Prince George, BC – Second quarter earnings for 2012 for Canfor Pulp Products Inc. dropped substantially from the first three months of the year and are 93-percent lower than the same period last year…with a tube leak in a recovery boiler forcing a temporary shutdown at Northwood Pulp Mill and maintenance outages at Intercon and PG Pulp reducing market pulp production by 49-thousand tonnes over the three-month period.

The company is reporting a net income of $3.3-million dollars compared to $10.3-million in the first quarter of 2012, and significantly below Q2 earnings in 2011 of $48.2-million dollars.  Shareholders will be receiving five cents per share compared to the 68-cents per share they earned during the quarter last year.

In a statement released by the company, Canfor Pulp says the unscheduled shutdown of the recovery boiler at Northwood Pulp Mill on May 25th, and the subsequent repairs, resulted in the mill operating at approximately 50-percent capacity – reducing overall production by 31-thousand tonnes.  The company says the impact of the shutdown was partially offset by an accrual for an anticipated business interruption insurance recovery. (click here for previous story)

A maintenance outage was completed at the Intercontinental Pulp Mill during the quarter and an extended outage began at PG Pulp Mill.

While reduced demand for pulp during the quarter was offset by industry reductions due to spring maintenance downtime, the company says global pulp markets showed signs of weakness as the quarter progressed and global producer inventory levels increased to 30 days of supply at the end of May, compared to 29 days at the end of the first quarter.

"Our second quarter results reflected the continued challenging global market conditions as well as the impact of the significant downtime at our mills," says CEO and President, Joe Nemeth.  "We have worked hard to mitigate the impact of these shuts.  We have now completed the majority of this year’s capital plan and substantially all of the Green Transformation Program projects.  Our focus going forward will be to realize the benefits of these investments."