A volatile market has been blamed for a decision to suspend timber exports from the central west. Source: ABC News
The company PF Olsen secured a three-year deal last year to supply the Chinese market with 175,000 tonnes of wood from forests around Bathurst and Oberon.
Managing director Pat Groenhout says log prices have dropped significantly since April this year and they have been unable to make a profit.
He said they were working to redeploy about 20 staff.
“We’ve got one harvesting crew operating, just supplying domestic products in that part of the world,” Mr Groenhuot said.
“We’ve had a number of our service providers who’ve been able to deploy staff to other parts of the country or in some cases put them on extended leave with the intent of bringing them back in once the operation gets running up again.”
Mr Groenhout said he hoped operations would restart once market conditions improved.
“It would be probably challenging to get things up and running before Christmas now, just given the timing, but we’re certainly working actively with potential customers to get some contracts in place with a view to being able to start something.”
