Södra Timber is to curtail production at two Swedish sawmills, as it cuts costs ahead of a prolonged period of decline.
The company has announced production will slow at its Traryd sawmill and the Bennsäter sawmill facility in Piggsmåla, with 29 redundancies announced across the sites.
Production through subcontractor Bennsäter will decline 35%, working shifts will shrink from 10 hours to eight and the mill will be operational for four days instead of five.
Production at Traryd will move from three shifts to two, a decline in production of 40,000m³ to 90,000m³ annually.
“We believe the weak business cycle for wood products is going to last and we don’t expect to see a pick-up in demand before 2010 at the earliest,” said Södra Timber president Peter Nilsson.
“That means we need to slow our production rates and cut costs.”
The reduced production rate at Bennsäter comes into force next week, and the third shift at Traryd will stop in the first week of October.
