(AP) - The credit crunch and the resulting slowdown in housing construction have whittled another 200 jobs from southern Oregon's wood products industry.
Three companies have announced cutbacks:
-- Swanson Group of Glendale, south of Roseburg, said it will lay off 150 employees as of Dec. 1, closing a sawmill and planer shift at its stud mill in Roseburg and at its sawmills in Glendale and Noti.
The company also said it plans to shut down the boiler and kilns at its former sawmill in Glide.
-- Timber Products of Springfield said it was reducing its work force to 135 at its Grants Pass plant, idling 40 workers. It said it is discontinuing its softwood plywood line at the plant and focusing on hardwood plywood that goes into cabinets, furniture and milled products.
-- States Industries of Eugene, which makes hardwood panels for residential and commercial construction, has laid off 18 production workers.
Other companies are responding to slowing demand by cutting operating hours and taking longer holiday shutdowns at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
'We're seeing lumber at or below prices we've seen at any time in 50 years, when you factor in inflation,' said David Schott, executive director of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association.
'A year and a half ago, studs were running $320 to $340 per thousand board feet for green Doug fir. It's averaging $150 to $160 now,' he said. 'It's the most ugly pricing I've seen since 1980-81.'
Swanson Group President Steve Swanson also blamed cutbacks in logging on federal lands and subsidized Canadian imports.
Schott said producers in British Columbia and the South are moving quickly to sell timber damaged by beetles and hurricanes.
Last month, Weyerhaeuser Co. announced it was cutting 103 jobs at its engineered lumber products plants in Eugene and Junction City from Nov. 1 until at least April 1.
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