Worst hit is the south Waikato township of Putaruru, which will see 212 redundancies, hard on the heels of the 22 jobs shed at the Kinleith Planer Mill in nearby Tokoroa last month and the closure of Coromandel's Kopu mill in May.
The axing of the Bay of Plenty's Mt Maunganui Plywood Mill will mean redundancy for 104 workers. Both plants will close in November.
Yesterday's announcement brings the total number of jobs shed this year by CHH to 480, with the company blaming the domestic downturn for creating overcapacity and forcing the closures.
However, Putaruru did not see the bad news coming and it was a "real kick in the guts", said South Waikato mayor Neil Sinclair.
The mill had been the town's lifeblood since 1903, he told Radio New Zealand.
"Now we have a small town suffering pretty heavy pain because of an economic downturn somewhere else that's got nothing to do with them.
"We are now, as a council, going to have to face the challenge and try to give these people hope and find them jobs, and it's going to be terribly, terribly difficult."
Many of the workers had been at the Putaruru plant all their working lives and had limited job options, Mr Sinclair said.
They were shocked by the news, as many believed the mill would survive the downturn.
One worker said CHH had closed the mill in haste, not giving it a chance to trade its way out of the situation.
Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby said his town had sensed the downturn, with residential building slowing down "considerably".
"I would see no reason why a company would want to close something that was still deemed successful, so they (CHH) must have good reason to do it."
Timber Federation director Wayne Coffey said the economic slowdown was clearly responsible for the closures.
"House permits are down 50 percent on last year so domestic (timber) sales are obviously starting to droop."
Latest figures, for the June quarter, showed that they were down a "huge" 27 percent, he said.
Production for the same quarter was down 17 percent on last year, one of the biggest drops in production on record.
"So it's no surprise that you are going to see some timber operations closing."
Mr Coffey called on the Government to effectively bail out the timber industry, as it had done for banks, airlines, and railroads.
Mr Sinclair also wanted help to ensure workers were not left out in the cold.
