VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 12, 2025 - West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. ("West Fraser" or the "Company") (TSX and NYSE: WFG) reported today the fourth quarter results of 2024 ("Q4-24").
All dollar amounts in this news release are expressed in U.S. dollars unless noted otherwise.
Fourth Quarter Highlights
- Sales of $1.405 billion and loss of $62 million, or $(0.80) per diluted share
- Adjusted EBITDA1 of $140 million, representing 10% of sales
- Lumber segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $21 million
- North America Engineered Wood Products ("NA EWP") segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $127 million
- Pulp & Paper segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $(10) million
- Europe Engineered Wood Products ("Europe EWP") segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $2 million
- Repurchased 311,523 shares for aggregate consideration of $27 million
Annual Highlights
- Sales of $6.174 billion and loss of $5 million, or $(0.07) per diluted share
- Adjusted EBITDA1 of $673 million, representing 11% of sales
- Lumber segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $(82) million, including $32 million of export duty expense attributable to finalization of AR5
- North America Engineered Wood Products ("NA EWP") segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $744 million
- Pulp & Paper segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $4 million
- Europe Engineered Wood Products ("Europe EWP") segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $8 million
- Repurchased 1,799,217 shares for aggregate consideration of $144 million
"The fourth quarter of 2024 saw continued resiliency in our NA Engineered Wood Products business, where supply and demand fundamentals remained relatively well balanced on the back of solid new home construction demand. We also realized modest improvement in our Lumber segment this quarter as we monetized some of the benefits of our portfolio optimization strategy that allowed us to migrate more production from higher cost to lower cost mills within our platform. In Europe and the U.K., we continued to experience somewhat challenging markets as that region appears to be undergoing a protracted recovery," said Sean McLaren, West Fraser's President and CEO.
"Relatively high mortgage rates remain an affordability challenge for consumers and housing markets, impacting demand for our wood building products. Further, potential for the U.S. administration to impose broad-based tariffs on Canadian exports adds another element of demand uncertainty for the products we ship to the U.S. from Canada. However, while we cannot control the threat of such tariffs, we can be proactive, creating a stronger organization with a continued focus on improving the cost position across our mill portfolio and investing capital to modernize mills where it makes sense. You should also expect West Fraser to continue to return excess capital to shareholders when prudent, and maintain a strong balance sheet that will provide us with the financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that fit our long-term strategy."
Source: West Fraser
