Press Releases

July 13, 2010 - Wood Deficit in China to Create Major Opportunities for Pacific Rim Exporters
Big Winners expected to be BC and Russian Lumber, and New Zealand and West Coast North America logs. New five-year outlook report quantifies China's growing demand for imported wood and shows how tight supplies will drive prices higher for exporters .... MORE

April 19, 2010 - BC Interior "Mountain Pine Beetle Attack" Report preview generates major North American debate
To address some of the misinterpretations of the report's findings and to provide additional perspectives on one of the world's greatest environmental catastrophies, the following four topics are further clarified .... MORE

March 17, 2010 - B.C. Interior timber and wood products industry nearing its peak output as the full impact of the mountain pine beetle takes hold – production to peak about 2013
New report outlines the devastating impacts in the B.C. Interior from the ongoing MPB epidemic in the short to long-term, and the emerging downstream “supply gap” on North American lumber and panel markets.
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March 17, 2010 - Earthquakes in Chile Impacting Clearwood Pine Lumber and Moulding Market
With the sudden disruption to Chile's supply line, the run on prices has already started in Chlean supply including softwood plywood, finger-joint and MDF mouldings ........ MORE

December 16, 2009 - U.S. Moulding Market, looking for better results in 2010
“Despite the dramatic number of domestic and offshore plant closures and curtailments in recent years, moulding producers simply could not reduce their capacity fast enough to prevent prices from falling to below break-even for extended periods in 2008/2009....." MORE

November 30, 2009 - U.S. OSB to benefit from rising demand, but severe excess capacity is expected to dampen gains in operating rates and prices until 2011 at the earliest. Softwood plywood and OSB outlook calls for modest gains, but still heavily dependent on U.S. economy and housing starts recovery ..... MORE

November 11, 2009 - U.S. softwood lumber demand and prices poised to rise slowly in 2010 but gaining momentum in 2011 as demand climbs - price surges to follow!
Softwood lumber outlook calls for gains as the U.S. economy and housing starts to recover slowly and steadily - but still some risks ahead ... MORE

August 12, 2009 - China still importing (and requiring) huge volumes of Russian logs and lumber
China's domestic wood consumption is closely coupled to Russian imports; supplying nearly 85% of China's total softwood log imports in 2008 and through 2009... MORE

July 10, 2009 - U.S. South's 'average' softwood sawmills acheive the best North American earnings results
North American results show earnings at Eastern Canada sawmills were the worst, Western Canada sawmills were in the middle of the pack, but U.S. sawmills are considered the winners in a terrible year .... MORE

June 23, 2009 — Softwood sawmills around the globe incur EBITDA losses averaging US$-12/m3 in 2008 – worsening in Q1 2009
Biggest losses seen in Canada -- especially in Eastern Canada
Sawmills around the world experienced some of the worst losses in recent history during 2008 and early 2009. The global average losses (on an EBITDA basis) were US$-12/m3 (net lumber basis) in 2008 and fell even further in Q1 2009 to US$-14/m3. By comparison in 2006, the global industry showed a profit of US$8/m3. These and other figures were released today in the comprehensive Global Lumber/Sawn Wood Cost Benchmarking Report—2008 & Q1/2009, a biannual study jointly prepared by International WOOD Markets Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and The Beck Group... MORE

May 13, 2009 Global Wood Industry Trends & Statistics - Attaining competitive advantage by better analyzing global supply/demand forces
Globalization of the wood products industry continues at an unprecedented rate, with new opportunities continuing to emerge in both good and bad markets. Importing countries continually switch from traditional exporters to new suppliers as economics, currency, logistics, freight rates, politics and customer preference continue to change. Today’s successful wood products manufacturing, distribution and sales/marketing companies must constantly adjust their market and product-sourcing tactics in order to keep up with their suppliers and stay ahead of their competitors, both domestically and globally.... MORE

April 17, 2009 Billion Board Foot Club in 2008 loses more Company Members as a result of the Global Market Slump
The number of global softwood lumber companies that produced one billion board feet of lumber (nominal size) or more fell to only 11 companies in 2008 as compared to 15 in 2007 and 22 in 2006. The dramatic decrease in the number of companies making the list is a direct result of falling global lumber demand from plunging housing starts and the global economic recession. Total production of these Top 11 companies was 27.0 billion bf in 2008 as compared to 31.0 billion bf in 2007 (-12%) by the same companies.

March 25, 2009 West Fraser now the #1 Softwood Lumber Producer in Canada and North America - “Top 20” Canadian softwood lumber producers suffer a stunning blow in 2008 due to market collapse.
The latest ranking of Canada’s “Top 20” lumber producers in 2008 indicates that total softwood lumber production by the Top 20 Canadian companies decreased by 16.7% compared to 2007. Similarly, total Canadian softwood lumber output dropped by a staggering 20.5% to reach just 23.8 billion bf in 2008 as compared to 29.95 billion bf in 2007. Unprecedented North American housing and softwood lumber market conditions drove prices below cost levels to lows not seen since the 1991-92 recession ... MORE

January 27, 2009  China facing the brunt of a pending log supply shortage as a result of Russia’s current 25% Log Export Tax and the scheduled 80% Tax - Tightening log supply pressure only being partially averted due to reduced market demand and currency volatility as a result of the global economic crisis.
While Russia’s move to an 80% log export tax (or minimum €50/m3 or US$400/Mbf, Scribner scale) has been delayed to late 2009, the projected reduction in Russian log production and exports in combination with higher log export costs .... there are some potentially attractive opportunities for those log and lumber exporters that can create a competitive fit with China, especially during the global market downturn .... MORE.

November 21, 2008 - Russian Log Importers Dodge the Bullet – For Now! Delay of the 80% Log Export Tax for 9 to 12 Months Only Creates More Uncertainty for Log Importers.
After having insisted for two years that the increasing log export tax was essential to develop the domestic log processing industry and therefore not negotiable, the Russian government has suddenly done an “about face” on the grounds that the current global economic downturn has created new concerns about the implementation of the last stage of this planned export tax schedule. ... MORE

October 16, 2008 - Russia's Scheduled 80% Log Export Tax will reduce log exports, disrupt global forest products trade flows and create a supply shortage in China. Higher prices and increased demand will create substantial opportunities in logs, lumber, pulp and other products for a variety of exporting countries to China and other Asian countries .... MORE

October 3, 2008 - U.S. Moulding Sector projected to be hardest hit of all major building materials. Housing market slump impacts offshore moulding producers the most as "perfect storm" stalls US market. The market outlook for 2009 remains grim until a delayed recovery start in 2010 .... MORE

May 15, 2008 - Lumber Prices to Spike, but Not Until 2011. Previous housing cycles suggest soaring prices at over US$400/Mbf. If history can be used as a guideline to simulate the next housing "up-cycle", then prospects for huge price increases look very exciting! .... MORE

December 18, 2007 - Mountain Pine Beetle killed timber to fuel the BC Interior sawmilling industry for another decade! Various factors indicate that SPF lumber output could remain in the 10-15 billion bf range for the next ten years. There continues to be considerable uncertainty around the "economic shelf life" .... MORE

October 18, 2007 - China's Wood Products Industry Increasingly Integrating Plantations into Operation. China continues to be the world's wood products "engine of production" and will burther utilize domestic plantation timber to maintain its position as the largest exporter of finsihed wood products .... MORE

September 12, 2007 - North American Sawmill Profits Lowest in the World in 2006 and Q2 of 2007. Sawmills throughout the US and Canada achieved dismal operating results in 2006 where the profits at "average" mills were barely positive and slipped into negative territory in the second quarter of 2007 .... MORE