Work is moving again at the Dillard MDF site in southern Oregon. Roseburg Forest Products announced on March 4, 2026 that it has resumed construction on its Roseburg Dillard MDF restart — a $450 million plant that will produce medium density fiberboard and high-density fiberboard for markets across the West. The resumption comes after the company paused the project in early 2025 amid economic turbulence and uncertainty over Oregon state policy, and it signals a renewed confidence in both the state’s regulatory environment and the long-term outlook for composite panels.
Construction Resumes After Year-Long Pause
Roseburg halted work on the Dillard MDF facility in early 2025, pointing to a combination of volatile market conditions, broader economic uncertainty, and concerns that potential Oregon policy shifts could undermine the project’s financial viability. For a plant of this scale — representing the company’s single largest facility investment — those risks were enough to stop the job site.
By early 2026, the calculus had changed. Roseburg cited improving stability in state policy as a central factor in its decision to return to construction. President and CEO Stuart Gray framed the restart in terms of long-term strategic positioning rather than short-term market optimism.
“During 2025, we took a number of strategic steps to strengthen our overall business performance in uncertain times and downcycle market conditions. These moves coupled with improving stability in state policy confirmed our long-term outlook for this project. We are confident in Dillard MDF as a strategic investment and look forward to continued state and local support to ensure the viability of this level of investment in Oregon.”
— Stuart Gray, President and CEO, Roseburg Forest Products
The announcement marks a significant turnaround for a project that had been in limbo. When Roseburg originally disclosed the pause, it drew attention precisely because the Dillard investment was already being described as the largest known manufacturing investment in rural Oregon — a distinction that made any delay feel consequential for the region.
A $450 Million Plant Built for the Western Market
The Dillard MDF facility is one half of a two-plant development at Roseburg’s Dillard complex south of the city of Roseburg, Oregon. Together, the two plants represent a $700 million investment in southern Oregon manufacturing — described by the company as one of the largest private capital investments of any kind in the state’s history, as reported by LBM Journal.
The companion facility — Dillard Components — opened in late summer 2024, making the MDF plant the final major piece of the investment. When the MDF plant begins operations, the two Dillard facilities combined will be capable of producing 175 million square feet of panels per year on a ¾-inch basis, or approximately 310,000 cubic meters per year.
Gray has been direct about the competitive ambition behind the plant. For Roseburg, this is not simply about adding capacity — it’s about reshaping its position in the North American MDF market.
“Dillard MDF plays a key role in our future. The plant will be one of the lowest cost producers in the world, which significantly enhances Roseburg’s long-term competitive position in composite panels in the West specifically and North America in general.”
— Stuart Gray, President and CEO, Roseburg Forest Products
Roseburg already operates MDF facilities in Medford, Oregon; El Dorado, Arkansas; and Pembroke, Ontario — the latter acquired in a move covered previously as Roseburg acquires Pembroke MDF. The Dillard plant would extend that network with what the company expects to be its most cost-competitive facility.
Next-Generation Technology at the Core of Roseburg Dillard MDF Restart
The production technology being installed at Dillard MDF is a next-generation Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous press — a 10-foot-wide, 42.1-metre-long system that sets the operational foundation for the facility. The full Siempelkamp scope of supply, as reported by Surface & Panel, includes a Büttner dryer line with sifter, the forming and press line, a cooling and stacking system, intermediate storage, and the associated automation infrastructure.
The press is capable of producing panels ranging from 2 mm to 28 mm in thickness, covering both traditional MDF and high-density fiberboard grades. That range gives the Dillard plant flexibility to serve a wide product mix — from thin HDF used in flooring applications to standard MDF panels for cabinetry and construction end-uses.
The facility will draw its raw material primarily from wood residuals — fiber that would otherwise be a byproduct of other milling operations. The Dillard complex’s existing infrastructure, including biomass energy production, makes it well-suited to process that material efficiently. Feedstock will come from local mills as well as broader regional suppliers across southern Oregon.
Jobs and Economic Impact for Southern Oregon
When Dillard MDF begins operations — currently targeted for late 2028 — Roseburg expects the facility to employ more than 140 people directly. That figure, confirmed across multiple industry sources, represents a meaningful addition to the employment base in Douglas County, a region where wood products manufacturing remains a core economic driver.
Beyond the direct workforce, the project is expected to generate additional opportunities across the regional supply chain — forestry operations, transportation, and equipment maintenance services that support a facility of this size.
The investment also reinforces Roseburg Forest Products’ long roots in the area. The company was founded by Kenneth W. Ford in 1936 as Roseburg Lumber and has remained family-held by the Ford family through nine decades. The Dillard expansion continues a pattern of multi-generation commitment to the region that contrasts with the mill closures seen elsewhere in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest — including the C&D Lumber closure in nearby Riddle that added to the area’s mill-closure pressures.
With construction now back underway, the Dillard MDF plant moves from a paused promise to an active project with a concrete timeline. For Roseburg Forest Products, the restart is both a statement of financial confidence and a bet that the West’s demand for competitively priced composite panels will reward the scale of this investment when the facility comes online in 2028.
