The Unexpectedly Brisk Recovery Are Currently Putting Many Canadian and US Timber Groups

The unexpectedly brisk recovery in the US building industry and increasing exports of softwood lumber to China and Japan are currently putting many Canadian and US timber groups in an optimistic frame of mind. Producers are working from the assumption that the upward trend already observed in softwood lumber sales, production, and prices for a number of months now is going to continue this year. A variety of Canadian companies in particular have responded to the last few months of growing demand for softwood lumber assortments and the marked recovery in the level of prices, especially in the USA, by drawing up plans for capacity enlargement in the softwood lumber sector. The decisions range from reopening temporarily idled works and investment in expansion to setting up new production lines. The measures announced to date in Canada alone indicate that the output of softwood lumber could rise by several million cubic metres in 2013 and 2014.