BC Lumber Industry Grows With Foreign Demand

With the softwood lumber dispute, the pine beetle epidemic and the downhill spiral in the U.S housing market and shortage in the workforce, British Columbia's logging industry has seen its fair share of bumps and bruises over the last 20 years.

But there is room for optimism. The last few years have seen an increase in supply, and there were signs of recovery in 2010.

President of the Truck Loggers Association Graham Lasure says there is a lot to look forward to in 2011.

“The export market to China and Asia is there, and the lumber prices are quite high at the moment,” Lasure says.

His optimism comes with good reason; in 2010 British Columbia’s lumber exports to China were valued at $687 million, more than twice the value of exports in 2009. In terms of volume, China consumed 2.6 million cubic meters, 22 percent of BC’s lumber last year.

Minister of Forests, Mines and Lands Pat Bell says in the final quarter of 2010 that number rose to 30 percent.

“We are seeing huge jumps in the value of softwood products going to China as they continue to place larger orders for higher quality and better grades of lumber,” Bell says. 

“This is great news for the industry, because it means we have diversity and it no longer means that we’re relying strictly on the U.S market.”

Exports to China in December alone were valued at $107 million, a record high for the industry as it exceeded exports in all of 2003. 

“It’s the fifth year in a row that we have set new annual highs for both volume and value,” Bell says.

In 2009 there were 10,000 jobs lost in British Columbia and about half the workforce is approaching retirement, but there was an addition of 5000 jobs in 2010.

Currently there is a high demand for truckers as more and more logging mills are reopening in British Columbia Bell says.

“I expect the remainder of the jobs lost will comeback in 2011,” he adds. “We’re in the early stages of recovery. Over the last 18 months we reopened 24 logging mills.”

Expansion will translate to labour demand. Lasure says appealing to the job market and drawing workers to the industry is among their top priorities.

“Bringing people to work in the industry is one of the difficulties we’ll be facing.  But we’re seeing people wanting to comeback from the oil fields to the logging industry, because it will be more stable going forward.”

He says that the TLA along with other organizations are working with the BC government to attract people to the industry.

“The government and everyone are working to stabilize the industry.  That will bring people who left back,” he says.  “Associations such as the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) and the Pacific Logging Congress are working to entice people into the industry through educational and promotional areas.”

In October of 2009, the BC government legislated the Wood First Act, which requires wood to be considered as a primary material in government funded buildings.

TLA executive director David Lewis says the future looks a bit brighter and there is potential for growth in 2011.

“When it comes to demand it isn’t going to be an issue for us.  We see demand in North America and China going up,” Lewis says.

Lewis says the industry is currently working with 80 percent of their capacity, and he says its time for them to expand, but it won’t be easy.

“We’ve been doing lots of training, but we’ve had training moneys cut from the government.  We’ve been trying to do more equipment operator training, as well as introductory training and we’re doing advocacy work to build up the reputation of the industry, but it’s a huge piece of work,” Lewis says.

He says in order to stay competitive globally they need much cooperation from the government.

“Governments need to be an advocate our industry.  They shouldn’t be shy of saying that timber is the most affordable, sustainable and the most carbon friendly building product,” he says.  “I think part of the reason that we’ve seen the negative trend within forestry is that we didn’t have governments that were advocates.”