“The American home building market plunged from 2 million to 500,000 housing starts in 2009. This kind of decline has made our lumber market very challenging,” Troy Hrodmadnik, a Tembec executive, recently told the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

“However we believe the American market will come back and when it does there will be massive pent-up demand for our lumber products.”

Fortunately the Chinese market for Canadian wood products has increased substantially to offset the American decline.  The major decline in the American housing market can be directly attributed to the shutdown of two Tembec facilities, namely the finger-joint operation and planer mill in Cranbrook.

Foreclosures in the US are down, and when combined with an uptick in the building market, Tembec see these as positive signs that the American lumber market is ready to rebound. Tembec is an integrated forest company headquartered in Ontario with operation throughout North America.