US sawmills produce 2.617 bbf of softwood lumber in January, up 0.3% year-over-year; output from mills in the South drops 2.6% to 1.291 bbf: WWPA
Wendy Lisney
LOS ANGELES
,
April 9, 2014
(Industry Intelligence Inc.)
–
U.S. sawmills produced 2.617 billion board feet (bbf) of softwood lumber in January 2014, an increase of 0.3% compared with production in January 2013 of 2.608 bbf, according to statistics released on April 7 by the Western Wood Products Assn. (WWPA) of Portland, Oregon.
Western U.S. sawmills accounted for 1.199 bbf of January’s total, up 3.7% from 1.156 bbf a year earlier, but output from mills in the South dropped 2.6% to 1.291 bbf from 1.326 bbf a year earlier.
Consumption in the U.S. was 3.328 bbf in January, a gain of 2.3% from the 2.252 bbf consumed in January 2013.
Canadian softwood lumber production/consumption
Canadian sawmills produced 2.083 bbf of lumber in January, a year-over-year increase of 2.4% from 2.034 bbf, reported WWPA.
Sawmills in British Columbia produced 1.106 bbf of that total, a 1.3% increase over January 2013 (1.091 bbf). Production by sawmills east of the Rockies advanced 3.7% to 978 million board ft. (mmbf) from 943 mmbf.
Canadian consumption dropped 11.2% in January to 652 mmbf from 734 mmbf in January last year.
U.S. and Canada utilization/inventories
As a percentage of total capacity, U.S. production averaged 83% in January, up from 79% in the same month of 2013. In Canada, the rate advanced to 79% from 74%.
U.S. inventories edged 0.5% higher to 3.038 bbf from 3.023 bbf a year earlier, while Canadian inventories were 6.9% higher year-over-year at 2.878 bbf compared with 2.693 bbf in January last year.
* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.