Western Forest Products Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Western Forest Products EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -C$1.55
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Western Forest Products Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $201.90 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Western Forest Products Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 2/10/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 3:00PM ET

Western Forest Products (TSE:WEF) Inc is a Canada-based softwood forest products company. The company's principal business activities include timber harvesting, reforestation, forest management, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, and value-added lumber remanufacturing. Its operating business segment comprised of Timber harvesting, Log sales, and Lumber manufacturing and sales. The firm purchases and harvests logs which are then manufactured into lumber products at its sawmills, or sold. Canada and the United States, represent the company's largest markets and contribute the vast majority of its total revenue.

Western Forest Products Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Ended Q4 with approximately CAD 212 million in liquidity, a net debt-to-cap ratio of 7%, a CAD 250 million credit facility extended to July 2028, and CAD 76 million of non-core asset sales — strengthening the balance sheet to navigate near-term uncertainty.
• Positive Sentiment: Continued strategic shift to higher-value products — specialty products comprised 52% of sales and kiln-dried lumber reached a record 41% of sales in 2025, alongside improved uptime and faster inventory turns.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported Q4 Adjusted EBITDA of -CAD 6.2 million, largely due to a 26% reduction in lumber shipments, 34% lower log shipments and a jump in combined duties and tariffs to 45% (from 14%).
• Positive Sentiment: 2026 CapEx guidance of CAD 45–50 million includes ~CAD 16 million for two continuous kilns and one thermal kiln (each ~80M board feet annualized) and a modest CNC/glulam fabrication investment to capture incremental margin.
• Negative Sentiment: A strike at the La‑kwa sa muqw (TFL 64) limited partnership is ongoing and, if not quickly resolved, may force further operating curtailments at Saltair and Duke Point due to constrained log supply.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Western Forest Products' fourth quarter 2025 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. Following prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, please press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may reach an operator by pressing star, then zero. During this conference call, Western's representatives may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements can be identified by words like anticipate, plan, estimate, will, and other references to future points. Although these forward-looking statements reflect management's reasonable beliefs, expectations, and assumptions, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially.

[Operator]

There are many factors that could cause actual outcomes to be different, including those factors described under risks and uncertainties in the company's annual MD&A, which can be accessed on SEDAR and is supplemented by the company's quarterly MD&A. Forward-looking statements are based only on information currently available to Western and speak only as of the date on which they are made. Except as required by law, Western undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements. Accordingly, listeners should exercise caution in relying on forward-looking statements. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Steven Hofer, President and CEO of Western Forest Products. Mr. Hofer, please go ahead.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thank you, Galen, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to Western Forest Products' 2025 fourth quarter conference call. Joining me on the call today is Glen Nontell, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I'd just like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the community of Tumbler Ridge, to all the victims and all the families impacted. We issued our 2025 fourth quarter and full-year results yesterday. I will provide you with some introductory comments and then ask Glen to take you through our financial results. I will follow Glen's review with our outlook section before we open the call to your questions. Despite more challenging markets and higher softwood lumber duties and tariffs in 2025, we entered 2026 with a significantly improved balance sheet to navigate the expected near-term market uncertainty.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

We also continued to execute on our strategic priorities to accelerate our transition to higher-value products. Some highlights over the last year include: surpassing our health and safety targets for the company's medical incident rate, achieving an MIR of 2.7 in 2025 compared to our target of 2.87 and 3.84 in 2024. We are also proud to report several operations achieved zero recordable incidents in 2025. In timberlands, we continue to focus on improving log sort stratification to drive incremental margin. These efforts, alongside a disciplined focus on log inventory management, has resulted in an 11% improvement in log inventory turnover since 2023. In manufacturing, we have improved our operational uptime to 86% in 2025, compared to 85% in 2024. Our Duke Point facility achieved a 92% uptime in the fourth quarter.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

We also continue to focus on log and lumber recovery while improving lumber inventory turnover by 9% year over year. In sales and marketing, we continued our customer focus, developing value-added products and programs targeted with the end user in mind. Specialty products comprised 52% of sales in 2025, and we increased kiln-dried sales to a record 41% of total sales in 2025, compared to 37% in 2024. In addition, we achieved improved on-time shipping performance of 88% in 2025, compared to 84% in 2024. We made significant progress advancing our strategic capital investments in kilns to support higher-value products. Our 2 continuous kilns and 1 thermal kiln at our value-added division are expected to be commissioned in 2026. These investments will allow for more kiln-dried lumber production, generating higher margins than green lumber.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

From a labor perspective, we completed a six year collective agreement that covers the company's USW hourly employees. The agreement is one of the longest-term agreements in the history of the B.C. Coast, coastal forest sector. And finally, we strengthened our balance sheet and liquidity position through CAD 76 million in non-core asset sales and the extension of our CAD 250 million credit facility to July 2028. Overall, I am proud of the significant contributions across our entire organization, which have provided a strong foundation to build from in 2026. I will now turn it over to Glen to review our key financial results.

