Norbord to Take Downtime at OSB Plants


Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 31 August 2006 -- Norbord Inc. announced today that it plans to take scheduled downtime at two of its North American oriented strand board (OSB) operations in September and October. The company's U.S. plants at Bemidji, Minnesota, and Joanna, South Carolina, plan to take a combined total of eight days of downtime to pursue scheduled maintenance activities.

The shuts will result in the curtailment of approximately 11 million square feet (3/8-inch basis) of production. In addition, Norbord has been notified of a force majeure supply interruption event at one of its key resin suppliers. The company has been able to secure alternate resin supplies at the present
time.

Norbord Inc. is an international producer of wood-based panels with assets of $1.3 billion. It employs approximately 2700 people at 16 plant locations in the United States, Europe, and Canada, and is one of the world's largest producers of OSB. In addition to OSB, Norbord manufactures particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF), hardwood plywood, I-joists, and related value-added products. Norbord is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol NBD.