Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Weyerhaeuser Company’s new state-of-the-art Santiam Lumber Mill, which began operating in March, is employing approximately 115 people.
Weyerhaeuser held a grand opening for the mill Monday morning, providing tours and lunch to Weyerhaeuser management, local government officials and the members of the press.
The mill is located between Sweet Home and Lebanon on the site of the old Bauman sawmill, which was closed in March 2007.
The new mill will produce between 400 and 450 million board feet per year of green Douglas fir 2x4s and 2x6s at 8, 10 and 12 feet, Weyerhaeuser spokesman Greg Miller said.
The green end lumber, which is not kiln-dried, is marketed mainly in southwest Washington, western Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, Area Manager Tom Arlint said.
The old mill handled logs 16 inches and larger, but logs that size have become scarce, while the market has slowed, Arlint said.
The Bauman facility had produced Douglas fir beams and stringers as well as dimensional lumber for commercial and residential use, which have been facing competition from products such as laminated beams, which use smaller logs, according to Weyerhaeuser officials. Engineered beams, made from pieces of logs, are structurally stronger than solid fir timber.
“We had to make a determination what to do with this site,” Arlint said.
The Bauman site is in the heart of Weyerhaeuser’s timber, and “one of the reasons we invested in Lebanon is we have the people here,” he said.
With the housing industry in down time, he said, the mills are out-producing demand.
Weyerhaeuser closed a mill in Coburg, the Lebanon Log Yard and Lebanon Lumber, Arlint said, so overall in the two areas, employment is down about 200 jobs.
The new mill can handle logs with a 5-inch top to a 24-inch butt, he said. The mill employs two log breakdown lines, one for larger and the other for smaller logs.
Logs are fed into the mill and scanned by a computer for the best possible combination of cuts on the breakdown line. Observed and controlled by a station near the beginning of the line, the logs are turned and cut automatically, based on the scans of the logs.
Most mills today sort rough lumber and then store it for planning later, Arlint said. Douglas fir is best when it’s finished the day it’s felled.
“It’s very, very critical to keep your inventory rotated,” he said, so “out of the rough sorter, we feed directly to the planer.”
Immediately from there a computerized system scans and automatically grades boards, which are then sorted again, trimmed and packaged.
The plant produces premium through number four boards in terms of quality, Arlint said.
Approximately 60 percent of the logs are supplied from Weyerhaeuser land, while another 40 percent is purchased, Arlint said.
Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2007, sales were $16.3 billion;, and in 2005, sales were $22.6 billion. It has offices or operations in 13 countries, with customers worldwide.