US increased its sawmill industry’s share to 61% in North America

The sawmilling industry of North America generally produced 35.967m m³ of sawn softwood in the fourth quarter of 2020, exceeding the figure of 2019 by 7 %.

This volume was also a bit down by 1 % against the 3^rd quarter of 2020. Softwood lumber volume in the USA and Canada increased to a comparable rate. According to the received figures from the Western Wood Products Association (WWPA) the US share of sawn softwood was 7 % up at 21.875m m³ and Canada’s was increased by 6 % to 14.092m m³. The US share of the general produced volume was 60,8 % in the fourth quarter of 2020. Apart from a timely supply of logs and mostly available freight space in Canada, the renewed and expanded investment measures in the southern regions of the USA during the last year also contributed to the growth of the produced volume.

The APA data for the US southern regions also showed by far the biggest growth of all the US regions in terms of percentage and produced volume at +11 % to 12.376m m³. Therefore, the share of the total US softwood lumber production accounted for by US South rose by another 2% to almost 57% in the reviewed period. The output in the “US Coast” region was increased by only 3 % to 5.282m m³, and “US Inland” – by only 2% up at 2.867m m³. As for the Canadian regions, production in “British Columbia” increased its output by around 11 % to 5.532m m³. The growth demonstrated in the “East of Rockies” region was 3 % to 8.560m m³.

Information provided according to www.euwid-wood-products.com