Good morning, my name is Joanna and I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to Canfor and Canfor Pulp's Fourth-Quarter Analyst Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. During this call, Canfor and Canfor Pulp'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 companies would like to point out that this call will include forward-looking statements, so please refer to the press releases for the associated risks of such statements. I will now let you turn the meeting over to Mr. Don Kayne, Canfor Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mr. Kayne.
All right, thank you. Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the Canfor and Canfor Pulp Q4 2023 Results Conference Call. I'm going to make a few comments before I turn things over to Kevin Edgson, Canfor's Pulp President and Chief Executive Officer, and Pat Elliott, Chief Financial Officer of Canfor Corporation and Canfor Pulp, and our Senior Vice President of Sustainability. In addition, we are joined by Kevin Pankratz, our Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Before talking about our results, I'd like to begin by acknowledging our dedicated employees around the globe who have worked relentlessly to navigate the challenging marketing environment of 2023, to continue to improve our competitiveness, and to deliver on our strategic priorities. Canfor's achievements are only possible through the abilities and commitment of our people, and I'm extremely proud of the resilience they demonstrate every day.
2023 was a year of significant volatility. In addition to very difficult lumber markets, we also experienced extremely high log costs, reduced shipping volumes, and an extremely difficult operating environment, particularly in British Columbia, where conditions have been further exacerbated by a lack of access to economic fiber. This led to a series of difficult decisions taken to create a more sustainable operating footprint by optimizing and aligning our manufacturing capacity in British Columbia with the available long-term supply of economic fiber. Production at our BC operations was reduced by a total of 750 million board feet in 2023 through the permanent closure of our Chetwynd sawmill and temporary closure of our Houston sawmill as we looked to firm up plans going forward. Late in 2023, we also announced a fiber-driven temporary curtailment at our Polar sawmill, which began in January of 2024.
The reconfiguring of Canfor's operating portfolio in British Columbia underscores our commitment to fulfill our smaller but stronger operating footprint. We regret the impact that these closures and curtailments have had on our employees, our First Nations partners, small businesses, contractors, and communities. I'd also like to thank the United Steelworkers Union for their partnership supporting our employees through the transition. 2023 was also a devastating wildfire season, with both BC and Alberta setting wildlife or wildfire severity records. First and foremost, we recognize the lives tragically lost and extend our appreciation to the BC and Alberta Wildfire Services, emergency responders, and the many volunteers who kept people, communities, and infrastructure safe while helping to preserve provincial forest resources. The impact of wildfires on available timber supply is best mitigated by expedited salvage harvesting.
We have had solid success with this in our Alberta operations, while in British Columbia, the slow approval process has resulted in a slower salvage operation. We will continue to work collaboratively with the BC government, First Nations, and forest stakeholders in an effort to increase the supply of economic fiber. The challenges of 2023 underscore the importance and value of Canfor's globally diversified supply and customer base through our operating footprint in the U.S., Europe, and Alberta, while maintaining a smaller but stronger presence in BC. Our diversified business portfolio creates resilience to changing market dynamics and fluctuations in demand, giving us access to new global markets and the resources, flexibility, and reliability to consistently provide our customers with competitive, high-quality products. Despite the downcycle we're currently experiencing, we have made considerable progress on several strategic initiatives in 2023.
Construction was complete on our first state-of-the-art greenfield facility in DeRidder, Louisiana. It began operation in Q1 2023 and continues to outperform our startup expectations. Development of our Axis, Alabama second greenfield project is on budget and scheduled to start up at Q4 2024. Similarly, our brownfield project at the Urbana, Arkansas facility is progressing well. The $130 million investment will increase production capacity there by 115 million board feet and improve manufacturing flexibility to accommodate additional high-value products. At our European operations in October, we closed on the strategic acquisition of a small value-added facility, an Ingarps, and announced an investment of approximately $85 million at Vida's Bruza sawmill, which will expand production from 175 million board feet to 240 million board feet.
