Canfor Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Canfor EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -C$0.16
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Canfor Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.53 billion
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Canfor Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 7/29/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, July 30, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 12:00PM ET

Canfor (TSE:CFP) Corp is a global leader in the manufacturing of high-value low-carbon forest products including dimension and specialty lumber, engineered wood products, pulp and paper, wood pellets and green energy. Proudly headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canfor Corp produces renewable products from sustainably managed forests, at more than 50 facilities across its diversified operating platform in Canada, the United States and Europe. Canfor Corp has a 77% stake in Vida AB, Sweden's largest privately owned sawmill company and also owns, approximately, a 54.8% interest in Canfor Pulp.

Canfor Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Lumber EBITDA rose to CAD 145 million in Q2, up CAD 116 million sequentially, supported by improved North American pricing, higher volumes, cost improvements, and CAD 37 million of EBITDA from Europe.
• Negative Sentiment: Canfor announced the closure of Northwood Pulp Mill later this year, as well as Fox Creek and two Swedish sawmills. The company expects approximately CAD 30 million in Northwood restructuring costs and a CAD 35 million Fox Creek impairment charge in Q3.
• Neutral Sentiment: Pulp and paper remained under pressure, posting a CAD 12 million adjusted EBITDA loss due to weak global pulp pricing, elevated inventories, and maintenance downtime. Management expects the Northwood closure to reduce costs, lower capital intensity, and improve Intercon’s long-term positioning, with benefits expected primarily from 2027 onward.
• Positive Sentiment: Canfor completed its acquisition of PinkWood, an Alberta I-joist and value-added products business that is not subject to current tariffs. The company ended Q2 with approximately CAD 1.2 billion of liquidity and plans about CAD 210 million of 2026 capital spending.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Michelle and I will be your host today. Welcome to Canfor Corporation's second quarter analyst call. At this time, all lines have been placed to mute to prevent any background noise. A Q&A session will be available after today's presentation. During this call, Canfor's Chief Financial Officer will be referring to a slide presentation that is available in the investor relations section of the company's website. Also, the company would like to point out that this call will include forward-looking statements, so please refer to the press release for the associated risk of such statements. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Susan Yurkovich, Canfor Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Susan.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Thanks, Michelle. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our Q2 results conference call. I will start off with a few comments before I turn things over to Pat Elliott, Canfor's Chief Financial Officer. I am also joined by Stephen Mackie, our Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Pankratz, our Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and Brian Yuen, our Vice President of Pulp and Paper Sales, who are available and can help with questions following our remarks. Our lumber business generated solid EBITDA in the second quarter with improved pricing driven by leaner inventories, industry capacity rationalizations over the last several years, and ongoing transportation constraints in the U.S. South. While supply reductions have supported lumber pricing in 2026, we do remain cautious on our near-term outlook as demand continues to be impacted by global economic uncertainty, ongoing trade disputes, and persistent affordability challenges.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Pulp markets also remain under significant pressure, with elevated inventories and a structural shift in market dynamics contributing to weak pricing over the last several quarters. Despite these headwinds, we are seeing improvements in our underlying performance, supported by the significant changes we've made to our operating platform over the last several years. While we're encouraged by our second quarter results, we remain focused on strengthening our platform and positioning the business to navigate the challenges facing our industry. As part of these efforts, we recently announced the closures of our Northwood Pulp Mill later this year, along with two sawmills in Sweden and our Fox Creek sawmill in Alberta. These are incredibly difficult decisions that impact our employees, their families, and our local communities. We've made changes across our platform that are gut-wrenching, but we are putting our business on a more sustainable footing.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

The changes will allow us to utilize the economically viable fiber supply across our operating regions more effectively and support a stronger, more competitive platform going forward. In the case of Northwood, reducing our pulp capacity will improve our cost structure, lower our capital intensity, and enhance the long-term competitiveness of our Intercon facility and specialty paper business, which continues to perform well. In our lumber business, the closure of Urshult, Orrefors, and along with Fox Creek sawmills will allow us to optimize fiber procurement efforts, support our cost structure, and overall profitability as we concentrate production in fewer, more productive facilities. As we optimize our operating platform, we're also investing in higher-value opportunities. Earlier this month, we completed the acquisition of PinkWood, which we believe will strengthen our asset base in Western Canada, further diversify our earnings profile through increased exposure to value-added products.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Taken together, these actions reflect our continued focus on building a stronger, more resilient company positioned to create long-term value through the cycle. With that, I'll turn it over to Pat to provide an overview of our financial results.

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Thanks, Susan. Morning, everyone. In my comments this morning, I'll speak to our second quarter financial highlights. As always, a summary of this is included in our overview slide presentation in the investor relations section of our website. Our lumber business generated adjusted EBITDA of CAD 145 million in the second quarter, CAD 116 million higher than the previous quarter. These results have been adjusted to exclude one-time items totaling CAD 16 million, comprised of restructuring and impairment charges, net of a CAD 7 million recovery of previously recorded inventory write-downs. Results included CAD 37 million of adjusted EBITDA in our European lumber business, reflecting moderately higher pricing, increased shipments, and modest log cost relief. In North America, improved lumber pricing, increased volume, and cost structure improvements supported solid earnings, particularly in the U.S. South.

