Interfor exits Québec operations, sells sawmills

Interfor Corporation announced its decision to exit operations in Québec, including the sale of three manufacturing facilities and closure of its Montréal office. This strategic shift will allow Interfor to concentrate on operations in Ontario and New Brunswick.

Interfor has entered an agreement to sell its sawmills in Val-d’Or and Matagami, along with the Sullivan remanufacturing plant, to Chantiers Chibougamau Ltée (CCL) for an estimated $30 million. The sale excludes countervailing and anti-dumping deposits linked to the US-Canada softwood lumber trade dispute.

The exit was driven by declining economic fibre availability, worsened by record forest fires in 2023.

“This divestiture enables us to focus resources on our remaining Eastern Canadian sawmills…, which are well-positioned with competitive log costs and an increasingly valuable spruce-pine-fir lumber product mix,” said Interfor’s president Ian Fillinger.

The transaction is expected to close by late 2024.