The Grant Forest Products oriented strand board (OSB) plant in the west end of Timmins is being dismantled. The facility has been idle since the fall of 2006 when a labour dispute resulted in the lockout of more than 100 employees.
EDS Decommissioning Canada, out of Montreal, purchased the above-ground assets of the plant.
“We successfully resold pretty much the entire plant, so that is being dismantled and packaged for relocation,” said Christopher Barten, account executive with EDS.
“Our business is to relocate plants and equipment and we do end up scrapping some stuff but ideally that is a last resort.”
The company has hired about 100 local people and has also contracted some local companies.
“For all the equipment not related to the OSB plant – specifically pumps, motors, tooling, bag houses, electrical equipment, small mobile machinery, and pretty much everything down to the last nuts and bolts – that has been sold to local companies,” he said.
Fire equipment, such as hoses and suits, have been sold to some colleges needed for classroom instruction.
“What we do is always a last case scenario, unfortunately. It is always best for a seller to come in and restart the plant where it is but we hire locally and sell locally,” Barten said.
Once the bigger pieces of equipment have been dismantled over the next few months, the teams will begin to shrink in the new year and the project is expected to be completed next spring. Nothing will be left on site.
In June of 2009, the company sought bankruptcy protection and in early January, Georgia-Pacific purchased the Grant facilities in Englehart and Earlton along with two others in South Carolina. It was reported that the company had $600-million in secured debt and it sales had slipped to $184-million in 2008 from $506-million in 2004 due to the decline in the U.S. housing market.
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