PRINCE GEORGE – “Adaptive.”
That was a word used frequently during the abbreviated Council of Forest Industries convention today.
“When I think about 2020, it was really a six- or seven-year cycle condensed into one year,” sums up Ray Ferris, the President and CEO of West Fraser, one of BC’s biggest lumber producing companies. “I am tired of the word ‘unprecedented.’ We’d all like to get back to some normalcy. But I think we learned that our industry is resilient. It’s adaptable. And that we’re able to operate safely in a crisis.”
However, he was also quick to note that the adaptability came with a cost as curtailments and mill closures became daily occurrences at the start of 2020 due to COVID.
“But we need to keep in context that the BC industry took more downtime than any other region in North America.”
Canfor’s President and CEO, Don Kayne, noted that lumber prices at the tail end of 2019 were around $250 to $275 per thousand board feet. The industry was hurting badly. But as the pandemic forced people home, the lumber industry began to turn around.
“People immediately started working from home and started to figure out that they can’t just sit in the house all alone and started building decks. It seems like everybody in North America, maybe the world built a deck in the last 12 months.”
Today, lumber prices are at levels never seen before.
But the industry is also looking at a new challenge and a new reason to adapt: Climate change. As the President and CEO of Mosaic Forest Management noted, forestry is a natural on that front.
“Wood is one of nature’s perfect materials. It’s renewable. It grows with the power of the sun. And it captures carbon as it grows,” says Jeff Zweig.
And he says new technologies are adding to lumber’s competitive edge over concrete and steel.
