West Fraser Has Solid 1st Quarter
Thursday, April 25, 2013 @ 2:18 PM
Prince George, B.C. – West Fraser is reporting a solid first quarter in 2013.
As of the end of March, West Fraser had $67 million in earnings. That’s more than three times the earnings recorded at the end of the 4th quarter ($20 million), and a far cry from the $19 million dollar loss recorded in the first Quarter of 2012.
Sales were $863 million in the first quarter of 2013, nearly a 100 million more than the $773 million in sales in the 4th quarter of 2012, and nearly $200 million more than the $681 million in sales in the first quarter of 2012.
The gains were made primarily n the lumber and panel segments. West Fraser reports its pulp and paper operations had an operating loss of $4 million in the quarter, largely due to production issues at its NBSK mills.
In a release issued this afternoon, West Fraser President and CEO Ted Seraphim says the company is “cautiously optimistic” for it’s building products as "We’ve been encouraged by the recovery of the U.S. housing market over the last few quarters."
The company says various major capital projects will be completed this year, which should improve lumber productivity and reduce costs. Those improvements should assist in offsetting stumpage increases in B.C. and Alberta.
Comments
You can thank the good old USA for putting these companies back in the black.
The same good ol USA that let the sub prime mortgage crisis destroy the housing market and plunge us into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Either way. It’s good to see it pickin up again.
And the problem is far from being cured. The mortgages were ‘sub-prime’ because (a.) the USA, with the highest level of new home ownership anywhere at any time in history, was running out of candidates who could qualify for a regular mortgage, and (b.) the new home mortgage, since the end of World War Two, has been the preferred vehicle for introducing needed new credit into the US economy, and no one has considered what could replace it. Without it, or a replacement vehicle, that economy will wither and die, (which many would argue it’s doing anyways ~ only without that steady flow of new credit the process accelerates greatly). Sadly, the current upswing in new house construction and its positive effects on the BC lumber industry will only be the start of another cycle that’s fated to have a deeper downside in the future. To solve the problem, and ensure a stable ‘prosperity’ instead of the repetitious and all too familiar ‘boom and bust’ ~ ‘inflation and deflation’ ~ which has ruined so many lives, and in reality benefited no one, (even the rich aren’t so rich when prices are constantly rising), we need to realise a number of facts. The first being that the overall flow of ‘incomes’ from employment is falling in ratio to the overall flow of ‘costs’ into ‘prices’ at the point of final retail. Technology is making the idea of ‘full employment’ a ridiculous political obsession which will NEVER solve the problems it’s supposed to be able to solve. While some are quick to point out exceptions to this phenomenon, taking the flow of costs and prices of ALL products versus the flow of ALL incomes necessary to liquidate those costs, it is indisputable that we are currently still borrowing our way into bankruptcy. Unless consumers are provided with a new “debt-free” source of income that augments their earned income our purchasing power is going to continually decline. But those who are supposed to be in the know will say, “It can’t be done.” Though they’d find no problem at all in paying for another war, in spite of all the trillions that the USA is already supposed to ‘owe’.
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