Western Forest Products Curtails Sawmill Production, Impacts Hundreds of Jobs

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Western Forest Products Inc. (WFP) has announced a temporary reduction in lumber production across its British Columbia sawmills due to challenging market conditions.

The curtailment will affect approximately 30 million board feet of production from October to December 2024.

All of WFP's B.C. sawmills, including Ladysmith, Saltair, Cowichan Bay, Duke Point, and Chemainus, will be impacted by the production reduction. This will result in temporary downtime for approximately 800 employees.

This latest announcement follows earlier curtailments this year, bringing the total annual reduction to approximately 90 million board feet, or about 10% of the company's annual lumber capacity. WFP attributes the curtailments to a combination of weaker lumber demand, higher U.S. softwood lumber duty rates, and a limited supply of economic logs in the B.C. market.

Western Forest Products Inc. (WFP) is a Canadian lumber company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is one of the largest producers of lumber in North America, operating sawmills and forestry operations primarily in British Columbia.