Boise Cascade Plans New Canadian Plant

Boise Cascade Corp. has formed a joint venture with Stone-Consolidated Corp. and other investors to open a new panel plant at Barwick, Ontario, Canada.

Boise Cascade said the plant, which is expected to be open by the middle of 1997, will have a capacity of 400 million square feet annually of 4-by-8 foot oriented strand board panels. At full production, the plant will have 120 workers.

The panels are an alternative to plywood in many construction applications. The panels are used as sheathing for exterior walls and roofs and for floor underlayment.

Boise Cascade said it will own 47 percent of the joint venture, to be called Voyageur Panel, and StoneConsolidated will have 21 percent. Remaining ownership is divided among institutional investors.

It’s Boise-based Boise Cascade’s first venture into the production of oriented strand board panels. John Bender, vice president for Timber and Wood Products Division operations, said the market for the material has increased substantially in the last five years.

In 1994, the company said oriented strand board accounted for about 33 percent of the total North American structural panel market. By 2000, it’s expected to be more than 55 percent.