West Fraser Timber, America’s largest lumber producer, said it would close a sawmill in Florida, curtail operations indefinitely at another in Arkansas and take a $50 million restructuring charge due to weak markets for wood products. The highest interest rates in a generation have slowed homebuilding as well as the remodeling boom that sent lumber prices soaring during the pandemic. The cuts amount to about 4% of West Fraser’s output and roughly 0.4% of North American lumber production, said Ketan Mamtora, a BMO Capital Markets analyst. Most mills in British Columbia aren’t making money at current lumber prices and a recent drop in Southern pine prices has reduced profitability in the region where log prices are lowest. “While West Fraser’s move is a step in the right direction, we think more capacity curtailments will be needed to improve supply-demand balance,” Mamtora wrote. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]