British Columbia’s exports of solid wood products climbed 16.3 per cent over the first five months of 2016, compared to the same period a year earlier, said BC Stats Wednesday.
Shipments of softwood lumber to the US jumped 38.7 per cent year-to-date to May, which helped boost the value of exports of softwood lumber to all destinations up 14.6 per cent.
British Columbia Lumber Exports: May 2016
There was also double-digit growth in shipments of all other wood categories be- sides lumber, said BC Stats Wednesday, with the exception of logs, which bucked the overall trend, dipping 2.4 per cent.
Elsewhere in the forest sector, exports of pulp and paper products have not fared as well, slumping 8.6 per cent over the first five months of 2016. Shipments of pulp fell 4.8 per cent, while newsprint exports were almost halved, down by 46.7 per cent. Other paper and paperboard product shipments dropped 14.1 per cent, but there was growth in exports of other pulp and paper products, up 17 per cent.