Weyerhaeuser to Sell Composite Panel Business

Federal Way, WA, November 30, 2005–Weyerhaeuser Co. said Tuesday it would stop making fiberboard and particleboard, selling its six plants that make composite panels.

The closures are the latest in a string of announcements by Weyerhaeuser since early October in an effort to cut capacity. The cuts include the indefinite closure of a pulp and paper facility in Saskatchewan, a box-finishing operation in California, a sawmill and pulp mill in Washington, and a plywood mill in Oklahoma.

The composite-panels business was a small part of Weyerhaeuser’s wood-products business, producing $122 million, a bit more than 2%, of the company’s $5.6 billion of third-quarter sales.

The North American mills — in Albany, Ore., Bennettsville, S.C., Eugene, Ore. Malvern, Ark., and Simsboro, La. — will continue to produce medium-density fiberboard and particleboard while Weyerhaeuser seeks a buyer. Including a plant in Clonmel, Ireland, the mills employ about 1,000 people.

In late October, Weyerhaeuser sold its interest in its French composite-panels businesses to Spain’s largest maker of medium-density fiberboard and particleboard, Financiera Maderera SA.