West Coast Business Trends
The West Coast Softwood Market Shows Resilience
By Zach Miller
At the time of this writing, the U.S. lumber market is in a rebalancing phase, lumber prices remain stagnant hovering around $500 per thousand board feet. Rising mortgage rates and softening housing demand is creating downward pricing pressure. Tariff uncertainty and high duties are taking a toll as well.
Dean Garofano of Delta Forestry Group, Pitt Meadows, BC, said, “Sawmills here in Coastal British Columbia were caught off guard after the recent Domtar announcement to indefinitely curtail their Catalyst Pulp mill. The announcement had sawmills scrambling to figure out what they could do with their residual chips and hog. Loggers were also caught off guard, wondering what would become of pulp logs.”
“Fortunately,” continued Garofano, “Domtar and the B.C. government worked out an agreement that will support the re-opening of the mill again in November, after the current maintenance shutdown. The impact the shutdown announcement had, highlights the fragile state of the coastal forest industry right now.”
“Freight costs have been another big topic as of late. With the Strait of Hormuz still not flowing freely, the diesel prices have increased dramatically, which has caused freight and trucking rates to consequently soar.”
“On the sales side here at Delta Forestry Group,” added Garofano, “Cedar lumber sales have been steady but not at the volumes we had anticipated. Many distributors are reporting significant drops in Cedar sales for 2026 and do not expect a sharp rebound in 2027. A big part of the reduced sales is a result of the precarious U.S. economy; however, some can be attributed to more Cedar market share loss.
Some West Coast lumber sources have positivity for 2027, while others share uncertainty about the market.
“Hemlock lumber demand has been very steady with timbers and anything from shop through Clears is in high demand. Fir timbers have seen a recent surge in demand, as buyers try to fill orders they need right away. Clears and shops in Fir continue to be a sore spot with the market still over supplied for the little demand there has been.”
“There were many challenges in 2026,” shared Garofano, “including highly punitive duty rates, unpredictable tariffs, weak consumer demand for wood products and inflationary pressures. Despite all this, our industry has proven resilient and for Delta Forestry Group, being able to battle through all this in 2026 was a true success and a testament to all the hard work and dedication of our great employees.”
Darren Duchi of Siskiyou Forest Products in Anderson, CA, said, “Supply and demand is in a good balance for us right now. We had a tough year in 2025 but feel much better about this year as we are seeing some positive developments with more opportunities moving forward. We manufacture specialty products and exterior softwood products, particularly in Redwoods, have been valuable to work with.”
Duchi continued, “Our customers are happy and it really shows the resilience of the industry with all of the challenges we’ve faced. Looking forward into 2027, we’re optimistic. I’ve been doing this for 30 years — there’s ups and downs but we just have to keep pushing forward.”
Aidan Coyles of Gilbert Smith Forest Products in Barriere, BC, shared, “Pricing feels like it’s found a floor on most items. However, lower prices haven’t stirred up much for business. With the potential duty reduction along with U.S. midterms, there is still lots of uncertainty effecting peoples buying habits. Log availability and pricing are still an issue as high fuel costs impact loggers everywhere. New tariffs changing the wood products economic landscape impacting viability of harvesting are very challenging. For us, the first six months of the year were good, while the back half was not so much at a five-out-of-10.”
