarinesailor]

I must be getting old if I remember the Jewel-T store in Manassas, Va.  Oh so many years ago.

Bruce

[ARKANSAWYER]

  
   I read some publications and see where the large lumber and paper companies are selling off land and assets.  It makes their bottom line look good for a few years.   Here in Arkansas IP has been selling off land and closing mills pretty steady the last few years.  Like most large corps they are paying the top hands to much money and firing the people that make the money for them.  So you sell off assets to keep in the black so top hands make more coin becuase the last quarter looked so good.  Then one day there is just a shell of a company and it folds up.
  China can not grow enough food for themselves much less enough sticks for themselves and us.  If the US and Canada does not wake up and remember that we are the bread basket of the world then we will all be hurting.  Yes the rain forest has sticks but it takes a long time for that poor soil to grow more.  Plus they are wasting alot of it so in 20 years they will not be a factor.  China is stripping the timber of the area and pulling alot from Russia and India.   As the number of people in the world grows a bushel of wheat will be worth more then a barrel of oil now.   Oil may be what is running the machine now but you have to feed the one driving it.

  It looks like we will be missing the ole Sears and Roebuck catalog more then ever.   I can slice pretty thin on my band mill and with a Lathe-mizer might could turn some paper.