Turning to our financial results, and due to the ongoing affordability issues related to overall inflation and interest rate levels, our industry experienced a sharp decline in global lumber prices in 2023. Notwithstanding market dynamics and challenges in British Columbia, we generated solid financial results in Europe and the U.S. South in 2023, again highlighting the value of our diversification strategy. Despite the significant capital investment made in 2023, our balance sheet remains strong with over CAD 350 million of net cash at the end of December. With our smaller but stronger footprint in British Columbia and the organic growth initiatives in the U.S. and Sweden, we anticipate a significant reduction in our performance cost structure, increased production capacity, and increasing geographic diversification.
While lumber prices are anticipated to remain under pressure in the short term, our strategy is supported by the strong underlying market fundamentals over the medium to long term. While we are prepared to remain patient until the right opportunities present themselves, our balance sheet strength will support various external growth initiatives as we look to further grow our lumber business globally. With that, I will now turn it over to Kevin to provide an overview of Canfor Pulp.
Thank you, Don, and good morning, everyone. 2023 was a challenging year for Canfor Pulp, with our results reflecting weak global pulp pricing and the impact of extensive sawmill curtailments due to weak lumber market conditions and the lack of economically available fiber. As a result of persistent fiber supply challenges, we permanently closed our Taylor facility in 2023 and made the difficult decision to close the pulp line at our Prince George Pulp and Paper Mill in April of the year. I'd like to thank our employees for their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to safety as we responded to the external pressures facing our business. While these decisions were not taken lightly, they were required to support the long-term sustainability of Canfor Pulp. Looking ahead, we remain focused on improving our operating performance and cost structure while optimizing the available fiber supply.
Turning to our financial results, following the restart of Northwood in October, we saw a significant improvement in productivity rates at both our pulp mills, which supported improved results in the fourth quarter. As previously mentioned, we have identified a significant capital reinvestment plan at all our mills to further support productivity and reliability. Though we remain committed to this recapitalization, the timing and magnitude of spend is still to be determined and will be completed as market financial circumstances allow. As such, capital spending in 2024 will likely remain modest. I will turn it over to Pat to provide an overview of our financial results.
Thanks, Kevin, and good morning. The Canfor and Canfor Pulp fourth quarter and 2023 annual results were released yesterday afternoon. In my comments this morning, I'll speak to the fourth quarter financial highlights, a summary of which is included in our overview slide presentation located in the Investor Relations section of Canfor's website. Our lumber business generated an operating loss of CAD 162 million in the fourth quarter, which included a CAD 30 million recovery of a previously recorded write-down of inventory in Western Canada and a non-cash duty expense of CAD 82 million related to our anti-dumping duty accrual rate. Adjusting for these non-cash items, our lumber business generated an operating loss of CAD 111 million in the fourth quarter. These results reflect significant losses associated with our BC operations due to weak lumber pricing and persistently high log costs as we continue to be faced with challenges accessing economically viable fiber.
Our U.S. South operations saw a sharp decline in earnings in the fourth quarter, led principally by an 18% decline in the Southern Yellow Pine 2x6 benchmark lumber price quarter-over-quarter. Our European operations contributed $16 million in cash earnings in the fourth quarter, with increased production and shipments partly offsetting the impact of lower pricing. In 2023, our European operations contributed approximately $150 million in cash earnings, reinforcing the value of our diversification efforts over the last several years. Canfor Pulp generated an operating loss of $15 million in the fourth quarter, which included an $11 million recovery of a previously recorded inventory write-down. On an adjusted basis, Canfor Pulp generated an operating loss of $26 million in the fourth quarter, an improvement of $25 million quarter-over-quarter.
These results largely reflect a moderate improvement in global pulp pricing and a 20% increase in pulp production in the fourth quarter. As Kevin mentioned, following Northwood's challenging restart in October, our pulp mills benefited from an improved operating rate through the balance of Q4. At the end of the fourth quarter, Canfor Pulp had net debt of $86 million and $147 million of available liquidity, of which $80 million was restricted for use towards future reinvestment in Northwood's recovery boiler number one. On a consolidated basis, capital expenditures were approximately $172 million in the fourth quarter, including approximately $22 million for Canfor Pulp. Capital spending totaled $587 million in 2023, of which $61 million was for Canfor Pulp. We anticipate capital spending of approximately $400 million in the lumber segment in 2024, including remaining spend on our Alabama greenfield and various organic growth initiatives in the U.S.
