Crown Forest boost forecast

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 18

Crown Forest boost forecast

PA Wellington The British Columbian Government is expected to soon impose a three-year labour contract on the Canadian unions and forestry companies involved in a long industrial battle that has affected the Fletcher ■Challenge subsidiary, Crown Forest Industries. The imposition of a contract on the parties should mean an end to the production disruptions, according to the chairman of Fletcher Challenge, Mr Ron Trotter. Crown Forest workers returned to work at the end of March pending a vote on a company contract offer. In the vote, the union members rejected the proposals. Now the situation was that the British Columbian Government planned to im-

nose a settlement, said Mr Trotter. In the meantime, he said, production at the Crown Forest facilities was going ahead smoothly. While the company had lost a “chunk of money” during the period of no work it was now looking for a strong production performance during the remainder of the year. “We’re getting excellent production at the moment. Pulp prices are improving and newsprint prices are looking better although they haven’t yet reached the levels we would hope for.” Mr Trotter said he doubted the group’s over all pulp and paper operations in Canada and New Zealand would show a profit this year but the general outlook was good.