Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Canfor Issues First Quarter Results and Supports Softwood Deal

By 250 News

President and CEO of Canfor, Jim Shepherd says Canfor showed a profit of $19,000,000 in the first quarter of 2006 a significant slide from the  last quarter, and a fraction of  the  profits recorded in the same quarter a year ago.

Speaking to the annual general meeting of the company, Shepherd, along with  Board Chair Peter Bently  say they join other Board members in being very pleased with the settlement in the soft wood lumber dispute. He singled out , Prime Minister Harper, former Canfor CEO , David Emerson, Michael Wilson , Premier Gordon Campbell and  BC Forest Minister Rich Coleman for putting the deal together. 

Peter Bentley said it was his feeling that had the dispute not been settled yesterday, it could have gone on for a long time. Bentley added that he had said at the previous annual general meeting that Canfor would not be able to sustain its large profits in the coming years, and the first quarter of 2006 is a reflection of that.   The first quarter results were  a fraction of the $65.6 million  net income for the first quarter of 2005 and reflected a loss of $12.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2005. 
In a release issued  this morning, Shepherd described the  financial dollars this way:

"Our first quarter results were positively impacted by higher lumber and pulp prices, stronger demand and a committed focus of lowering manufacturing costs," said Canfor President and CEO, Jim Shepherd. "While we made progress in our wood products operations, we will continue to improve upon the controllable items within our business. There will be further improvements to our performance as major strategic initiatives ramp up at the Plateau sawmill and at Peace Valley OSB, and as we integrate the recently completed New South acquisition," stated Mr. Shepherd. 

The company's report says operating income before amortization (EBITDA) was $83.3 million in the quarter, or approximately 9% of sales, versus $23.7 million, or 3% of sales, in the previous quarter. The company says the improvement of nearly $50 million versus the previous quarter is mainly a result of improved productivity at most operations and higher prices for lumber and pulp (5% higher for lumber and 4% higher for pulp), which offset the impact of weaker panel prices (plywood 3% lower and OSB 10% lower) and the 2% strengthening in the Canadian dollar in the quarter. 

While pulp shipments were relatively flat quarter over quarter, shipments for lumber, OSB and plywood were respectively 10%, 33% and 12% higher.


All of the directors were returned to the board by acclamation. Canfor is the largest lumber producer in Canada





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