Can mass timber’s promise outgrow a tariff-hit forestry sector?

By Darius Snieckus
The National Observer
August 27, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

Canada’s nascent mass timber industry escaped a direct hit from the Trump administration… But steep US levies on the wider Canadian forestry sector still present sizable challenges for manufacturers as they chase a global market for engineered wood forecast to grow to more than US$12 billion by 2035. …Engineered-wood products such as CLT and glulam were left off the latest tariff list. Yet the emerging mass timber industry could feel the “broader hit”. “Mass timber does not become mass timber without the raw wood inputs,” said FPAC’s Derek Nighbor. …Canada Wood knows what it takes to develop a market for Canadian lumber products in China and other Asian nations. But CEO Bruce St. John cautioned that shifting exports to markets other than the US will “take years still” and require more than simply shipping Canadian lumber to overseas buyers. …Canada Wood’s Lance Tao noted, Canada’s opportunity in Asia’s engineered wood market is still less about shipping finished “modules” to the region and more about selling lumber to Chinese mass-timber manufacturers.

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