Canadian Forest Industry: Oct 2017


A flurry of full-year 2016 and October data for Canada’s forest products industry was released by Statistics Canada just before the end of last year. Manufacturing industry, including logging, and GDP by industry data is now out.

Canada Forest Industry: October 2017

Total revenues reported by Canadian manufacturers increased to $664 billion in 2016, up 0.9 per cent or $6 billion from 2015, said Statistics Canada December 12. This follows a decline of $5 billion (-0.8 per cent) in 2015. Total expenses were relatively unchanged, down $203 million or less than -0.1 per cent.

In 2016, revenues from manufactured wood products in Quebec were up $784 million or +10.6 per cent.

In British Columbia, revenues from manufactured wood products were up $431 million or +4.3 per cent.

Elsewhere, Canadian real gross domestic product (GDP) was essentially unchanged in October following +0.2 per cent growth in September, as 9 of 20 industrial sectors expanded, according to Statistics Canada December 15.

The largest increases in output were posted by manufacturers of wood products, which were up +3.2 per cent,

In other data, Statistics Canada revealed December 22 that revenue from all logging activities totalled $9.8 billion in 2016, up +4.7 per cent from 2015. Logging (except contract) accounted for $5.1 billion, while contract logging accounted for $4.7 billion.

Total salaries and wages increased +1.8 per cent in 2016. They amounted to $0.5 billion in the logging (except contract) industry and $1.1 billion for contract loggers.

The revenue from all logging activities in British Columbia was $4.8 billion, Quebec was $2 billion, Ontario was $1.1 billion, and Alberta was $0.9 billion.

While revenue from all logging activities increased in most provinces, the largest in- creases were registered in British Columbia (up $227 million or +5 per cent), New Brunswick (up $108 million or +19.1 per cent), Quebec (up $79 million or +4.1 per cent) and Ontario (up $40 million or +3.9 per cent).