Plum Creek will restart idled Evergreen mill

Plum Creek announced last week will restart its idled sawmill in Evergreen. The facility will operate with one shift and employ 30 people.

A lack of demand for stud lumber products led to a decision to close the facility indefinitely in June 2009. Since then, the company has continued to closely monitor market conditions.

The price of lumber over the course of the past year has nearly doubled, the company said.

“While the recession took a toll on Plum Creek’s manufacturing business, lately we have witnessed a slow but steady improvement in the marketplace,” said Tom Ray, vice president northwest resources and manufacturing. “As we re-open the facility, we are pleased to welcome the return of several employees who previously worked at the facility. Other positions will be filled by employees transferring from other company manufacturing plants. Plum Creek is recruiting to replace several open positions.”

Ray said the jobs start at $15.50 an hour and pay up to $28 an hour for skilled positions. They also include health insurance, a 401K plan and a company-paid pension plan. Pension plans aren’t very common anymore, Ray noted.

“These are good-paying jobs,” he said.

According to Random Lengths editor Shawn Church, the lumber market has increased due to pent-up demand. A host of mills shut down in 2009 because of the recession, he said. Now the U.S. is seeing modest gains in housing, as interest rates have stayed low and the economy slowly recovers.

“The (industry) is starting to ramp up production,” Church said. “This mill is a result of that.”

A year ago, Random Lengths’ composite price for framing lumber was $284 per thousand feet. Today it’s $415, Church said, which is near record highs. Random Lengths is a trade journal for the wood products industry.

Still, Church said he didn’t think high lumber prices would hurt the housing market overall. He noted that according to industry analysis, about 16 to 17 percent of the cost of a new home is from lumber.

Plum Creek significantly reduced workers during the recession. In 2008, its manufacturing division employed more than 1,200 workers.

Last year, manufacturing was down to 560 positions, but now it’s back up to 650 positions with the addition of the shift at Evergreen. The company added about 60 jobs over the past year. All told, Plum Creek employs about 750 in Montana, Ray said.