Forestry Products and Building and Packaging Materials Help Canada Posts $1.4 Billion Trade Surplus

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (3/5/21) that Canada posted a trade surplus of $1.4 billion in January 2021 — the first trade surplus since May 2019 and the largest since July 2014. It is the result of a sharp 8.1% increase in merchandise exports. Imports rose 0.9% in January 2021 when compared to December 2020. Contributing to the trade surplus was the exports of forestry products and building and packaging materials, up 10.7%. The increase was largely attributable to lumber exports which were up 30.4%, reaching a record high $2.1 billion in January. Since April 2020, exports of lumber have risen every month except one, mainly on strong price growth. As explained in the most recent industrial product and raw materials price indexes releases, demand for lumber has been rising consistently for several months. In January, although prices rose again, the increase was largely attributable to higher volumes. Year over year, the value of lumber exports has more than doubled.