U.S. sawmills in 2019 produced 35.319 billion board ft. (bbf) of softwood lumber in 2019, up 1.2% from the 34.908 bbf produced in 2018.
Western U.S. sawmills contributed 14.335 bbf to the total, down 0.6% from the prior year’s 14.419 bbf, while output from Southern sawmills was up 2.5% to 19.321 bbf from 18.846 bbf in 2018.
In December 2019 alone, U.S. sawmills produced 2.666 bbf – up 9.2% from December 2018’s 2.441 bbf, and up 0.8% from production in November 2019 of 2.645 bbf.
Sawmills in the West contributed 1.132 bbf to December’s total, up 10.1% year-over-year from 1.028 bbf, and up 3.3% compared with November 2019’s volume of 1.096 bbf. Southern sawmills accounted for 1.409 bbf in December, a year-over-year increase of 8.6% from 1.298 bbf in December 2018, and down 1.1% compared with 1.425 bbf in November 2019.
Apparent U.S. softwood lumber consumption in 2019 was 48.578 bbf, up 0.7% from 48.222 bbf a year earlier. In December 2019, apparent U.S. consumption was 3.763 bbf, up 9.2% from 3.445 bbf a year earlier, and up 5.2% from 3.576 bbf in November 2019.
Canadian softwood lumber production/consumption
Canadian sawmills in 2019 produced 24.432 bbf of softwood lumber, down 10.4% from the prior year’s 27.282 bbf, WWPA reported.
Sawmills in British Columbia accounted for 9.847 bbf of the total, a 20.4% drop from output a year earlier of 12.374 bbf. Sawmills east of the Rockies produced 14.585 bbf in 2019, 2.2% less than the previous year’s output of 14.908 bbf.
Canadian lumber production in the month of December 2019 was 1.687 bbf, down 6.1% from 1.796 bbf in December 2018, and down 14.2% from output in November 2019 of 1.966 bbf.
Sawmills in British Columbia accounted for 641 million board ft. (mmbf) of December’s production volume, down 15.7% from 760 mmbf the prior year, and down 14.1% from November 2019’s volume of 746 mmbf. Sawmills east of the Rockies produced 1.046 bbf in December 2019, up 1.0% year-over-year from 1.036 bbf, and down 14.2% from 1.219 bbf in November 2019.
Apparent Canadian softwood lumber consumption in 2019 was down 14.2% to 8.121 bbf from the prior year’s 9.461 bbf. In December 2019, apparent Canadian consumption was 454 mmbf, up 14.5% from 396 mmbf a year earlier, and down 29.8% from November 2019’s figure of 647 mmbf.
Leave a Reply