PORT ANGELES — A Canadian lumber company plans to purchase the high-tech Crown Pacific Partners LP sawmill in Port Angeles as it expands its operations into Washington and Oregon.
International Forest Products Ltd. announced Friday it will pay $57.3 million and provide $16 million in working capital to acquire the Port Angeles mill and two other Crown Pacific mills, pending approval by a U.S. bankruptcy court.
Portland, Ore.-based Crown Pacific and five affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2003 after a nearly three-year struggle as inexpensive foreign lumber imports and weak demand caused prices to fall.
The company is one of the larger forest-products companies in Western Washington, with more than 200,000 acres of timberland, including 81,730 acres in Clallam County near Neah Bay.
Opened in 1998
In October 1998, Crown Pacific opened its $22 million, 67,500-square-foot mill on U.S. Highway 101 just west of Port Angeles.
It employs 89 people.
It’s considered a “swing mill,” capable of cutting lumber for either the Japanese or U.S. construction markets.
Using pinpoint precision, the mill can process small, second-growth logs between 4.5 inches and 14.5 inches in diameter at the base and from 8 feet to 12 feet in length.
International Forest Products, or Interfor, went through a bidding competition with several other companies before reaching agreement on its purchase price for the Crown Pacific mills.
The Canadian company will also obtain a newly rebuilt dimension lumber mill in Gilchrist, Ore., and a specialty mill in Marysville.
