New Mexico Particleboard Plant Closing

Ponderosa Products, a particleboard manufacturer headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., announced that it is closing down. The decision will end the company’s 30 years of operations.

The company consumed wood material from pallets, as well as scraps from residential buildings.

The plant, when operating at full capacity, was able to produce around 50 million square feet of particleboard a year.

When the Albuquerque plant opened in 1973, it got most of its wood scraps from a molding plant in Duke City, N.M.

However, as the supply of scrap wood decreased, the cost to supply the plant with the raw material sharply increased.

The privately held corporation's equipment and plant will be sold at auction in March, and the land the company owns will also be sold, according to Jim Harrison, president of the company. Albuquerque Journal