Canadian forestry industry gets boost from mills

17/09/2012

The forestry mills on the north shore of Canada's Lake Superior is giving the country's forestry industry a new lease of life.

Terrace Bay pulp mill has been mothballed but now a new owner – Aditya Birla Group of India – has taken over. The company is a multi-national Fortune 500 corporation and has employees spread across 36 countries. Its decision to invest in the Canadian pulp mills highlights the strategic importance of the industry.

Birla is the world's largest manufacturer of viscose staple fibre, which is used in shirts, trousers, tissues, bed linen, diapers and other products.

Michael Gravelle, the Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP and the province's natural resources minister, commented on the purchase: “It's a transformational move in the forest sector and the first of its kind in Ontario.”

He added: “The company are the customers because they need it for the production of uniforms and material for clothing. This gives us a sense of long-term sustainability for the operation that we haven't seen before.”

The mill will deliver a minimum, of 275 jobs in the mill, along with 335 woodland jobs and a range of different support positions.