Struggling timber town Tokoroa, in New Zealand’s North Island, would welcome the new “world scale” sawmill that Carter Holt Harvey has said it is considering building.
The proposed mill, which would cost between NZ$100-150m and be capable of processing 800,000 tonnes of logs a year, would be built at Marsden Point or at Carter Holt’s Kinleith pulp and paper mill 7km south of Tokoroa.
Local mayor Neil Sinclair said it would be good news to have New Zealand’s biggest mill near Tokoroa.
The proposal has also been welcomed by Kinleith union site committee chairman Graham Holmes, who said Carter Holt had been “in the business of closing things down here”.
“It would be nice to see them in the business of expanding their business here,” he said.
