March 2010

[Ally]

Industry gets cut down to half-size

The recession has cut the Canadian lumber industry down to little more than half its peak size, according to a report by the International Wood Markets Group.

In its annual report on the top 20 North American lumber producers, Vancouver-based Wood Markets states that Canadian lumber production is down 45 per cent to 19.4 billion board feet from its 2004 peak of 35.1 billion board feet.

Much of that decline was in the last year, when production fell by 21 per cent in the East and 17 per cent in the West, the report states.

"Indefinitely curtailed was the buzzword for 2009," states the report.

The Canadian lumber decline follows the decline in U.S. housing starts, which peaked at two million in 2006 and are now at 575,000.

The five-year-long drop in lumber supply has eliminated some companies completely and led to the emergence of three British Columbia-based super powers in the Canadian industry: West Fraser Timber, Canfor Corp. and Tolko Industries. The three are now the largest forest companies in the country. West Fraser is the largest in North America.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

EnCana plans to double gas output by 2015

CALGARY - Calgary-based EnCana Corp. plans to double production within five years despite lower natural gas prices, company officials said Tuesday.

Speaking to the company`s first investor day since splitting with Cenovus Energy late last year, EnCana CEO Randy Eresman said the company will spend $4.5 billion US in 2010, including $1.9 billion in Canada.

Total production for the year is expected to average 3.3 billion cubic feet per day, roughly five per cent of all the gas produced in North America, rising above six bcf per day by mid-decade.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Timberwest posts fourth-quarter loss in `worst year on record`

VANCOUVER — B.C. forest company TimberWest announced Wednesday it generated a cash loss of $10.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2009, a year it characterized as "the worst year on record for the company."

The loss was less than the fourth quarter of 2008, when the company reported it lost $11.4 million, largely because of improved log sales. but for the entire year, logs sales realizations of $70 a cubic metre were $6 below 2008.

It was a "historic low," company president Paul McElligott stated in a news release.

TimberWest cut operating costs, reduced staff and deferred harvesting on its private lands to get through the year and prepare for better times ahead.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

B.C. green sector could become $27-billion

British Columbia`s green economy could grow into a $27-billion-per-year green giant by 2020, according to a new report from the Globe Foundation.

B.C. could become a "living laboratory" for green-sector growth that would add value to the provincial gross domestic product (GDP) more than twice as fast as the economy as a whole, John Wiebe, president and CEO of the Vancouver-based foundation, said Wednesday in an interview.

"This is a very, very conservative estimate. I think this can be much bigger depending on what one does and how one goes about it," Wiebe said.

B.C.`s present green-sector economy encompasses 28 sectors and sub-sectors, including renewable energy, forestry, transit and telecommunications. It accounts for 166,000 direct and indirect full-time-equivalent jobs, 7.2 per cent of total provincial employment.

"The green economy is a fast-growing economic development model that focuses on the creation of green jobs, the promotion of real, sustainable economic growth, and the prevention of environmental pollution, global warming, resource depletion and ecological degradation," the report states.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Pine Beetle epidemic will have continent-wide economic impact: report

VANCOUVER — Interior sawmills will start running out of good timber within three to five years because of the mountain pine beetle epidemic according to a comprehensive report on the beetle`s economic impact.

The report by the International Wood Markets Group describes the beetle infestation as one of North America`s largest-ever natural environmental disasters. It will have a continent-wide economic impact, shutting an estimated 16 Interior sawmills and removing up to half of Canada`s share of the U.S. lumber market`

The pine beetle is expected to kill a billion cubic metres of B.C. timber and while an intense salvage program has been underway for 10 years, the end of sawlog quality wood is now in site, says the report.

"After some expected gains in the lumber markets between 2010 and 2013, the B.C. Interior lumber industry will need to begin reducing production and/or closing mills, and this impact on the U.S. market will soon be profound," Russell Taylor, President of Wood Markets Group said in a news release.

"Sawlog shortages caused by the mountain pine beetle could trigger the permanent closure of about 16 large primary sawmills and/or plywood production facilities within the B.C. Interior by 2018," said Jim Girvan, one of the study authors.

Read the full article here.