Monday, July 1, 2024
Andrew Miller, the Chief Executive Officer of Stimson Lumber Company, has announced a substantial investment of $50 million to establish a new high-speed sawmill line at the company’s Forest Grove, Oregon facility. This investment in the 95-year-old sawmill signifies a major upgrade and a commitment to future operations, enhancing opportunities for private timber owners to find new markets for smaller-dimension timber, according to Miller.
Starting later this year, Stimson will begin preparing the Forest Grove mill to accommodate a 350-foot-long HewSaw line manufactured by Veisto-Oy from Finland. Miller anticipates that the new sawline will be operational by early 2026, with the existing line continuing to operate seamlessly without any production interruptions.
“We are excited about the investment in this new technology for multiple reasons,” Miller said. “On one hand, we are committing to long-term operations at Stimson’s oldest mill site, and the economic and workforce impacts the mill brings to the community.”
“This technology also represents an opportunity for Stimson and other timberland owners to efficiently process smaller diameter timber that previously would have been sold for pulp rather than be cut into dimensional lumber, or timber that would have to grow for another eight years before becoming marketable. We think this will be a real win for landowners,” Miller said.
Once operational, the new sawline will process logs ranging from 4 to 16 inches in diameter at an impressive rate of 70 eight-foot blocks per minute, making it the fastest sawline in North America, according to Miller. Currently, the mill’s sawline, combined with its 300 million board-feet of kiln capacity, produces approximately 100 million feet of two-by-four and two-by-six studs annually. Miller projects that production will triple with the new mill in full operation.
The existing mill employs 90 people, but Miller expects that the advanced technology of the new sawline will ultimately require fewer employees once it becomes operational.
“The new mill will be one of the most efficient and productive sawmills in North America,
which is Stimson’s goal with the investment,” Miller says.
The investment in the HewSaw technology also leverages Stimson’s 175,000 acres of adjacent timberlands, which will account for more than half of the mill’s timber supply.
Since building its first mill in Big Rapids, Michigan in 1871, Stimson Lumber has grown into a large integrated timberland and sawmilling company. Today, Stimson owns and operates six mills in Oregon and Idaho. The company owns and sustainably manages nearly 600,000 acres of forest land in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Eastern Washington, 175,000 acres of which are in Oregon. The objective of our milling operations is to add value to the logs harvested from the company’s timberlands. All products produced by Stimson mills are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) program.
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