Labour strikes shut down Canada’s ports from East to West, as the BC Maritime Employers lock out BC workers. In Company news: Boise Cascade and Louisiana Pacific report Q3, earnings; Domtar acquires Iconix paper’s label operations; Finland’s Ahlstrom closes sale of Aspa pulp mill to Sweden Timber; and more on International Paper’s mill closure in South Carolina. Meanwhile, the US is set to surpass Canada in lumber production; and what’s at stake for Canada in US election—quite a lot, apparently.
In Forest Product news: Sweden’s Timber City leads on mass timber; BC Fire Chiefs push back on stairway code changes; Japan launches world’s first wooden satellite; and surprising research on biobased vs plastic microfibres. In Forestry/Climate news: UN biodiversity talks stall; Drax welcomes Clean Power 2030 report; and Oregon’s Forestry second-in-command-firing is explained.
Finally, Global Wood Summit delegates take front row seat at Lumber Word Podcast.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News
The Montreal Longshoremen’s Union rejected a final offer made for a new labour contract, leading to a lockout being declared, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) and the union said on Sunday. The MEA said the lockout will impact nearly 1,200 port workers at the Canadian port that handled 8.7 million metric tons in the third quarter of 2024. The lockout will further slow Canadian imports and exports at a time the Port of Montreal was already operating at partial capacity and as West Coast ports are stopped due to a separate dispute. The union representing longshoremen at the Port of Montreal said the offer was rejected by 99.7% of members because the employer refused to negotiate. Two terminals operated by Termont, representing about 40% of Montreal’s container traffic and 15% of total port volume, have been shut down since Oct. 31. However, after Sunday’s announcement all longshoring at the port will be locked out. 
In a way, the stock market’s vote of confidence was surprising: Trump’s economic platform is a mix bag. Tax relief and deregulation are popular with investors, but trade-disrupting tariffs and budget-busting deficits could push up interest rates down the road. For Canadians, however, the Trump bag is not so mixed: new economic threats from Trump’s America are clearly on their way. …A lower corporate income tax rate, deregulation and energy renewal will be magnets for investment from Canada. Tariff policy and a review of NAFTA 2.0 would be especially harmful as we would be shut out of U.S. markets. Given nationalistic economic leanings on both sides of the aisle in Congress, we should expect more not fewer trade restrictions in the next four years. What should we do? Two things. Create a new growth agenda and work hard to protect our access to the huge U.S. market. 
VANCOUVER — Talks are set to resume between the union representing more than 700 locked-out British Columbia port supervisors and their employers. A representative for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 said they have been ordered back to the table with the BC Maritime Employers Association and federal mediators on Saturday at 5 p.m. and that Sunday and Monday have been set aside for talks to continue if necessary. …Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon had earlier Thursday criticized a lack of progress in talks to end the dispute, as well as a dockworkers strike at the Port of Montreal, saying there had been a “concerning lack of urgency.” …MacKinnon said he was “closely monitoring” bargaining in the disputes in B.C. and Montreal, which he described as “progressing at an insufficient pace.”
B.C. business leaders are bracing for the potential economic impacts of another Donald Trump presidency. Trump has promised to implement new tariffs of at least 10% on all American imports, an attempt to promote made-in-America goods and boost the U.S. manufacturing sector. That could hurt BC manufacturers and the province’s forestry sector, contracting already stagnant economic growth, says Laura Jones, of the Business Council of BC. Tariffs “are terrible for consumers,” Jones says. They could raise the price of certain products — including softwood lumber — for Americans, forcing them to look elsewhere. …David Frum believes Donald Trump could ‘mess up’ the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement and hold those countries ‘to ransom’. …A report released last month from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found that a 10% tariff would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
To get a sense of the potential impact of Donald Trump’s plans for sweeping tariffs, look no further than the Canada-U.S. softwood dispute. …Since 2017 in the latest phase of the long-running trade war over lumber, companies based in Canada have paid more than $10-billion in U.S. duties. Production from U.S. sawmills, including those owned by Canadian-based companies, is exempt from the lumber duties. Canadian-based producers have descended on the U.S. South over the past dozen years and set up shop in the lumber region, and thereby found a way around the punitive duties for the U.S. portion of output.
