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Wall Street problems hit Gloster
Published Wednesday, October 8, 2008
When national economic woes hit, it is easy for small-town America to mentally keep them an arms length away.
Until that arm is handed a pink slip.
The news in Gloster was like a nightmarish flashback Friday.
The Georgia-Pacific paper mill would, once again, be closing its doors, laying off 280 people.
The reason? The economy, in short.
The demand for the G-P product has decreased in recent years, and Gloster will suffer because of it.
The plant closed its doors in 2002 and didn’t reopen until 2005.
Officials aren’t saying this closure is permanent, but they aren’t setting a date to reopen either.
Families throughout Gloster and undoubtedly in other local towns are making tough decisions now. Some will move. Others will stay and tough it out.
And still others, like those who work at restaurants and shops in the area, will be affected one way or the other.
The economic crisis isn’t on Wall Street or in Washington anymore. It isn’t a big city problem.
It’s a Gloster problem, a Southwest Mississippi problem.
Fortunately, we’ve been down this road before. When International Paper left Natchez the world kept spinning.
If anyone is tough enough to survive crisis, it’s Southwest Mississippi.
Our outstretched hands won’t be used for blocking out the economic crisis anymore. We’ll use our hands to help each other.
Comments
Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on October 8, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The facility at Gloster is a "plywood plant" not a "paper mill".
The plywood market share has been eroded over time by OSB and other building materials. It is less expensive to manufacture OSB.
OSB - Oriented Strand Board
Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on October 8, 2008 at 10:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Old plant. It was built in 1967.
Closed prior to Katrina.
Opened up to help local timber owners of downed and damaged timber in the area. Probably purchased timber at distressed timber prices.
Wood products is a very cyclical business. It is either feast or fame. I am not sure where we are in the business cycle.
OSB can be made with pulpwood or small sawtimber. Plywood plants need large pine timber (peeler blocks). A significant cost advantage to the OSB plants.
If one looks, there have been several plywood plants closed in the recent years. Nothing new.
Of course, it hurts the local ecomony and the workers. However, one cannot operate a plant at a loss for very long.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on October 9, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
hate to hear this
I tell you the quality of wood products available today will make a GOOD carpenter look BAD
no such thing as good clean straight lumber anymore
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