[Glen Nontell, CFO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Steven. Fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA was -CAD 6.2 million, as compared to CAD 14.4 million in the same period last year. As compared to the prior year, results in the fourth quarter were impacted by a 26% reduction in lumber shipments, a 34% reduction in log shipments, given lower harvest volumes, and higher softwood lumber duties, with a combined duty and tariff rate of 45%, compared to 14% in the same period last year. This was partially offset by higher log prices on cedar and fir saw logs and lower stumpage expense. We closed the fourth quarter with approximately 50 million board feet of lumber inventory and 649,000 cubic meters of log inventory.

[Glen Nontell, CFO at Western Forest Products]

Turning to CapEx, our 2026 total CapEx spending is expected to be between CAD 45 million-CAD 50 million, which includes approximately CAD 16 million related to two previously announced continuous kilns and one thermal kiln at our value-added division. From a balance sheet perspective, we ended the fourth quarter with liquidity of approximately CAD 212 million and a net debt to cap ratio of 7%. Touching on our Columbia Vista sawmill, we have made the difficult decision not to rebuild at the site and listed the property for sale in December. We have received significant interest for the property, receiving multiple offers above the asking price of $10.6 million to date. We will look to finalize the sale of the property late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2026.

[Glen Nontell, CFO at Western Forest Products]

In addition, we are working with the insurance adjuster to finalize available property insurance proceeds. We plan to use proceeds from the property sale and insurance to initially repay debt to further deleverage our balance sheet. Turning to first quarter seasonality. In typical first quarters, our timber harvesting activity can be periodically interrupted by winter weather. Harvest volumes are typically skewed to the end of the quarter when the weather and light conditions support greater activity. From a market perspective, sales typically accelerate through the quarter. We plan to continue to manage production to market demand and available log supply. Steven, that concludes my comments.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Glen. Turning to our market outlook. Lumber markets remain challenged heading into 2026. Customer expectations are there will not be a significant improvement in demand during the first half of the year. That said, operating curtailments from lumber producers in 2025 are expected to decrease available supply towards the end of the first quarter, which could lead to upward price pressure as demand improves. We remain cautiously optimistic that the U.S. 30-year mortgage rates, now at three year lows, may support improved housing affordability and modestly stimulate U.S. housing demand this year. Demand in Western Red Cedar product lines remains slow following the trajectory of other building products. In Japan, the yen has further weakened against the U.S. dollar, and housing starts continue to be below 800,000 on an annualized basis.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Western continues to be focused on the competitiveness of Hemlock and Douglas Fir to maintain current market share, but market demand for the first quarter of 2026 is lower compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Overall, we, we currently have a first quarter order file of approximately 78 million board feet. Touching on the La-kwa sa muqw Forestry Limited Partnership in TFL 64. During the second quarter of 2025, employees represented by the USW commenced a strike at the limited partnership. In January of this year, USW members voted to reject a new collective bargaining agreement with the limited partnership. If there is no near-term resolution to the strike, additional operating curtailments may be required at our Saltair and Duke Point sawmills near the end of the first quarter due to log supply.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

The limited partnership continues to work to bring a resolution to the strike, and both parties have agreed to mediation process, which is occurring this week. Turning to our engineered wood products group. To support a modest expansion of our product and service portfolio, including ready to install fabricated glulam beams, we are investing in a new CNC fabrication machine at our existing Fruit Valley manufacturing site in Vancouver, Washington. We are currently in the process of finalizing procurement of the manufacturing equipment, with delivery and installation anticipated towards the end of this year. In parallel, we are also evaluating opportunities to modernize and consolidate our existing glulam facilities in the region at our Fruit Valley facility. Project planning will continue through 2026, and additional details will be shared as the strategy progresses.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Looking ahead, we will remain focused on executing our strategic priorities and CapEx plans while also ensuring we maintain a strong balance sheet. With that, we can open the call up to questions.

[Operator]

Certainly. We will now begin to take questions from analysts. If you have a question, please press star then one. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star then two. Please press star then one at this time, if you have a question. The first question is from Ben Isaacson with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. First question is on the Columbia Vista decision not to rebuild it. Is that gonna require some CapEx spend to reconfigure mills elsewhere?

