TimberWest, which is the largest owner of private forest land in western Canada with 334,000ha at its disposal, has stated that it expected the current lumber market to have had a bigger impact than it has, with strong domestic sales making up for some of the shortfalls in exports to Asia and the US.
“Despite weakness in the US housing market and therefore the US lumber market, our average sales realisations were comparatively strong,” according to the company.
“We anticipated a stronger Canadian dollar and a weaker US housing market would have had a more detrimental effect on our overall realisations than they have.”
TimberWest added that while it has seen its distributable cash decline to C$26.9m during the first quarter in 2007, it has not had the additional benefits of C$5.5m in real estate sales that were recorded in 2006.
