{"id":12933,"date":"2023-11-19T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=12933"},"modified":"2024-10-21T20:27:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:27:24","slug":"juken-nz-shuts-gisborne-mill-as-japan-demand-for-pine-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/juken-nz-shuts-gisborne-mill-as-japan-demand-for-pine-crashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Juken NZ Shuts Gisborne Mill as Japan Demand for Pine Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Juken’s Gisborne mill will have no white knight after management told 60 workers that they will lose their jobs before Christmas. Production will stop three days before Christmas, with a transitional crew of 20 operating until March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood Central can reveal that Juken New Zealand’s owner, Forest One, told staff this morning that the mill will close amid ongoing financial difficulties and falling demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes as Wood Central’s Senior Editor reported earlier this month that the surge in Chinese LVL<\/a> has made it difficult for New Zealand manufacturers to compete in the local market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hiroshima-based company has invested over $700 million in processing machinery for LVL and plywood production at Gisborne, most of it well past the use-by date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View of a wood veneer factory in Guangxi province, China, with rows of veneer stacked for drying. (Photo Credit: Andrew Benton \/ Alamy Stock Photo under copyright licence)
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The company’s plywood mill was shut down seven years ago, with the company pivoting to manufacturing high-value specialised wood products for the Japanese housing market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a crashing yen (now reaching a 53-year low) and weakening demand in the Japanese construction market have made the mill unviable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After consulting with staff on options to keep the mill open<\/a>, Juken, New Zealand Managing Director Hiroyuki Kawado, made the difficult decision to close the mill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is with sadness that I have advised them that the decision has been made to stop production as we cannot continue with the ongoing losses being made by the mill and have not identified an alternative solution that will turn the situation around,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said demand for its products had continued to decline over the past five years and is not expected to improve in the short to medium term – and the ageing mill would need significant investment to operate effectively and safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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