Canfor Corporation  says it  will announce a new CEO. likely by the end of the day, who will take over the post  left vacant by the departure of Jim Shepherd.  Canfor also announced today  it  had a  net loss of $42.7 million dollars in the first quarter of  2007.

That compares to a  a net income of $18.9 million in the first quarter of ’06 and the net income of $465.3 million in the fourth quarter( largely due to  the softwood duty refund).

The operating loss of $57.8 million in the current quarter was a $3.8 million improvement over the previous quarter, when factoring out the impact of the duty refund recorded in that quarter. However, the operating results were $96.3 million worse than in the first quarter of 2006, primarily as a result of the sharp decline in lumber and OSB markets, which was only partially offset by significant increases in pulp prices.

The first quarter results also revealed there were $3 million dollars in costs  "associated with the CEO’s remuneration  on resignation."

Canfor says low demand in the U.S. housing market, combined with the CN rail strike  saw a  4%  drop in shipments, and a loss of $46 million dollars in lumber sales.

The good news  is that Canfor is reporting what it referes to a "plateauing" of the degradation of beetle killed wood.  The report  says the degredation of stands which  were originally hit by the beetle near Vanderhoof and west of Quesnel seems to have "levelled out."

Once again, Canfor points to the 15% export tax,  the strong Canadian dollar,  saying the two factors, combined with declining U.S. demand,   have resulted in some of the most difficult times the industry has experienced.

 Canfor has already announced some downtime to reduce the level of supply, but says it will still be looking for methods of reducing costs.

The downtime announced last week  involves the Plateau mill in Vanderhoof.  The sawmill be down from Monday, May 7th  through to and including May 25th.  During that time, the planer will continue to run for  about one and a half weeks for "inventory managment purposes."