A second-term David Eby BC NDP government is “marginally better” than the alternative that appeared to be in the cards on election night, business leaders said last week. …In an open letter to the new government, seven business associations… urged the new government to take B.C.’s flagging economic health seriously, and get its fiscal house in order. …At last week’s Global Wood Summit, Rob Schuetz, president of Industrial Forestry Services, said 16 sawmills, three pulp mills and four paper mills have been shut down in B.C. since 2020. He gave a laundry list of NDP government policies that have reduced access to timber and increased costs and bureaucracy. …Don McGregor, VP for Western Forest Products, summed up a sentiment that may be shared by the wider resource business community. “If it sticks, the NDP have a majority and they don’t need the Green Party,” he said. “I would take that as a positive.”
In a significant development for the European plywood industry, the Greenwood Consortium has filed an anti-dumping complaint against Chinese hardwood plywood imports, citing low pricing as a threat to the EU’s plywood sector. This move has sparked an industry-wide debate, dividing opinions between those advocating for industry protection and those concerned about the potential impact on trade, imports, and European consumers. The Greenwood Consortium, a newly established coalition of nine European plywood producers, initially aimed to curb illegal imports of Russian birch plywood entering Europe via China. However, the scope of its campaign has since expanded to include all Chinese hardwood plywood, alleging that these imports are unfairly priced and harm the European industry. …In response, the Plywood Trade Interest Alliance… opposes a broad ban on Chinese plywood, arguing that such restrictions would harm the EU economy, compromise supply chain stability, and strain relations with China.
ALBERTA – Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen will be travelling to Japan with a delegation of forest companies on Nov. 8, in an effort to expand market opportunities for Alberta’s forestry products. Provincial officials say Japan is Alberta’s top market for wood pellet exports and the second-largest market for lumber and wood panels. This mission is expected to give Loewen an opportunity to support Alberta’s forestry product manufacturers as they grow sales, trade and investment. …From Nov. 8-15, Minister Loewen and the delegation, including the Alberta Forest Products Association, the Canada Wood Group and the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, will attend the Council of Forest Industries Tokyo office’s 50th Anniversary Wood Forum. While there, the delegation will visit the Canadian Ambassador and meet with Japanese trading partners, as well as current and potential investors.
Experts say Donald Trump’s election victory could shift interest rate policy in the U.S. as his promised policies risk higher inflation, which could ultimately have implications for Canadian rates and the loonie. Among those promises are large tariffs on imported goods, especially from China, as well as lower tax rates and lighter regulation. Trump has promised that “inflation will vanish completely.” But some have raised concern that his economic policies could actually put upward pressure on inflation, and in turn, slow the pace of interest rate cuts expected from the U.S. Federal Reserve. …Higher inflation would mean the U.S. Federal Reserve could be slower to cut interest rates, and markets are already shifting their bets on how low the central bank is likely to go on rates. …That would make the Bank of Canada more hesitant about cutting rates too quickly,” said Sheila Block, an economist.
BURNABY, BC — Interfor Corporation recorded a Net loss in Q3’24 of $105.7 million compared to a Net loss of $75.8 million in Q2’24 and a Net loss of $42.4 million in Q3’23. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $22.0 million on sales of $692.7 million in Q3’24 versus a loss of $16.7 million on sales of $771.2 million in Q2’24 and Adjusted EBITDA of $31.9 million on sales of $828.1 million in Q3’23. …In Q3’24, lumber production totalled 904 million board feet, representing a 130 million board foot decrease over the prior quarter. This decrease reflects the temporary production curtailments announced on August 8, 2024. …On October 16, 2024, Interfor announced plans to exit its operations in Quebec, Canada, including the sale of its three manufacturing facilities and the closure of its Montreal corporate office. …The Company sold Coastal B.C. forest tenures totalling approximately 125,000 cubic metres of allowable annual cut.
