5/17/07

Go Grant!
OSB mill set to start production after Thanksgiving
By Brian Jarvis

BRIAN JARVIS/Manning Times

At 480,000 square feet, Grant Clarendon will be the largest of all OSB mills built by Grant Forest Products.

Bouncing back from delays that officials say were unavoidable, the much-anticipated Grant Clarendon has rescheduled its launch date from March to November.

“We’re about 65 percent of the way there,” said site manager Toby Elgin. “We’re still building and constructing, but when you look at it from a distance, it’s really beginning to look like a finished facility. We’re hoping to make board right after Thanksgiving.”

At 480,000 square feet, the $250 million facility is the largest of all mills built by the Canada-based Grant Forest Products, one of the world’s leading producers of oriented strand board (OSB), a wood paneling similar to plywood used for sheathing in walls, floors and roofs.

Near the end of 2006, Grant Forest scaled back its construction crew from 600 to 200 – contracted through Wabi America Inc. – but has since risen back to 400. Mechanical work on the facility is expected to be complete by September.

“We’re progressing well,” said Wabi America project manager James Rustin. “We’ve really had no issues.”

According to Elgin, Grant Forest decided to slow construction in Clarendon when the market price for OSB began to dip, instead concentrating on increasing production at its twin facility in Allendale, which went into operation last November.

“We sell a commodity product that rides the fluctuations of the housing market and interest rates and things such as that,” Elgin said. “The market does this periodically so we focused our efforts on ramping it up in Allendale, where we can (temporarily) make the board quicker and cheaper.”

Echoing community leaders who have heralded Grant Clarendon as an economic boon to the community, Elgin said that he plans to step up an aggressive recruiting effort in June with the aim of hiring 115-130 associates by October plus 20 more by November. So far he’s received more than 1,500 applications.

“That’s what we’ll need to have a successful start-up,” said Elgin, noting the majority of employees so far have been hired within a 50-mile radius. “The last two months will be an excellent training period for new associates, where they really get to figure out how the equipment works. But we never stop taking applications. Even after we open, we’ll keep on accepting them.”