South and Sweden. For Canfor Pulp, we are currently forecasting capital spend of CAD 40 million in 2024, including capitalized maintenance. In addition, we anticipate Canfor will continue to allocate a modest amount of capital to opportunistically repurchase shares throughout the year. With that, Don, I'll turn the call back to you.
All right, thanks, Pat. And with that, operator, we're now ready to take questions from the panelists.
Thank you. We will now take questions from financial analysts. If you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your receiver and then press star one. If at any time you wish to cancel your question, please press star two. Please press star one now if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. First question comes from Ketan Mamtora at BMO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, Don, Pat, and team. First question, on the European lumber business, can you talk about trends you are seeing thus far in 2024? We saw a pretty big drop in Q4 lumber EBITDA. Can you talk to us sort of the price trends that you are seeing in Europe?
Sure. Hi, Ketan. It's Kevin here. Actually, it was just over in Europe there last week, so your timing is good. Actually, for the first quarter, we're actually seeing improved pricing for a lot of the European markets and in other markets as well, like in the MENA markets and the Asian markets in which they serve. A lot of it in Europe is not necessarily predicated on increased demand, like increased construction activity, but rather very low inventories in the field and the need to replenish. So we are actually seeing improved pricing, and we're just waiting to see how that will continue into Q2.
One thing I'll maybe we might say two, Kevin, because I know you've been working on this too. The one thing that's worth mentioning is that in Europe, where we don't have everywhere else, you don't have to the same degree in North America, is flexibility too on markets. And so you look at Kevin talked about Middle East, North Africa, you got Australia, you got Asia, and you got North America and a number of other areas as well. So that's one of the advantages that we do have in Europe that we don't see to the same degree anyway in North America. And with having those kind of options, it really allows you to continue to maximize the revenues you're looking forward. And we're seeing that and continue to see that. And just wanted to add that, maybe.
Great. No, that's very helpful. So Kevin, given what you just said in terms of low inventories and pickup in activity, how do you expect that to impact imports into the U.S.? Would you expect it to kind of be at the levels that we've seen here in the last little bit? Do you expect it to go up, go down? Any thoughts there?
Yeah, Ketan, I would say that we're definitely seeing for the first quarter lower shipments. You're seeing less inventory at the docks in Europe, as Don expressed and I mentioned to you. There are actually pretty good options for them currently in the quarter. And it also takes them a bit of a lead time. It's not like North America where you can react pretty quick. They have to plan their supply chains, get stock available to compare to the docks, and then ship. So if we're going to see any kind of increased shipments, it's probably going to be more of a Q2 play, but a lot's going to have to develop by then to see what's going on with currencies and with demand and pricing and other options.
Overall, I would just say our view was that we'd be trending lower than last year European shipments into North America.
Got it. No, that's very helpful. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sean Stewart from TD. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Question on the CapEx plan for 2024. You guys referenced the Alabama, Arkansas, and Swedish sawmill projects, but didn't reference the Houston rebuild. Just any updated thoughts on that project and whether BC Land Act legislation, broader regulatory friction in the province, has any bearing on your commitment to reinvesting in BC? Any comments there, Don?
Yeah, for sure, Sean. Maybe I'll take that one just quickly here. So just to start with, in terms of Houston, I guess what I would say at this point, it's still progressing. At this point, we're working through some of the environmental permitting that has to happen, and there's some engineering being also done at the same time. I guess, second part of your comments there, what we're also doing in conjunction with that at the same time, and partly because of the Land Act, but partly just overall in British Columbia and some of the uncertainties that we spoke about before, we're just continuing to monitor the policy environment here in BC, and we'll continue to do that as we look forward. In terms of the Land Act, I mean, as you know, that was canceled.
The amendments that they were proposing have been, at least at this time anyway, canceled. So we'll see what happens down the road here. So that's maybe all I can say at this point.
Okay. Just maybe more to the point, the $400 million of CapEx allocated to lumber in the plan, how much of that would be for Houston?
Yeah, very little, if any, just a small amount, just the engineering part, which is minuscule, not even worth talking about.
