Weyerhaeuser Company is investing $183.4 million in a three-year capital project to upgrade energy and power facilities at its Red River linerboard operation at Campti, Louisiana.

The investment will improve reliability and increase the efficiency of the Red River Mill, which is Weyerhaeuser's second largest containerboard producer, said Ernesta Ballard, Weyerhaeuser senior vice-president for corporate affairs. She announced the investment to Natchitoches Rotary Club members in May.

She said the project was approved by Weyerhaeuser's board of directors in April and is part of Weyerhaeuser's company-wide slate of capital investments.

"The investment is a sign that Weyerhaeuser likes doing business in Louisiana and believes in the Red River mill team's continued success," Ballard said.

"I am pleased that Weyerhaeuser will be upgrading its Campti facility, which is so important to both the regional and state economies. We remain committed to the continued success of Weyerhaeuser's Louisiana operations," said Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

The installation of a new recovery boiler, turbine generator and water treatment and steam piping system will reduce energy costs, decrease fossil fuel use and improve manufacturing costs at the linerboard operation, said Carl Gunter, vice president and mill manager of the Campti operation.

"We're excited about this investment and what it will mean to our operation, employees and community in the long term," Gunter said.

The new equipment will be installed over a three-year period, with start up expected in the first quarter of 2008. Like most paper mills, the Red River operation produces much of the steam and electrical power needed to run the operation through on-site power and recovery operations. The upgrade will increase that capacity and reduce dependence on purchased energy.

Red River mill operations will continue as usual during the construction. More than 400 people work at the Red River mill, which has the capacity to produce 970,000 tons annually of linerboard, the strong brown paper used to produce shipping boxes and other packaging.

In the Natchitoches area, Weyerhaeuser employs more than 600 people at the Red River mill, a timberlands office and the local iLevel Trus Joist engineered lumber products operation.

Weyerhaeuser Company has about 2,000 employees in Louisiana and manages more than one million acres of timberlands in the state, all certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)(tm). Weyerhaeuser's Louisiana operations include the Red River linerboard mill at Campti, plywood and lumber operations at Dodson and Zwolle, a sawmill at Taylor, an oriented strandboard (OSB) operation at Arcadia, Trus Joist operations at Natchitoches and Simsboro, a particleboard mill at Simsboro, a packaging operation at Shreveport, a lumber mill at Holden, Tree Improvement Centers at Isabel and Taylor and timberlands offices at Taylor, Natchitoches, Livingston and Dodson.

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