Weyerhaeuser’s wood products business is still taking heavy losses despite the best efforts of the timber giant to reduce costs.
The company’s wood products division recorded a loss of US$162m in the second quarter, which was actually an improvement on the US$266m losses in the first quarter.
It said the loss reduction was only US$29m when removing one-off first-quarter charges of U$71m for closures and restructuring, plus US$19m to settle litigation in an alder case.
Group net losses were US$106m from sales of US$1.4bn, which compares with losses of US$96m from sales of US$2.2bn in the same period a year ago.
“Although we’ve begun to experience some recovery in housing sales and starts, it is not yet clear that this improvement is driven by sustainable shifts in market fundamentals, and therefore our timberlands, wood products and real estate businesses continue to operate in an environment of uncertainty,” said chief executive and president Dan Fulton.
“We continue to reduce costs to make our businesses more competitive, and we continue to adjust our harvest and production levels to meet market demand.”
