CHILE (From news reports) -- Arauco, a forestry company linked to the Angelini Group, reported this Tuesday morning Oct. 18 the layoff of about 300 workers nationwide.

The reduction of personnel, which affects operators from different departments of the company, enters the change the context where the Chilean forestry passes.

At the beginning of August, DF Mas announced that Arauco had hired the Boston Consulting Group - a global consulting firm - to review the company's internal structure, with the goal of making it "lighter and more agile in all non-operational areas."

This move, according to sources close to Arauco, led them to make the decision to merge the two parts of the company - especially pulp and forest - which led to the staff cuts announced this morning.

In addition to this is the difficult year that the company is going through, where the drop in pulp prices, forest fires, timber theft in the south, climate fronts and the weak economy of the country have greatly affected in Arauco, which is reflected in the financial results obtained at the end of the first half of 2023.

It is worth mentioning that the company reported a loss of US$ 101.3 million in January-June 2023, which compares poorly with the profit of US$632.8 million achieved in the same period last year.

The layoff of 300 workers is not the first time this year that Arauco has had to resort to cutting staff.

At the beginning of August, The company announced the closure of its Horcones 2 sawmill in the Biobío Region, leading to the layoff of 121 people. Among the reasons given by Arauco are rising costs due to violence in the countryside, the low availability of wood due to fire and the rapid change in market behavior.

Likewise, in mid-September Arauco should use the same measure. The forestry company announced that, due to the overflowing of the Mataquito River (Maule Region) that occurred after the bad weather that affected the central-southern area of ​​the country, the pulp production process had to be suspended until to Licancel Pulp Located in Licantén in Spain.