Canfor Corp Has Strong Year
Prince George, BC – Canfor Corporation closed out 2013 on a strong note…
In releasing financial results for last year, the company's adjusted shareholder net income for 2013 was $233-million dollars, or $1.64 per share, compared to just $19-million dollars for 2012. The final three months of the year saw adjusted net income climb to $48.8-million, up from $26.6-million in the third quarter of 2013, and more than double the $20.3-million for the same period in 2012.
Canfor Corp's reported operating income of $53.8-million was impacted by re-structuring costs of $20-million dollars related to the announced closure of the company's Quesnel Sawmill and one-time costs of $1.1-million dollars associated with new collective labour agreements on the lumber side of the business. When adjusted for these one-time expenses, operating income for the 4th quarter was $74.9-million, an increase of $25.6-million compared to the third quarter.
Commenting on the fourth quarter performance, Canfor's President and CEO, Don Kayne, says that lumber markets continued to demonstrate improvement in demand in the US and solid offshore markets. US housing starts reached their highest level in five years, up 14-percent from the third quarter. Kayne says early indications for 2014 are encouraging.
"With our significant investment in capital upgrades over the last couple of years, most recently at our Mackenzie and Elko Sawmills, we are well placed to take full advantage of the improving market conditions."
Comments
11 loggers and truckers lost their lives in 2013 so the forest industry could make these profits. Thatâs more than the Police and Military put together. In my opinion Canfor trades safety for profit on a regular basis.
Just Saying
The safety of the loggers and truck drivers rests on the logging companies they work for.
How many loggers lost there lives working for Canfor contractors?
I know that Canfor has refused to unload trucks because the truck driver had it piled so high above the stakes to get extra weight on that it was unsafe to take the wrappers off. They have also set a time limit between trips so that certain drivers are not driving like aholes to try to get an extra load in.
There have also been fatalities in logging from trying to cut corners such as the guy who was killed because he could not wait a few minutes for his window to defrost-will not go into the gory details. The forest companies can only do so much when some people seem to have so little concern for their own safety.
Ewitt. I work with Canfor cycle times every day they are not in place to slow truck drivers down. They are there to save Canfor money.
They are almost impossible to achieve, if the road conditions and weather are perfect maybe but how often is that? Canfor is responsible for most logging road maintenance in this area at least.
On the average truckers work at least 1 and most days 2 hours for free so Canfor can make their profit.
Granted there will always be those that have no concern for their own safety but they are in the minority. Mostly they just want to go home at the end of the day like everyone else.
Can for is NOT behind the wheel of these trucks and they are not killing the loggers. Any life lost is tragic.. But to blame a company is weak at best.
Btrucker.. If you complain about the working conditions but still work for the company do you have a death wish..? If the conditions are so bad why would you still work for them. And no I don’t work for canfor.
P Val you donât read very well, I didnât say Canfor was killing loggers I said they trade safety for profits. It is a standard in the business they call it risk management. There is a risk of sorts in anything we choose to do. No I donât have a death wish unfortunately Canfor is a big player in the logging business so they are difficult to avoid. If we donât complain about safety issues how will they ever improve? I do work for Canfor as a contractor and see what is happening every day.
btrucker As a small business owner/contractor you have the primary responsibly for the safety and well being of the employees of your company even if you are a one man show. Canfor is responsible to step in if one of the contractors is flagrantly ignoring the rules.
Well lets take a look at the average log truck drivers day from start to finish.
OK you get up at midnight. Then you wolf down some grub to tie your self over for a while and grab your lunch and thermos and off you go. Let say that takes 45 minutes.
Now you drive to where your truck is. Lets say 30 minutes. Now we are at 1 1/4 hrs.
Ok you pre-trip tour truck and your off to the bush. OK now the actual day starts. You work 15 hours straight through. Why 15 hours you think. Well Canfor knows just how long a log hauler can legally work in a day and they base the rates on that to maximize they amount of wood hauled in for what they are paying the contractor per day for the work. So if everything goes well for our log hauler he has now been on the go for 16 1/4 hours.
The reality of it is a lot of times by the time and actual log hauler gets his 15 hrs in he is still not done. Now he has to go fuel or do some minor repairs and get back to the shop. Some times the day is stretched to 16 or 17 hours, But lets assume that he is done his day in 15 hours. That puts him up to 16 1/4 hours. now he has to drive home another 30 minutes and have a shower and some supper. Lets say 1 1/2 for that. Well all that brings him up to 18 1/4 hours. OK now he goes to bed to get some sleep. Does he get 8 hours sleep. Nope not for our buddy. There is only 5 3/4 hours left until he has to get up and do it again.
Most folks work an 8 or 10 hour shift and that gives them 14 to 16 hours of off duty time until they go to work again. Lots of time for meals, showers and even watch some TV maybe.
Yes a lot of them have turn around time for their trips. Sometimes they are easy to make, sometimes not. The fact is you are locked into these turn around times. They do not shorten your day though. Sometimes you will see log trucks parked on the side of the road doing nothing. In a lot of cases they are ahead of their turn around time and half to kill time because they can not scale in at the mill until their arrival time. Are these guys driving to fast to beat the turn around time. Not necessarily. If you are one of the first to load in the morning you will not have to wait for any other trucks to load or unload and you will be ahead of your time. Then again some times they are pulled over because they can not stay awake and half to slump over the wheel for a while. The worst time for most drivers is the morning when the light change happens from night to day light.
Now this goes on for 5 days a week but if you own the truck your not done yet. That’s what weekends are for. Doing all the maintenance that needs to be done. Grease, wash and fix stuff.
Yes for the average truck logger you work you work almost 10 regular working days crammed into 5. Try keeping that up on a regular basis.
And they wonder why there is a shortage of skilled drivers. Safety first as long as it doesn’t cost anything.
Hyway drivers can only drive a maximum 13 hrs and work a maximum of 14 hrs on duty time in a 24 hr period. Log hauler work under slightly different rules They can legally go a maximum of 15 hrs.
Oil and Gas industry has similar rules with extended hours as they also do in the far north. The fact of the matter is most of these resource roads whether they are logging road or oil and gas roads are as busy as the hyways. As well a lot of the log haulers day is spent on the paved roads with the general public.
Yes I would say that Canfor as well as the folks that set the Hours of Service rules has a lot to say about how safe our roads are. Just because you can legally work these kinds of hours doe not necessarily make it safe.
Comments for this article are closed.