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Our pulp and paper business reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of CAD 12 million, CAD 4 million lower than the prior quarter, reflecting the impact of planned maintenance downtime and weakness in global pulp markets. As Susan mentioned, we announced the closure of our Northwood Pulp Mill later this year, driven by a structural shift in pulp market fundamentals and challenges securing economically viable fiber supply. As a result, we anticipate recording restructuring costs of approximately CAD 30 million in the third quarter. In addition, we announced the closure of our Fox Creek Sawmill due to challenging market conditions, elevated duties, and declining fiber availability in the region. As a result, we anticipate recording an asset write-down and impairment charge of approximately CAD 35 million, also in the third quarter.

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Turning to our balance sheet, Canfor ended the second quarter with available liquidity of approximately CAD 1.2 billion and net debt, excluding the duty loan, of CAD 316 million. Available liquidity improved by CAD 215 million in the second quarter, supported by solid earnings and a seasonal working capital unwind. We anticipate capital spend of approximately CAD 210 million in 2026, including approximately CAD 35 million for our pulp business and the remaining spend associated with our Bruza Sawmill in Sweden and our Iron Mountain sawmill in Arkansas. Following completion of these projects, capital spend will moderate, supported by our strong lumber platform and right-sized pulp footprint. With that, Michelle, we are now ready to take questions from the analysts.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take questions from financial analysts. If you have a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you'd like to withdraw your question at any time, please press star one one again. Our first question is going to come from Ben Isaacson with Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

[Ben Isaacson, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Great. Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Two questions, both on closures. First, could you give a little bit more color on the Fox Creek closure and specifically the Alberta fiber basket? How rapidly is it declining, and are there any other assets in your portfolio that are at risk or are on the fence?

[Stephen Mackie, COO at Canfor Corporation]

Hey, good morning, Ben. It's Stephen here. Thanks for the question. Maybe I'll sort of work backwards, but I would say there's no other assets in our Alberta portfolio that are at risk. We think that this move, as difficult as it is, really a result of the wildfires that we've experienced in Alberta over recent years and that impact of the fiber supply along with some other sort of regulatory constraints that are being applied on the land base. When we look at our overall portfolio of assets in Alberta, this strengthens it, and we're confident that we've got sufficient fiber supply to support the remaining facilities.

[Ben Isaacson, Analyst at Scotiabank]

That's great. Then just a broader question. You've done a lot of footprint rationalization recently, and presumably you're only shutting those assets that are losing money. If that's correct, then what is the uplift to normalize EBITDA or how do all these closures improve the earnings power for the company?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Hey, Ben, it's Pat. Yeah, hard and probably not proper to give you too good a guidance other than to say clearly there's a lot of this that's been baked in since we started rationalizing in 2023, but I guess I would just guide to there's more to come. We mentioned Fox Creek with the Northwood closure, that pulp cost structure changes materially. We're still doing an upgrade and finishing an upgrade at Bruza in Sweden. We're still doing an upgrade at our Iron Mountain facility in Arkansas. As we get into 2027, I would just say that there's more to come. I just have to wait for those results, but it's still more to come.

[Ben Isaacson, Analyst at Scotiabank]

That's great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question will come from Sean Steuart with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Pat, just to build on that last response, when you say more to come, you're talking about savings to come in 2027, not necessarily more closures, correct?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Yes. Thank you for clarifying. That's exactly right, Sean. Thank you.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Wanted to make sure. You guys had really strong Q2 lumber price gains in North America, which outpaced comps and the published benchmarks. I know there was disproportionate strength for wider dimension stuff in the South, any further comment you can give on mix that might have helped this quarter and if mix was a factor, is that a sustainable trend into the back half of the year?

[Kevin Pankratz, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Canfor Corporation]

Hi, Sean. It's Kevin here. I think, you noted the wide widths, especially in 6 in and 10 in and 12 in, and we're seeing it across all species too there, Sean. Expect those spreads to maybe moderate somewhat because it is out of the normal pattern, we expect that to continue through Q3 and typically come off there by Q4.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

That helps. Thanks, Kevin. Susan, the recent I-joist acquisition you touched on in Alberta, just outside Calgary, I know it's a small deal, I guess, can you qualify the company's broader interest in EWP expansion? Is this a precursor to M&A interest in other deals on that side of the business?

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Yeah. We're constantly looking at things. This is a really good fit for us. Of course, we operate in Alberta. We provide a lot of furnish to that facility already, so we know these folks culturally are a really good fit for us. We think it adds nicely to our portfolio. We're continuing to look at a number of opportunities. We're fortunate that we have a balance sheet where we can be opportunistic. Of course, we're being prudent, but we like this acquisition, and we see opportunity to grow that business.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Organically or through M&A or both?

