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Category: Timber / States and Territories / State Parliament / Community and Society / Regional / Unemployment

Heyfield mill owners plan to relocate operation to Tasmania

Saturday, 18 Mar 2017 05:30:30 | Peter Lusted

Company Clinton Tilley said the company was not for sale. (ABC News: Stephanie Anderson)

The owners of the Heyfield sawmill have no intention to sell it to the State Government and have revealed more about details of their plans to relocate the mill to Tasmania.

The jobs of 260 Heyfield workers are in limbo after they were told on Friday that the site would close within 18 months.

The mill's owners, Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH), rejected a timber supply offer from state-owned logging company VicForests, deeming it unsustainable.

The State Government indicated it would consider buying the mill, but ASH director Clinton Tilley scoffed at the suggestion.

"At what point does Daniel Andrews think that he just buys a business and what makes him think it's for sale," he asked.

ASH instead outlined a plan to relocate the mill to Burnie on Tasmania's north-west coast.

"We would plan that as parts of Heyfield became no longer needed, that we would look to relocate down to Tasmania," he said.

"It's over the coming two years, it's not an immediate thing tomorrow, it's a two-year proposition."

A close up of a stack of wooden boards with larger stacks in background Photo: Mr Tilley said the company would process plantation timber from Tasmania. (ABC News: Stephanie Anderson)

Tasmanian Government 'welcomes' company

Mr Tilley said ASH was confident a deal would be reached with Tasmanian forestry plantation company Forico to process their eucalyptus nitens timber.

Tasmania's mills process the nitens timber for low-value products like woodchips but ASH said its technology would allow it to process the timber for higher-quality products like floorboards, tables and window frames.

"We've developed our own drying and cutting schedules to enable it to be used with additional technology that we have at our plant that no other plant in Australia has," Mr Tilley said.

ASH indicated it would look to relocate some staff from Heyfield to its Tasmania mill if the plan goes ahead.

The ABC contacted Forico chief executive officer Bryan Hayes who declined to comment.

The Tasmanian Government welcomed the proposal.

"We have had discussions with the Hermal Group, owners of Australian Sustainable Hardwoods," a spokesperson said.

"We would welcome any businesses wishing to flee a Labor government that is trying to shut down industry to Tasmania, where the Liberal Government is encouraging growth and investment."

The Construction Foresty Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) backed ASH through the negotiating process with the Victorian Government, but the mill owner could face some opposition from the union if the jobs leave Heyfield.

CFMEU Victorian district secretary Frank Vari vowed to fight to keep the jobs in Gippsland.

"We don't care who owns the mill — it's the jobs that matter," he said.

"The mill is too important to our members, too important to the community of Heyfield and too important for the industry."

AustraliaPlus


 

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