Western Forest Products released their fourth quarter results yesterday, and as predicted, their revenues were down substantially because of the United SteelWorkers strike.
According to CFO Stephen Williams, Western generated $80 million in revenues thanks to their American mills and selling off unencumbered lumber inventory and logs.
That’s down 71%, or $200 million from the same period in 2018 when their coastal BC mills and timberland operations were working.
Western CEO Don Demens said they’re anxious to bring their mills back to life and have a plan to restart as soon as their workers ratify the agreement this week.
“Once the contract is ratified, we will begin calling employees back to work for safety reviews and a safety start, and then preparing the operations for start-up,” he said. “At the mills we expect operations will begin in early March, in the timberlands we’ll be getting back to operation based on location and snow impacts. We expect a ramp up in operation in March and be operating more fully in April.”
Western’s total revenue was $807 million last year, down 32% from $1.2 billion the year before.
United Steelworkers local 1-1937 will be holding a ratification vote for their Port Alberni workers starting at 9 this morning.