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Ben. Appreciate the question. No, what we've essentially done is been able to add supply from our Saltair facility in Canada to maintain our market share in both Douglas Fir and Hem-Fir KD squares to Japan. So it's essentially we've just reallocated that product line to one of our existing facilities.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Great, thanks. My next question is, we've seen wood product pricing move higher. You did talk about demand in red cedar not really keeping up. How close are you to run rate breakeven EBITDA right now?

[Glen Nontell, CFO at Western Forest Products]

Yeah, maybe I'll take that one, Ben. I mean, you know, obviously you can see the results in the fourth quarter, you know, and the curtailments that we've taken, you know, ourselves and others are fairly close to breakeven. I'd say looking into the first quarter here, you know, we see still some challenging headwinds. You know, we might see some pickup late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter, but if you're talking, you know, at this point, you know, you know that we have definitely do have cedar product lines that are profitable and others that are more challenged from a breakeven perspective.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Thank you. And then, just last question, you said, Douglas Fir and Hemlock squares are down quarter-over-quarter, for Q1. Can you just give some magnitude on, how much we should expect them to be down?

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Yeah, the current or, I mean, the current order follow right now is, I'm gonna say it's probably in the, you know, the 5%-7%, quarter-over-quarter. You know, I, we're a little optimistic as we go into the, middle of the year and into Q3, that, things will normalize. You know, the, the yen is having a, big impact on, you know, the overall competitiveness of all imports into the, the Japanese market. So, you know, we'll, we'll be paying attention to, you know, what occurs on, on the exchange rate as we go forward here. But, you know, our focus, both from a, you know, a, log standpoint and from a manufacturing, manufacturing standpoint is, to be globally competitive, in that marketplace.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

You know, it's a very important market for our company, for the species that we have access to, and frankly, the Japanese market, you know, they prefer the species that we have and the quality that we deliver to that marketplace. So obviously, you know, some short-term headwinds right now on overall demand in the quarter, but I think we'll see a normalization as we go into the balance of the year.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director at Scotiabank]

Great. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

The next question is from Stuart. Sorry, Sean Steuart with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Sean Steuart, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Thanks. Good morning, guys. A couple of questions. Steven, I wanna talk about your operating rate trajectory here. You guys have taken a lot of curtailments that you spoke to, and I gather most of this decision is tied to markets and rising duty deposits and Section 232 tariffs. But can you help put some perspective around, you know, how much of the curtailments are related to log supply constraints on the coast? How much of the decision is being driven by the fiber situation?

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Sean. You know, it probably would take a little bit more time to kind of go through that operational by operational basis. You know, each mill has some different dynamics in play. Some are directly impacted by the change in tariffs from 14% to our rate today of 45%. Other facilities are constrained by certain log profiles that are in, I would say, limited supply and are uneconomic, and that would kind of be the discussion, for example, at Chemainus. But we're really focused on ensuring that you know, when we run that, it has a chance of being profitable for us.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

So we're not taking, you know, any risk on, on running, you know, below our cash shutdown costs and, and, and building excess inventory. So we're, we're just being very, very disciplined, on our run rates across each of the facilities. I will, I will say, though, that, you know, I'm really pleased on, on the level of execution within our facilities around reliability and uptime. So despite, you know, some curtailments, you know, our, our team on the manufacturing side has, has just done a, an outstanding job in the last couple of years of, of demonstrating that we can, we can run our facilities at higher levels of reliability and uptime.

[Sean Steuart, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay. And, you know, I guess the follow on there is, you know, appreciating Chemainus will be down this year, do you feel like the current capacity footprint is viable for the company, and appreciating there's an anticipation that demand will eventually start to recover here and volume should improve. I'm just trying to weigh the cost benefit of this extensive rolling downtime versus potential permanent capacity closures. Is this the right capacity footprint for the company moving forward?

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Well, those are, you know, those are questions that, you know, we have every day, including, you know, with our board and, and with, with our shareholders around, you know, what is the optimal, operating configuration, for Western relative to the, overall, log profile and, and log supply on the B.C. coast. And so you can see that, we continue to be focused on optimizing our operating platform, and we're having to make some really difficult decisions. And that's evident, you know, at a place like Chemainus, where, you know, we just, in today's, market environment and the log profile that mill was designed to consume, that, you know, we don't have a profitable, program there for that mill.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

So, you know, it'll stay curtailed for the balance of this year. But, you know, the questions around, you know, what is the optimal manufacturing configuration for our company? You know, we're focused on that every day.

[Sean Steuart, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay, thanks for that context. Just one last one from me. At Columbia Vista, the site sale process. Can you give us perspective on timing? And maybe not willing to divulge, but any thoughts on potential proceeds for that site?

