Wildfire in Western Canadian are Impacting Logging, Lumber Production, Transportation and Now Prices

Wildfires continue to rage through Canada, and the western provinces have been particularly hard hit. On Tuesday afternoon, Canfor reacted to the wildfires by announcing that effective Monday, July 26, 2021, they would cut back output at their mills in British Columbia because of hundreds of blazes that have broken out in the Canadian province and challenged its ability to shuttle wood to and from its facilities. The company expects to reduce output at its 10 operating mills there by a total of about 115 million board feet during the quarter. This is only a sliver of North America’s overall supply. Yet analysts said they expected further curtailments because of fires that are scorching logging forests on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. In addition, lumber prices have fallen below the cost of sawing boards in the continent’s most expensive place to process timber. Lumber traders responded Wednesday by bidding up lumber futures for delivery through January by the daily maximum allowed by exchange rules. September futures rose 7.75% to close at $584 per thousand board feet, a rare up day in the midst of a 66% decline since early May.