For full-year 2020, the softwood lumber production volumes and sawmill capacity utilization rates in Canada dropped by a large degree compared to the previous year, while that in the United States remained much more stable.
This latest data is very interesting because 2019 was not a great year for US housing starts and home building, so for Canadian lumber manufacturing to be this much lower indicates a difficult year indeed. In a future post Madison’s will examine the 2020 numbers against 2018, which was a much better year for construction activity thus for lumber sales and prices.
https://madisonsreport.com/
North America Sawmill Capacity Utilization, WWPA: December 2020
US sawmill production as a per cent of practical capacity for full-year maintained its steady level, at 86%, compared to 2019 when it was 85%, said the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track. wwpa.org/reports
After terrible lows in April last year, Canadian sawmill production as a per cent of practical capacity plummeting again in December 2020, finishing the year at 77% compared to 2019 when it was 79%.