[Glen Nontell, CFO at Western Forest Products]

Yeah, sure. It's Glen. You know, we listed the property for sale in December at an asking price of $10.6 million. You know, to date, we've received multiple offers at or above that asking price, and we are working to finalize that sale late in the first quarter, early in the second quarter. Concurrent with that, we are also looking to finalize the insurance process, which would be incremental potential proceeds to that land sale.

[Sean Steuart, Managing Director at TD Cowen]

Okay, thanks, Glen. That's all I have for now. Thank you.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Sean.

[Operator]

The next question is from Matthew McKellar with RBC. Please go ahead.

[Matthew McKellar, VP at RBC Capital Markets]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe first, just a question on the Thermally Modified Hemlock initiative. Can you maybe talk a bit about how that product will be marketed and what kind of demand indications you have for it today? And then help us understand how you potentially approach considering any further investments in capacity there. Thank you.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Matt. You know, we're really excited about this initiative. You know, it's certainly, we see it as a path forward to add incremental value and margin to our Hemlock profile. So the first thermally modified kiln will become operational toward the end of this year. I would say that we are being very disciplined in managing expectations. We're gonna start relatively small, and we're going to you know, walk before we run, and we're going to you know, deliver, you know, exceed expectations from a product quality and from a product usability standpoint. The opportunity for Thermally Modified Hemlock will be primarily around decking, exterior decking applications, siding applications, and soffit and fascia applications.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

But again, you know, this is just one kiln, relatively small volumes to start with, but we do see a very unique opportunity to continue to build a, you know, a viable, profitable program. As far as the go-to-market strategy, you know, this will not be commodity. This will be, you know, inside of our specialty product category. And typically, this gets sold through, you know, very targeted distribution partners who are aligned around, you know, specialty building materials. So we're engaged in that process today. There's a lot of work being done on technical specifications, usability standards, installation requirements, marketing collateral, so forth. So it's not a, you know, a commodity piece of two by four.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

It'll definitely be a niche specialty product and a marketing program that aligns with that.

[Matthew McKellar, VP at RBC Capital Markets]

Great, and thanks for that detail. I'd also like to ask about the KD. I think you said the kiln-dried sales are maybe 41% of total in 2025. With the capacity you're bringing on, how should we expect that mix to evolve coming to exit 2026? Do you expect to fill up, you know, that incremental capacity quite quickly with the kind of current level of activity and mix? How should we kind of set our expectations there? Thanks.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Yeah, I think the easiest way, Matt, is just to think about each continuous dry kiln with the species mix that we have and the product line that we manufacture. You can kind of look at each kiln having an annual capacity of around 80 million board feet. So if you just look at, you can, you know, do the math on the back of the envelope there of what that will do to our incremental kiln-dried product. So each kiln on an annualized basis will be around 80 million feet of additional kiln-dried product.

[Matthew McKellar, VP at RBC Capital Markets]

Perfect. Thank you. That's straightforward. Thanks. If I could just slip one last one in. Just around the glulam markets and, and maybe your motivations, around the expansion of the product portfolio, maybe what you're seeing around demand or, or supply-demand balance and, and the market opportunity there. Thanks.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Yeah. I mean, our investment that we're referencing is relatively modest. You know, previously, you know, we've been a supplier of what we would call, you know, glulam billets into the mass timber market. We have a very strong existing glulam product line in curved beams as well as in industrial beams. But this investment in fabrication is really targeted toward the mass timber market. And, you know, every opportunity that we have to capture incremental margin in that segment, we wanna, we wanna capture that. And so as we move down this product offering, it's just being able to do, you know, a certain level of fabrication on those beams that are going into a, you know, a mass timber project.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

You know, there's a quite nice incremental margin there that we're able to capture. So, relatively, you know, short payback. We've added a couple of very strong technical resources to our team, and we're seeing some really nice uptick in our ability to, you know, provide a fabricated beam with all the installation hardware into some very, very profitable. So again, we're. It's a phased approach, it's modest investment, and it's all focused on capturing that incremental margin in the supply chain.

[Matthew McKellar, VP at RBC Capital Markets]

Great. Thanks very much. I'll turn it back.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Thanks, Matt.

[Operator]

This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Hofer for any closing remarks.

[Steven Hofer, President and CEO at Western Forest Products]

Well, thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. We appreciate your continued interest in our company, and we look forward to our next call in May. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Glen Nontell, CFO
• Steven Hofer, President and CEO

Analysts

• Ben Isaacson, Managing Director at Scotiabank
• Matthew McKellar, VP at RBC Capital Markets
• Sean Steuart, Managing Director at TD Cowen