Okay. And then more broadly on the CapEx plan, the overall guidance is 25% reduction year-over-year. Given the balance sheet strength you have, no liquidity constraints. Some of your competitors have noted pressure on organic project returns as being a concern and then a reason for them curbing their CapEx plans. Any directional commentary on the lesser spend this year? Is it just a function of some of the bigger projects already being wrapped up? Any broader thoughts on the CapEx plan?
Yeah, no, not really. I mean, I think the main points that you might be interested in is the strategic projects that we have identified and we've been clear about, I think, from day one, they're all on schedule. We haven't tempered them whatsoever. So I think there's always things you need to look at all the time, and you got opportunities to adjust, and we've sort of done that. But in terms of any impact on what we're trying to accomplish here from a strategic standpoint in growth and modernizing our sawmills, there's no change whatsoever. And if we need further flexibility down the road, we've got it. We've talked about that before, and that still exists today.
Yeah, understood. Okay, Don, that's all I have for now. Thank you very much.
All right. Thanks, Sean. Take care.
Thank you. Next question comes from Hamir Patel at CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Don, given the various projects you have underway in the South and current lumber markets, would you still anticipate shipment growth out of the Southern platform in 2024?
Did you say shipment growth, Hamir?
Yeah, lumber shipments.
Yeah, for sure. And as these operations come online, we'll definitely see that from that. And also, if you go back, some of the organic capital that we spent over the last 2, 3 years too in terms of modernizing our business, you heard us talk about Camden and a few other operations. All of that is benefiting us. So we will see more next year or this year, excuse me, for sure.
Okay. And Don, are you able to maybe quantify what kind of uplift you might expect?
Yeah, it's so hasty, Mary.
I mean, this is going to be a lot of it's wrapping up late in the year. So I mean, I think we're shipping sort of in that 4.3-4.4 in Q4. And so it'll be a little lift from there, but it's not going to be massive. The bulk of it's going to be in 2025 and beyond.
Great. Thanks, Pat. Just the last question I had was on Europe. We've seen some of your peers that operate in Central Europe benefit from temporarily much lower fiber costs. Don, just given your own experience with the Beetle in BC, how do you see the relative cost position of your Swedish assets playing out over the next couple of years just as maybe fiber costs reset in Central Europe?
Yeah. I mean, I think there are two distinct areas too. You're talking to Central Europe. There's really a lot of costs that come down, but the log quality there too isn't nearly as good as what we see in Northern Europe, for sure. So that's a big differentiating factor to start with. However, saying that, in Europe, you're in Northern Europe and especially in Sweden and Finland too, I guess, for that matter, definitely log costs have gone up. But the one thing that we also talk about on a regular basis, we've got lots of flexibility there in terms of the value-added contribution that we're able to deliver up in those mills and quite significantly more than what you typically see in Central Europe. And that's a huge offset and a huge advantage.
It's the strategic reason why we've chosen Northern Europe to really focus on versus Central Europe.
Okay. Great. Thanks, Don. That's all I had. I'll turn over.
All right. Thanks, Hamir. Yeah.
Thank you. Next question comes from Ben Isaacson from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Good to be on. First question is on European imports into the U.S. You talked about prices rising this quarter in Europe. How much more do they have to rise before net backs no longer make sense to export to the U.S.? I'm just also thinking about higher freight rates as well.
Kevin, you want to take a flyer on that one?
I'll take a bit of a flyer there. It really varies. It depends on exchange rates, and not a lot of European mills 100% can actually switch and chase after the U.S. market, whether they have the grade stamps or they have the planing and finishing capacity. But it really does vary. I don't know. It could be in that $50-$100 range, potentially, or per MBF.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Second question is, given the weather that we've seen in BC so far this quarter, have there been challenges building log inventory as you think about rolling into Q2?
Absolutely. For sure, the weather's been a particularly mild winter, for sure, and we're feeling the effects of that. We've had to do a cool spell too, which has had issues too. Generally speaking, overall, though, log inventories are low compared to where they ought to be and normally are for this time of year. That will definitely have an impact here as we move into the spring.
Last one for me is visibility into channel inventory of the whole supply chain. Can you talk about how lumber inventories have evolved quarter-over-quarter to the extent that you have any visibility beyond yourselves?
