News

L-P seeks to sell Missoula mill

Louisiana-Pacific Corp.’s Missoula particleboard mill is for sale, creating doubt about
its future and concerns for nearly 220 employees.

Associated Press

The Portland-based company said the planned sale is part of an overall move to sell about half its
manufacturing business, including particleboard, and all of its timberland and lumber business.
"We are moving out of the industrial panel area, and Missoula is one of the three particleboard mills that we
are trying to sell," company spokesman David Dugan said Thursday.
L-P hopes to sell 30 of the company’s 60 mills, including Missoula and sawmills in Deer Lodge and
Belgrade. The move, which comes at a time of low wood-product prices, is an effort to relieve the company’s
debt of approximately $1.2 billion.

Dugan said the Missoula mill, which employs 218 people, would remain open while L-P pursues a buyer.
"That’s our intention," Dugan said. "The mill will operate as scheduled and if there’s anything that needs to
be done out there, we’ll see that it’s done."
Dugan said that while Missoula has remained profitable for L-P, the company is getting out of the
particleboard business altogether. The company plans to focus its pared down vision on other building
products, including oriented strand board, where the company is the world’s largest producer. L-P will also
continue to produce hardboard siding and plastic building products, including vinyl siding, composite decking
and moldings.
"We aren’t a strong competitor in the industrial panel market," Dugan said. "We just don’t have the strategic
focus and the capital to thrive in that market. There are probably other companies that would be a better fit for
the Missoula mill."
L-P has identified a number of potential buyers for its mills and timberlands, but Dugan said the company
wasn’t prepared to name them. He did say the Missoula mill would likely be sold by itself rather than as part of
some package deal.
"This (sale) is probably going to be one outfit at a time," Dugan said.
L-P hopes to sell the mill intact, with another company simply taking over and retaining the current
employees.
Louisiana-Pacific lost more than $171 million in 2001 and has seen its credit rating downgraded below
investment grade by Standard & Poor’s. The divisions L-P put on the market late Wednesday accounted for a
substantial portion of the company’s loss, while the building products division showed gains for the year.
"These businesses have proven their ability to generate attractive revenues even in a very sharp downturn,"
L-P chairman and CEO Mark Suwyn said in a statement.
L-P currently employs about 9,700 workers companywide, but if the sales go as planned, the company will
shed about 4,400 workers.
The most significant assets the company put on the market are the 935,000 acres of timberland in Texas,
Idaho and Louisiana. L-P has been the top producer of stud lumber in the country, with its timberlands
producing 1.4 billion board feet of timber annually. Dugan said the sale of the timberland is expected to take as
long as 18 months.
If L-P completes all the sales, the company estimates between $600 million and $700 million in revenue.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.

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