One of North America’s largest producers of glue-laminated timber is investing US $120 million to expand its manufacturing site in Springfield, Oregan, with the Oregan Public Broadcasting (OPG) reporting that Rosboro is busy constructing two new mills and expanding its timber-drying facilities at its Springfield campus.
Mr Wells said the dry-kiln expansion is almost complete, and both new mills should be operational by the end of 2026, creating up to 100 jobs.
“These timber dollars really did have a heavy, heavy hand in building Oregon up to what it is,” said Mr Wells. “And my belief is that we should hold on to that legacy as a community and as a state and lean into it.”
The latest development comes after Rosboro laid off 25 workers after closing down its stud mill earlier this year. Mr Wells stated that due to market conditions and government regulations, the facility was making a product that wasn’t profitable.
“We’re in a situation now, and have been for about two years, where it costs more to acquire the log that you would turn into stud lumber than you can sell the finished stud lumber for,” he said, with Rosboro now retooling the mill, so the company can manufacture a different product there in the future, called laminating stock – creating up to 40 new jobs, and will be ready by early 2026.
The new investment is in response to increased demand for new types of timber systems that are taking the North American market “by storm.”
“Mass timber is almost the next industrial revolution or the next industrial evolution,” said Nick Milestone, Vice President of Mercer Mass Timber – North America’s leading mass timber provider – who spoke to Wood Central in August. “We are starting to see that in the rollout of software packages, where structural steel software is now adapting itself to mass timber.”
Earlier this year, a study published by the University of Georgia and funded by the USDA Forest Resources Planning Act through a joint venture between the US Forest Products Laboratory and the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture revealed that the demand for timber buildings could grow 25-40 fold over the next 50 years.