In Canada, forest products major Canfor Corporation has announced that it will be extending its temporary curtailment at sawmills in British Columbia (BC) and will be reducing operating hours at some sawmills throughout Q1 2019.
Last month Canfor announced that it was temporarily curtailing sawmill operations in British Columbia (BC) during Q4 2018 due to log supply constraints, log costs, and current market conditions. The temporary curtailment is now to be extended at BC sawmills and Canfor says that it will be reducing operating hours at some sawmills throughout Q1 2019.
This decision is due to a continuing decline in lumber prices, in addition to high log costs and log supply constraints. The curtailment extension and reduction in operating hours is expected to reduce Canfor’s production output by an additional 55 million board feet (≈ 130 000 m3) in Q1.
The sawmills are scheduled to resume production on January 7, 2019. Canfor has 13 sawmills in Canada, with a total annual capacity of approximately 3.8 billion board feet (≈ 8.97 million m3).
