RECESSION WATCH: FOREST PRODUCT OUTFITS CLOSING DOWN - Hundreds Of Jobs Lost In WV

(12/17/2011)

The American Woodmark Corp., a cabinet manufacturing plant in Moorefield, will close leaving more than 400 people out of work. The plant is the third-largest employer in Hardy County and was built in 2003. In August, Coastal Lumber Co. announced it was going out of business, laying off more than 350 people in West Virginia and three other states. Coastal Lumber said the layoffs were deepest in West Virginia, including their operation at Gassaway. In 2010, WV Forestry Director Randy Dye said, "There's nowhere to go but up," about the state's forest industry. "The bright news, I think I can make this statement, we have hit bottom," he said. The industry has apparently not hit bottom. Greenbrier County took a big hit in 2009 after the big recession and globalized market hit the industry. The Mullican Lumber Company announced 200 would be losing their jobs when the Ronvererete closed. It was the county's largest employer. The globalized timber market, with imports from Russia and China, have put the wood products business, including furniture making, in a deep hole. Insult to that injury has been the economic collapse of the American housing market.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001