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Canadian softwood lumber production up 5.4% to November

Canadian sawmills produced 22.726 bbf of softwood lumber in the 11 months of 2013 – an increase of 5.4% year-over-year from 21.569 bbf.

Canadian sawmills produced 22.726 bbf of softwood lumber in the 11 months of 2013 – an increase of 5.4% year-over-year from 21.569 bbf.

Sawmills in British Columbia produced 11.821 bbf of the total – up 3.1% from 11.469 bbf a year earlier, while sawmills east of the Rockies accounted for 10.904 bbf, up 8.0% from the prior year (10.101 bbf).

In November 2013, Canadian production was 2.021 bbf, a gain of 0.2% compared with the same month of 2012 (2.017 bbf), but 9.3% below output in October (2.228 bbf).

Sawmills in British Columbia accounted for 1.014 bbf of November’s production, a drop of 1.5% from a volume of 1.029 a year earlier, and down 10.1% from the previous month’s output of 1.127 bbf. Sawmills east of the Rockies contributed 1.007 bbf to the November total – up 1.9% from 988 million board ft. (mmbf) a year earlier but 8.5% below October’s volume of 1.100 bbf.

Canadian softwood lumber consumption was 6.911 bbf in the first 11 months of 2013, a drop of 8.2% from 7.531 bbf a year earlier. The volume for November alone was 522 mmbf – down 23.6% year-over-year from 684 mmbf, and 18.1% below consumption in Oct. 2013 of 638 mmbf.