SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Roseburg Forest Products is permanently ending operations at its Missoula, Montana, particleboard plant as part of the company’s strategic plan to exit the particleboard manufacturing business. 

May 22, 2024, is the last day for the facility that it has owned since acquiring the plant from Louisiana-Pacific in 2003.

The company plans to focus its resources on other product segments, including MDF, engineered wood, plywood, and lumber. Last year, the company announced a $700 million investment in manufacturing in Oregon, including a new plant, Dillard MDF, which will make both medium- and high-density fiberboard, and Dillard Components, which will produce exterior trim. Construction of its Roanoke Valley Lumber mill in Weldon, North Carolina, is nearing completion, with sales of dimensional lumber underway.

The company said that the particleboard facility in Montana was built in 1969, and the age of the manufacturing platform created challenges as the mill competed with more modern plants. 

“The decision to permanently close a plant is always difficult. It is especially difficult with our Missoula operation as we complete our exit from the particleboard marketplace,” said Stuart Gray, Roseburg’s president and CEO. “Unfortunately, Missoula’s older platform and technology is simply not competitive from a cost structure perspective in a marketplace with many new, modern particleboard facilities.”

The plant employs approximately 150 team members. Gray said that the company plans to assist the displaced workers by working closely with local resources.