Residential building construction costs increased 0.9% in the third quarter, following a 1.0% increase in the previous quarter. Non-residential building construction costs rose 0.5% in the third quarter, following a 1.4% increase in the previous quarter. This marks the slowest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2020 for residential building construction costs and since the fourth quarter of the same year for non-residential building construction costs. Year over year, construction costs for residential buildings rose 4.0% in the 15-CMA composite in the third quarter of 2024, while non-residential building construction costs increased 3.9%. Builders noted that the industry continued to face cost pressure from skilled labour shortages, land prices and availability, and building code changes.
VANCOUVER – Western Forest Products reported a net loss of $19.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, as compared to a net loss of $17.4 million in the third quarter of 2023, and a net loss of $5.7 million in the second quarter of 2024. Other highlights include: Lumber production of 127 million board feet (versus 126 million board feet in Q3 2023); Lumber shipments of 138 million board feet (versus 130 million board feet in Q3 2023); Average lumber selling price of $1,378 per mfbm (versus $1,388 per mfbm in Q3 2023), primarily due to a slightly weaker sales mix of specialty lumber products; and Average BC log sales price of $113 per m3 (versus $118 per m3 in Q3 2023). …As previously announced, we plan to reduce lumber production in our BC sawmills by approximately 30 million board feet in Q4 2024, following reductions of approximately 30 million board feet in Q3 2024.
MONTREAL, Quebec – Stella-Jones announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2024. Sales in the third quarter were $915 million, compared to sales of $949 million for the corresponding period last year. Excluding the positive effect of currency conversion, sales were down $44 million, or 5%. Net income for the third quarter was $80 million, compared to net income of $110 million in Q3, 2023. “Despite strong long-term demand tailwinds, we witnessed a slower pace of purchases by our utility customers. Though total sales were lower than anticipated, we delivered a solid quarter EBITDA margin of 17.7% and strong operating cashflows,” said Eric Vachon, President and CEO. …“Utilities continue to forecast meaningful increases in infrastructure investments, evidenced by the longer-term sales contracts secured from new and existing customers.”
The BC Building Code (BCBC) was changed recently to allow single egress stair (SES) designs in low- and mid-rise buildings. The B.C. government says it means “families and people will soon have more multi-bedroom apartment options available to them.” But the province’s firefighters are worried about safety and say the move needs to be paused. …The province says in the interest of safety, new single-exit buildings will require automatic sprinklers (including on balconies), smoke detectors and wider stairwells. The changes put a limit on the travel distance to the exit. They also limit the occupancy load to 24 people per floor. …The Fire Chiefs Association of BC (FCABC) second vice-president Jason Cairney says there is no evidence the BCBC changes are safe. …“The proposed changes should be paused or reversed and instead put through the rigorous National Building Code process, which is based on research, evidence and data.”
SEATTLE — As candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, Republican Jaime Hererra-Beutler has consistently asserted that, according to “the science,” it’s necessary to log our legacy forests to keep them from “burning up.” She asserts that “too many of our forests have been undermanaged or outright neglected, and they’ve turned into crowded, diseased tinderboxes, just waiting for a spark.” They’ve “fallen into disrepair,” she says, and need “cleaning up.” But is it true? Is there really a scientific consensus saying so? And what type of forest is she talking about? Washington is a big state. Legacy forests are identified only on the west side of the state and then only below 3,500 feet. There, you have to differentiate between forests that are naturally regenerated (legacy forests) and those already converted to timber plantations (managed plantations).
A recent in-depth study, “Preliminary Evidence of Softwood Shortage and Hardwood Availability in EU Regions,” has shed light on significant supply imbalances within Europe’s forest-based bioeconomy. Researchers from Wageningen University, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and other institutions analyzed data from the European Forest Industry Database (EUFID), revealing critical mismatches between wood resources and processing capacities across European countries. The 
For the next two weeks, countries will gather on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss how to increase finance for climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. A global agreement on carbon markets will be high on the agenda as countries try to find ways of generating the trillions they need to decarbonise in order to limit heating to below 2C above preindustrial levels. …Carbon markets facilitate the trading of carbon credits. Each credit is equal to a tonne of carbon dioxide that has been reduced or removed from the atmosphere. They come from a wide range of sources: tree-planting schemes, forest protection and renewable energy projects are all common. …Where do they feature in the Paris Agreement? …Why are they so controversial? ….What are the risks if it goes badly?