British Columbia Forestry Industry Back to Full Throttle Thanks to Record Breaking Lumber Prices

It is been a rough number of years for the British Columbia forestry sector. Mill closure and curtailments have led to job losses and the towns that rely on them for their survival have felt the pain. But there is finally some good news for B.C.’s forestry industry. Strong demand for housing in the U.S. and limited softwood lumber supply from B.C., due to the mill closures and curtailments, has sent prices skyrocketing to numbers never seen before. Jeff Bromley, the wood council chair of -the United Steelworkers is reporting that “Most of my members are working flat-out which is good because six months ago there were lots of layoffs and downtime. And now they are working six or seven days a week.” Bromley went onto say that “I’m just coming out of Castlegar and was with a union member there. That Interfor mill is talking about putting in an extra shift.” Bromley also noted that the reduction of U.S. softwood tariffs from ~ 22% to a significantly lower number, which were scheduled to take place in August have been postponed until sometime in the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.