West Fraser CEO Cautiously Optimistic

Monday, April 27, 2009 10:02 AM

Prince George, B.C. – There was a little optimism expressed by West Fraser CEO and President Hank Ketcham during the first quarter conference call today.

Ketcham couldn’t say he was certain the downturn had hit bottom , “It’s hard for me to believe it could get worse, but I think the industry has gradually downsized itself, and the downturn has to be pretty close to the bottom.”

He said there is cause to be optimistic “The housing market remains very weak, however, housing in the U.S. is more affordable now and mortgage rates have hit a 30 year low.”

West Fraser lost $83 million dollars in the first quarter of this year, compared to a $70 million dollar loss in the fourth quarter of last year.

While pulp and paper operations had buoyed the bottom line last year, such is not the case in the first quarter as the demand for paper and newsprint dropped as the recession deepened.

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Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 10:02 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on April 27 2009 2:58 PM

We are in the middle of the AIG fraud bailout bounce in the markets. This is not the start of recovery, but rather the doubling down of our real bankster problems. Soon people will realize the banks recent profits were all just insurance bailout dollars from AIG's fraudulant insurance on fraudulant investment vehicles and that the banks will not be pushing for a recovery from the top down. Once this is realized we can start talking about the road to recovery, but that won't happen until they have supernova'd the entire finacial sector and we will be starting from scratch.

Right now the Americans have a 6-years supply of unsold homes, so it will take more then a little recovery to change that. It will take an economic enema to make the way clear for the kind of recovery the honest folks in the economy will require.