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Would you like as usual, we're looking at all kinds of things. When we're ready to share something with you, we'll be happy to do so.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Got it. Okay. Understood. One last one. The Northwood closure, I understand the context. I guess the question is, how concentrated, let's say over the last few years, how concentrated were the losses in the pulp segment at Northwood versus Intercon. Can you give some context on broader benefits tied to residual procurement for Intercon going forward as Northwood's taken out of the mix?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

I'll start, Sean, and my colleague Stephen might help me here. Yeah, I think the procurement was done jointly, I guess is what I would say. It's a balanced losses, if you call it that. The opportunity here of sort of tightening the supply, reducing kind of some of that further distanced fibers, like residual supply and/or whole log supply, in combination with an increased focus on a smaller site, really allows us to generate, I would say, material synergy and material improvement to that structure. Again, not ready to quantify that. We'll see that as we get into 2027. I'd just say that it's a material step-down in the cost structure for Intercon Specialty Paper relative to the balanced portfolio we have today.

[Stephen Mackie, COO at Canfor Corporation]

I think the only thing I would add there, Sean and Pat, is just that it proportionately changes our mix quite dramatically as well, and leverages the greater exposure to the paper business, which has been quite solid and stable and has generated positive returns for a long period, a number of years. I think it reduces our exposure to market pulp, which, along with the cost structure improvements that Pat referenced, are going to position that business, we think, quite well going forward.

[Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen]

That's great detail. Thanks, Stephen. That's all I have. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question will come from Ketan Mamtora with BMO Capital Markets. Your line's open.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Thank you, and thanks for taking my question. Maybe to start with, on the European lumber business, really nice improvement in the second quarter. Can you talk about sort of what is driving this trend there and sort of what trends you are seeing so far in July?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Sure, Ketan. It's a balanced trend, I'd say. As I said in my comments, we saw both improvement in the lumber price and we saw a reduction in the log cost. I think you'll know for the last number of quarters, we've seen rapid escalation of the log cost in Sweden, in our operating area, and that is starting to moderate as we hoped and suggested that it would do. I think as we look to the rest of the year, Q2 is probably a good proxy for where we'll be. I think there's continuing pressure. That fiber supply is pretty balanced in South Sweden. The markets obviously are, as the markets here in North America are, sort of subject to the broader global situation.

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

We do think that we've kind of entered a period where we can have sort of sustained earnings for the remainder of 2026.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Understood. Pat, generally Q3, just seasonally, volumes are lower in Europe. That should still be sort of consistent with the seasonal trend?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Yeah, exactly. There's usually 100 million or more feet that come out as a result of the July downtime in Sweden.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Understood. Okay, that's helpful. Switching to North America. Pat, can you talk about sort of the transportation freight bottlenecks? Just order of magnitude, how much of a drag that was on your results? How much of an impact on cost, just on the lumber side?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

On the cost. Well, yeah, for sure. On transportation, we did not have any real issues at all in Canada. It was predominantly a U.S. South situation and largely in trucking. It's probably hard to quantify the cost, but obviously we're dealing with fuel surcharges that are somewhat embedded in the pricing. I think that helped supported the elevated pricing in SYP and partially offset there, Ketan, with increased rail shipments that allowed us to reach to markets and customers. I don't really see. The trucking has moderated somewhat, it's still at an elevated level of tightness. We don't really see that fundamentally changing for the balance of the year. As far as the costs go, it's kind of hard to quantify other than the fuel surcharges that are still elevated.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. No, that's helpful. Just last one from me. On that PinkWood acquisition, is there any part of the business that's exposed to kind of the tariffs that were just recently announced?

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

No. The I-joists are not subject to tariffs.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. All right. Thank you.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

They're not paying tariff now, and they are not subject to the 338 or 301.

[Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Got it. Okay, no, that's helpful. I'll turn it over. Good luck.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Our next question comes from Hamir Patel with CIBC Capital Markets. Your line's open. Hamir, your line is now open.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Just related to Northwood. How do you think about long-term environmental liabilities associated with the pulp business?

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Hamir, can you repeat your question? We only heard about half of it.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Sure, yeah. Pat, in your prepared remarks, you referenced the Q3 restructuring charges you'll recognize related to the Northwood mill. How should we think about longer term environmental liabilities associated with the site?

[Pat Elliott, CFO at Canfor Corporation]

Yeah, Hamir. A lot of that will have to do with what happens to the site in the longer term. At this point, we're just focused on sort of a safe wind down of Northwood Pulp. We'll see, but I think that's quite a ways out in terms of dealing with that. Too early to say yet, Hamir.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay, fair enough. Susan, we've seen one of your peers decide to shrink its corporate presence in B.C. and consolidate functions in the U.S. Just given some of your own portfolio changes, do you see some cost saving opportunities to perhaps do something similar?

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

We have no plans to move our corporate office.

[Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay, great. That's all I had. I'll turn it over.

[Operator]

Thank you. I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Susan for closing remarks. Susan, go ahead.

[Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO at Canfor Corporation]

Thanks, Michelle, and thanks, all, for joining the call, and we'll see you next quarter.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO
• Pat Elliott, CFO
• Stephen Mackie, COO
• Kevin Pankratz, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing

Analysts

• Ben Isaacson, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Sean Steuart, Analyst at TD Cowen
• Ketan Mamtora, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
• Hamir Patel, Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets