Seasonal Holiday Break for North American Forest Industry

And what a year it has been, holey moley.

Sawmills across Canada and the US will hardly get a chance to assess this wild year as year- end inventory in their yards is calculated before the New Year 2018, with it’s punishing softwood lumber duty, comes on.

It is usual for the entire province of Québec — log harvesters, haulers, sawmills, and lumber transporters alike — to take a full two-week break over the holiday season. Often it is during this time that much-needed inventory and maintenance work is carried out…which can be said of all sawmills, not just those in eastern Canada.

However, given the *bang* in lumber sales right at the beginning of this year, and it’s ever-in- creasing commodity prices, coupled with rather hot demand even after the usually uneventful US Thanksgiving long weekend, operators are surely both anticipating and dreading the start of 2018.