Despite the coronavirus pandemic and fluctuations in trade agreements, Canoe Forest Products appears to be holding steady.
General manager Marcello Angelozzi said things were a little dicey after the pandemic broke in March and April, but business soon bounced back.
“It was tough out of the gate in March, April, May, but we held in there and have had a fairly good finish to the year,” he said Nov. 23.
Plywood is the plant’s primary product and markets are doing well.
Angelozzi said the company had employees off in March because of COVID-19 concerns – not from contracting the virus – but no one was laid off.
Of salaried personnel, Canoe Forest Products currently employs 35 people in the woodlands sector and about 150 in plywood production and maintenance, he reported.
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As far as interruptions go, Angelozzi said, “we’re hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.”
Regarding trade, he said fluctuating agreements don’t affect the plant much. He said it’s a domestic market, with not much plywood sold outside Canada.
Canadian Forest Industries reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce released a review of softwood lumber duties on Canadian exports to the U.S. on Nov. 24. The combined anti-dumping and countervailing rate was lowered from 20.23 per cent to 8.99.
Although the decrease was an improvement, B.C. Premier John Horgan termed U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber unjustified.
Plywood is a manufactured product created by gluing together thin layers of wood or veneer. Lumber is defined as boards, beams and planks that have been cut from timber, or raw wood.
marthawickett@saobserver.net
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