“The opportunity for future growth in that region is attractive to us,” Chief Executive Officer Ian Fillinger said Tuesday in a phone interview. “We’re sure that from having that presence there will lead to further discussions, just like it has in the U.S. South.”Article content
Interfor also gains access to the housing market in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, and comes as “we see some fundamentals that are very strong going forward,” Fillinger said. Demand “looks promising” for homebuilding and as more people fix up their homes amid the pandemic, he said. Lumber prices touched record highs earlier this year amid a COVID-19 fuelled homebuilding boom, then collapsed as sawmills ramped up production and high prices stifled demand. Futures are still up more than 20 per cent from a year earlier. Frenzied homebuying in Canada earlier this year made the nation’s housing market among the hottest in the world.
Canadian lumber producers have been expanding capacity in the U.S. South in recent years, where timber plantations are plentiful and log prices are lower than in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia.Article content