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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