Canfor Corporation announced April 24 it will be temporarily putting restrictions on operations at all of its British Columbia dimension mills. The restrictions will take effect on April 29 due to low lumber prices and the high cost of fibre.
The curtailment will reduce Canfor’s production output by approximately 100 million board feet. Canfor has 13 sawmills in Canada, with total annual capacity of approximately 3.8 billion board feet.
Lumber prices in North America continued their decline from the third quarter with another quarter of substantial reductions.
Sawmills in British Columbia also saw the prices for lumber in the US market come down substantially during the second half of 2018. Despite the weaker lumber market, sawlog prices still increased from the third quarter to the fourth because of tighter supply and a rise in hauling costs.
