Lousiana Pacific Coillte (LPC), the wood products company, based in Waterford, will make pre-tax losses of about £7.5 million (€9.5 million) for 1998.
Coillte, the State-forestry company, has a 35 per cent stake in LPC, which made losses of £10.6 million in 1997.
Despite the continuing loss-making, the company said yesterday it would stem the losses this year and should come into profit early next year. This would happen because over-capacity in its oriented strand board market had been removed, said the general manager, Mr Louis E. Hess. He added that 20 per cent growth in the European market would help the company move back into the black. Mr Hess said he was confident Coillte would retain its share in LPC.
One of the factors which contributed to the losses in 1998 was a fire in October at LPC's plant at Belview, where 178 people are employed. The company was forced to close its operations for six weeks during a period when the market was extremely buoyant, said Mr Hess.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)