Friday Mar 26, 2010

By Timmins Times

Grant Forest Products is offering the Timmins oriented strandboard mill for sale and has advertised for tenders.

This follows the fact that Grant applied last June for protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in order to have time to restructure.

So far, Grant has arranged for the sale of its Englehart plant, but not the Timmins operation, located on Highway 101 West. It's the same plant where unionized workers have been locked out since September 2006.

Georgia-Pacific, the American firm bidding to buy the Englehart operation has indicated it has no interest in the Timmins plant.

The deadline for submission of offers for the Timmins plant is next Wednesday, March 31, which the company says it may decide to extend.

Interested parties will have to contact Ernst & Young, which is acting as the Monitor for the creditors arrangement.

The advertisement says "the Timmins mill is located on approximately 300 acres of land and historically has operated as an oriented strandboard facility. The Timmins mill could also provide an attractive opportunity for alternative uses. Any transaction will be subject to the approval of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice."