North American lumber output roughly 4% higher

After the reduction in North American softwood lumber output in the fourth quarter of 2014, the production figures recorded by the Western Wood Products Association (WWPA) for both the USA and Canada for the first quarter are back above those of the year before. Irrespective of the comparatively difficult underlying conditions, like the long winter in eastern Canada and parts of the USA, the floods in the south, and the decaying lumber prices over the whole of the first quarter, North American softwood lumber output was 4% higher than last year’s figure and 2% above the figure for the previous quarter at a total of 33.581m m³. When making a comparison with the previous year, however, particularly with regard to Canada, account must be taken of the market disruption caused by dockworker strikes in British Columbia at the beginning of 2014. These strikes resulted not only in delays in exports but also in stoppages at sawmills.

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