Softwood lumber production in the US goes up, while Canadian output decreases

Softwood lumber production in the US goes up, while Canadian output decreases

U.S. sawmills produced 20.678 billion board ft. (bbf) of softwood lumber in the first seven months of 2018, an increase of 5.2% from 19.656 bbf a year earlier.

According to the Western Wood Products Assn.’s latest Lumber Track report, Western U.S. sawmills accounted for 8.588 bbf of the seven-month total - up 7.1% from 8.021 bbf in the previous year, while sawmills in the southern U.S. contributed 11.115 bbf, a gain of 3.8% from 10.704 bbf a year earlier.

Production in July was 2.905 bbf, up 5.4% from 2.757 bbf in July 2017, but down 2.8% from 2.990 bbf in the previous month.

Sawmills in the West contributed 1.172 bbf to July’s production volume, a gain of 6.0% from 1.106 bbf last year, but down 4.9% from June 2018’s output of 1,233 bbf, WWPA reported. Sawmills in the South produced 1.597 bbf, a year-over-year increase of 5.0% from 1.521 bbf, but down 1.2% from 1.617 bbf in June 2018.

Apparent U.S. softwood lumber consumption in the seven-month period was 28,539 bbf, which was 2.9% higher than the volume for the same period last year of 27,726 bbf. In July alone, consumption was 4.152 bbf – up 8.6% from 3.824 bbf in July 2017, but 1.9% lower than the volume in June 2018 of 4.232 bbf.

Canadian softwood lumber production/consumption

Softwood lumber production in the first seven months by Canadian sawmills was 16.508 bbf, a year-over-year decline of 1.3% from 16.724 bbf.Sawmills in British Columbia contributed 7.461 bbf, down 3.4% from 7.727 bbf last year, while sawmills east of the Rockies produced 9.047 bbf – up 0.5% from 8.998 bbf.

In the month of July, Canada’s softwood production was 2.192 bbf, up 1.3% from last year’s 2.164 bbf, but 4.8% lower than the production volume in June 2018 of 2.302 bbf.

Production by sawmills in British Columbia accounted for 1.038 bbf of July’s volume - up 1.5% from 1.022 bbf in July 2017, but down 2.3% from 1.063 bbf in June 2018. Sawmills east of the Rockies produced 1.154 bbf in July, up 1.0% from 1.142 bbf in July last year, but down 6.9% from 1.239 bbf in June 2018.

Apparent Canadian softwood lumber consumption in the seven-month period was 6.612 bbf – up 6.7% from 5.776 bbf last year, while consumption in July was 837 million board ft. (mmbf) – down 4.3% from 875 mmbf a year earlier, but up from June 2018’s consumption of 793 mmbf by 5.5%.

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