Job assurances for mill staff

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 2

Job assurances for mill staff

An assurance ' was given yesterday that < no jobs would be lost at the Ashley mill of Canterbury Timber Products, Ltd, because of a new joint venture company mill being planned in Australia. The Australian mill will become the second in y.the Southern Hemisphere . to make medium density fibreboard, which is produced at C.T.P.’s Ashley, mill under the brand name Customwood. C.T.P. supplies the. Austra, lian market with .much of Its demand for the product. The . Australian mill, at Wagga Wagga, which wil be 25 per cent-owned by C.T.P. would have enougl capacity to supply all of Australia’s needs, according to projections, said the managing director (Mr A. MacGibbon). . ' -L

By the time the Australian mill was on stream Canterbury’s production would be diverted to other overseas '(markets and. the growing New Zealand market. If anything, there would be more job opportunities at the Ashley mill, he said. v i He agreed that the movq .to form the joint venture I company with A. V. - Webl Industries, Ltd, was ;defensive because of the inevitability that if the Canterbury i company did not d>eicqn}et i involved, other Australian (companies) woiilct' - V ■ C.T.P.' will provide technical services to the'- new plant; The ' joint venture company will,' be called Laminex Customwood Pty, Ltd. The project will have to [be approved, by the Australian and New Zealand GoVlernments. 1“ ’ * . <