Wood export slide means 180 jobs lost

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE and NZPA

The slump in the timber export market has cost a further 180 jobs, with fears of more to come.

National Distribution Union wood sector secretary Jim Jones estimates between 2000 and 3000 forestry and timber workers have been laid off in the past six months, although industry leaders say it is hard to get reliable figures.

Hot on the heels of Wednesday's announcement of 110 redundancies at a Mt Maunganui timber remanufacturing plant came news yesterday that more than 70 workers will go from the Carter Holt Harvey Tasman pulp processing mill at Kawerau.

The log and wood processing recession has already brought hundreds of job losses in the central North Island, East Coast and South Waikato.

Instability is not uncommon in a cyclical industry at the mercy of overseas markets. This time the exchange rate, forest ownership changes and competition from Russia and Chile are being blamed for the squeeze.

The president of the Forest Industry Contractors Association, Jacob Kajavala, said the latest redundancies showed "the hole is getting deeper".

In June, he laid off 57 workers from his Murupara-based company and said fewer than one-third of them had got new jobs.

Only two were still in forestry and they had had to go to the South Island to find work.

"There are pretty slim pickings."

Said Mr Jones: "Some people in the industry think there is a recovery on the way, but it's not here yet."

He said the Mt Maunganui layoffs "weren't a total surprise", but the plant was being closed without much notice and "it is always difficult when you get 100 people coming on to the job market at once".

However, he thought a number of workers had skills that could be used in other industries.

Mr Jones said every timber plant closure was a setback to the country's future in adding value to its forestry resource.

The forest owners should be co-operating with one another to ensure skills were retained - transferring workers to other sections of the industry temporarily during a downturn, rather than losing them altogether, he said.

Upset Mt Maunganui Wood Processing employees have been told they will receive redundancy payments when the plant closes on September 30.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Craig Garner said any loss of 100 jobs was significant and the flow-on effects for the region could be substantial.

At the Kawerau mill, which employs 352 people, 70 jobs will be shed over the next 18 months as the owners move to "streamline" operations.

Carter Holt Harvey Tasman chief executive Mark Oughton said the redundancies were part of the company's plan to build Tasman's future as a world-class pulp operation.

Kawerau Mayor Malcolm Campbell said any job losses were bad news. "But at the end of the day we want that mill to be sustainable."

Gone in past 6 months

* 110 jobs at a Mt Maunganui timber plant.

* 70 workers from a Kawerau pulp processing mill.

* 95 people at a Thames timber mill.

* 57 laid off at a Murupara log processing yard.

* 30 contractors at Rotorua's Waipa Mill.

* 22 workers from an East Coast logging company.

* A further 150 job losses expected in South Waikato.