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West Fraser remained the largest global softwood lumber producer in 2019, topping the annual FEA-Canada Billion Board Foot Club list for the twelfth straight year.
The company’s total lumber output was 5.9 billion bd. ft., a sharp decline of 695 million bd. ft. from the previous year, partly due to the closure of one B.C. mill.
The same 15 companies that made the FEA Canada/Wood Markets list in 2018 did so again in 2019, with nine of them suffering decreases. The average decrease in production was 2.5%, in contrast to gains in each of the previous five years.
The collective 2019 output of the 15 firms was 35.7 billion bd. ft.—900 million ft. short of 2018’s 36.6 billion bd. ft.. The group’s collective global market share was nearly 16%, a slight drop from 2018.
Three of the top five firms are based in B.C.: West Fraser, #2 Canfor (4.8 billion bd. ft., down 3.6%), and #4 Interfor (2.7 billion bd. ft., up 0.4%).
Joining them in the top five were Weyerhaeuser (4.7 billion bd. ft., up 164 million ft.) and Georgia-Pacific (2.6 billion bd. ft.).
