Battered by punishing U.S. softwood lumber duties and depressed commodity prices, Alberta forestry companies still managed to finish off 2002 with shipment values close to 2001 totals.
Statistics released last week by the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) show the overall value of shipments for lumber, panelboard and pulp and paper in 2002 was $3.261 billion, down $11 million or less than one per cent from $3.272 billion in 2001.
“Despite the challenges from 2002 and the reality (that) an unresolved softwood lumber issue will continue to create a level of uncertainty, the industry will remain a leading manufacturing industry in Alberta,” said AFPA president Gord Lehn. “We will keep on responding to any challenges to stay competitive.”
Forest companies have been doing “everything possible” to keep costs down and avoid major layoffs, Lehn said, “but the industry is feeling the pain. It has lost close to $150 million since the duties kicked in 10 months ago.”
The forestry sector’s job loss total is now more than 200 forestry workers – a number that does not include unreported layoffs or unfilled vacancies, Lehn added.
The U.S. imposed a 27-per-cent import tax duty last May in a long-running trade dispute. Of the $10 billion in annual softwood lumber exports to the U.S. from Canada, Alberta accounts for approximately seven per cent of that amount, or about $700 million.
The British Columbia government last week announced major changes to its forestry policies that will see the amount of timber sold through the open market raised by about one-third to 40 per cent. The changes are aimed in part at appeasing U.S. players in the ongoing softwood dispute.
The Alberta forest industry is the third-largest manufacturing sector in the province, generating revenue of more than $8 billion and employing up to 54,000 Albertans across the province.
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