{"id":32734,"date":"2026-02-18T16:24:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=32734"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:26:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:26:31","slug":"canadian-sawmills-weigh-retooling-as-output-falls-to-new-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/canadian-sawmills-weigh-retooling-as-output-falls-to-new-lows\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Sawmills Weigh Retooling as Output Falls to New Lows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Canadian wood products manufacturers continue to operate at levels far below peak capacity, as softening demand for lumber and engineered wood products, combined with new tariffs and duties, have created a very difficult environment for Canadian producers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/daily-quotidien\/260216\/t005a-eng.htm?utm_source=copilot.com\">That is according to new data from Statistics Canada, which shows that capacity utilisation in December fell to just 70.3 per cent<\/a>, its lowest level since July 2024 (69.6 per cent). A sharp decline from 74.5 per cent in November, as producers look to life beyond the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Capacity utilisation is widely viewed as a key measure of how intensively manufacturers are using their production lines, and the latest figures suggest a broad\u2011based slowdown. In addition to the drop in wood manufacturing, Statistics Canada also reported that &#8220;furniture and other related product manufacturers&#8221; saw utilisation fall by more than 4.9 per cent over the same period, sliding from 79.1 per cent in November to 74.2 per cent in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"V6HCKamszmw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trump&#039;s tariffs force Canada&#039;s lumber industry to switch to metric system\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V6HCKamszmw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers are hoping for quick government action to save their struggling industry. Punishing U.S. tariffs have left the sector reeling. Industry advocates are now pushing the Carney government to adopt the metric system to help the industry compete. Footage courtesy of Global News.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/canadas-sawmills-weigh-metric-switch-to-reach-global-markets\/\">The downturn comes as Wood Central reported last month<\/a> that Canada&#8217;s lumber industry is being pushed to rethink long\u2011standing production practices \u2014 including the potential abandonment of the imperial system in favour of the metric system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For decades, the U.S. has absorbed the overwhelming majority of Canada&#8217;s softwood lumber. But with duties rising and political tensions escalating, Taylor said the industry&#8217;s dependence on the American market is no longer sustainable. \u201cThis over\u2011reliance on the U.S. lumber market could not have come at a worse time,&#8221; according to Russ Taylor, a global expert in wood trade, who pointed to a surge in trade restrictions since Donald Trump took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, he said, sawmills are now being forced to consider retooling for markets that use the metric system rather than North America&#8217;s imperial dimensions. And whilst many mills can technically cut both ways, the broader supply chain is not configured for metric\u2011driven production. \u201cNorth American construction sizes and grades do not fit many, if not most, end\u2011use applications in offshore markets,\u201d he said, adding that logs would also need to be cut to metric lengths to meet European and Middle Eastern specifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To learn why Canadian lumber producers are now eying Japan, China and South Korea to grow their export trade, <a href=\"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/why-japan-not-china-or-india-is-canadas-top-target-for-lumber\/\">click here for Wood Central&#8217;s special feature.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian wood products manufacturers continue to operate at levels far below peak capacity, as softening demand for lumber and engineered wood products, combined with new tariffs and duties, have created a very difficult environment for Canadian producers. That is according to new data from Statistics Canada, which shows that capacity utilisation in December fell to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"default","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[51,37,41,32,46,42,39,43,40],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":{"0":"post-32734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-americas","8":"category-building-and-construction","9":"category-exterior-wood-products","10":"category-global-news","11":"category-industry","12":"category-interior-wood-products","13":"category-mass-timber","14":"category-structural-wood-products","15":"category-wood-products"},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jason","display_name":"Jason Ross","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32734"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32739,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32734\/revisions\/32739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32734"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=32734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}