West Fraser Timber Co Ltd’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 (released on February 12) show sales of US$1.405bn and adjusted EBITDA of US$140m, representing 10% of sales.
The lumber segment showed an adjusted EBITDA of US$21m, while the North America engineered wood products (EWP) segment showed an adjusted EBITDA of US$127m. The Europe EWP segment showed an adjusted EBITDA of US$2m.
Annual highlights were sales of US$6.174bn and adjusted EBITIDA of US$673m, representing 11% of sales. Adjusted EBITDA for the lumber segment was US$82m, including US$32m of export duty expense attributable to finalisation of AR5. North American EWP segment adjusted EBITDA was US$744m and Europe EWP segment adjusted EBITDA was US$4m.
“The fourth quarter of 2024 saw continued resiliency in our North America engineered wood products business, where supply and demand fundamentals remained relatively well balanced on the back of solid new home construction demand,” said Sean McLaren, West Fraser’s president and CEO.
“We also realised modest improvement in our lumber segment this quarter as we monetised some of the benefits of our portfolio optimisation strategy that allowed us to migrate more production from higher cost to lower cost mills within our platform.
“In Europe and the UK, we continued to experience somewhat challenging markets as that region appears to be undergoing a protracted recovery. “Relatively high mortgage rates remain an affordability challenge for consumers and housing markets, impacting demand for our wood building products,” continued Mr McLaren.
“Further, potential for the US administration to impose broad-based tariffs on Canadian exports adds another element of demand uncertainty for the products we ship to the US from Canada.
“However, while we cannot control the threat of such tariffs, we can be proactive, creating a stronger organisation with a continued focus on improving the cost position across our mill portfolio and investing capital to modernise mills where it makes sense. You should also expect West Fraser to continue to return excess capital to shareholders when prudent, and maintain a strong balance sheet that will provide us with the financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that fit our long-term strategy.”
