West Fraser Posts YTD Loss of $321 Million

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 04:00 AM

Prince George, B.C.- Less than a week after announcing the planned closure of it’s Eurocan Pulp Mill in Kitimat, West Fraser has released it’s third quarter results, and the picture is not pretty.

West Fraser is reporting a loss of $198 million on sales of $679 million in the third quarter of 2009 and a loss of $321 million for the first nine months of 2009.

That compares to a 3^rd quarter loss of $2 million in 2008, and a year to date loss of $68 million for the same 9 months of 2008.

In the third quarter of 2009 the following significant items were included in earnings:

- Asset impairment charges of $155 million (after tax $109 million);

- A valuation allowance which resulted in a reduction to the tax recovery of $85 million

- The translation of U.S. dollar-denominated debt which resulted in a foreign exchange

gain of $28 million (after tax $24 million or $0.55 per share); and

- A gain on derivative financial instruments of $7 million (after tax $5 million )

West Fraser will be holding a conference call later this morning to discuss the results.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Tuesday, November 03, 2009 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: Born in BC on November 3 2009 7:28 AM

I think that this is what you call seperating the wheat from the chaff. Bye bye Westfraser.

Posted by: cheeta on November 3 2009 7:37 AM

there may not be any wheat left soon.
I don't know how companies can continue, and the average worker is the one that will suffer the most.

Posted by: CaringSoul on November 3 2009 8:37 AM

Jim Shepard of Canfor says he believes forestry has another 2 years at best before it will see any improvement. The only question left is "How long will these mills be able to run at a loss for that long?" I do not see any of them waiting for two years. Sad that we may see the end of and industry which has fed a lot of families and supported small comunities.

Posted by: Resident on November 3 2009 10:20 AM

West Fraser announces a loss of $198 million for the 3rd quarter. West Fraser shares at one point this am were up over $2.25, or about 8% and now sit up about $1.25. Interesting how a company can continue to lose money yet the share price increases.
If you look at WFT and Canfor shares over the last few months they have been stable to a slight increase in value even though the price of lumber has been stagnant and demand for lumber has dropped dramatically.

Posted by: Stompin Tom on November 3 2009 10:25 AM

Resident,

One of the reasons West Fraser and Canfor shares have not moved much in the past few months is because they have been so badly undervalued the past few years that there is more equity in the land and assets than the shares reflect. This is keeping them stable although very low.

Posted by: eiowe on November 4 2009 5:57 PM

first off if you believe the numbers then i lost $60 000 this year cause if i was workin at my trade i would have made that much more.......get it?west fraser has taken very little of the pain the rest of us have if they want to be the biggest lumber producer in the world its gonna come at a cost west fraser has been the big bully in the forest industry they must be low on cash what no more buy em up shut em down as for the people who work for this american conglomerant i feel for you yes you may be the last one standing and when were all gone west fraser can get rid of those pesty unions and you all can take a monster wage/standard of workin cut but then again thats just one mans opinion