Yeah, sure. From a customer perspective, I would say it's lower than historical norms there have been. Even when you look at inventories at the ports, we're starting at a much lower position than this time last year. So if we do see a little bit of pickup in demand, there's just going to be a little bit more tension than we would have had this time last year. But overall, I would say inventories are more or less balanced right now for our pros in that segment there, but they are lean and tight, and they've got a good book of business going into March, April. So I just don't think there's any surplus inventory in the market at all.
If you really look at it too, Ben, if you look at overall R&R, at least from our standpoint, it's been better than we think, Kevin, and I'm sure. You look at the percentage of single-family housing; that's remained pretty strong. Actually, it's probably increased, and we know the multiplier there in terms of lumber use versus multifamily. So that's been actually pretty good. And then you factor in there's been a lot of downtime overall, and notwithstanding all the numbers regionally, but there's been a significant decrease in British Columbia, for sure. There's been some downtime in Alberta. There's been lots of downtime even in some of the parts of Europe. So when you really think about it over time here, logically, you'd think that it will create some pressure on prices here at some point. That's certainly what we believe.
Very last one for me is oddsmakers have Trump winning the presidency. And what could that mean for Canfor if we see Trump winning in terms of what policies he's talked about?
Yeah, I think if I hear your question correctly, we don't really see a lot of change there whatsoever. I mean, we're focused on it now, and we'll focus on the future. We don't see any change whatsoever at this point anyway.
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Before we take our last question in the queue, as a reminder, if anyone has any questions, please press star one. Next question comes from Matthew McKellar at RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I think you talked about seeing yourselves as continuing to have capacity to invest in some global growth here. Could you just give us an update on what you're seeing in terms of the M&A landscape at present?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's something, as we talked about kind of regularly, Matt, every quarter. Certainly, Europe and the U.S. is the key areas that we focus on and continue to look at. But we've been super patient, and we'll continue to be patient here. And in a lot of cases, what we looked at a couple of years ago or less today even, but right now, we're just to continue to keep our eye on that at the same time. And really, at this point, unless it's a significantly strategic opportunity, we'll probably pass right now, right? And we still think there's a ways to go in terms of being more competitive on the M&A front here. So at this point, we're just watching it, super careful, super disciplined, super thoughtful.
Great. Thanks. That's all from me. I'll turn it back.
Okay. Thanks, Matt.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Ketan Mamtora at BMO. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I'm just curious what kind of demand trends you are seeing in some of your key end markets. I'm especially curious about repair and remodeling. Can you talk to sort of what kind of trends you are seeing there?
Sure, Kevin. Why don't you take a shot?
Sure. Yeah. So on the R&R market there, we're still pretty optimistic with the drivers that are supporting that. The age of the U.S. homes is significant, and that's driving really positive takeaway there. And you got to think for the first six months of 2023, they were at a very high pace running, and then they tempered off for the back half. But when we're tracking Q1 of this year, they were actually tracking at a pretty good pace like we saw in 2023. So the outlook looks fairly positive. And they're also well-positioned. They're also going after a bit more of that pro business, and they're continuing to invest in that segment there. And so I think they're well on track there. As Don mentioned there too, we're seeing our pro segment being quite active.
As I mentioned earlier, most of them got a pretty good book of business into March and April. January was a really tough start weather-wise, and it really did impact our R&R takeaway early in January and the Texas markets. Those are all rebounding quite strong. I think we're seeing some positive trends. A long ways to go to get prices where we need them to be, but we are seeing some encouraging trends.
Understood. So Kevin, just so that if I understood you correctly, so January was off to a slower start, but you are seeing kind of now activity come back as we move through kind of February and into March. And right now, volumes are kind of flattish year-over-year. Is that the right read?
Yeah. I mean, January was a slower start, but we're more than making up for that start into the balance of the quarter.
Understood. Okay. And then just one last question. I mean, recognizing that it has been a difficult and challenging environment, what is your approach towards kind of managing production as we move through the first quarter? And if you can talk to sort of any temporary curtailments you are taking, whether in terms of shifts or just the utilization rate, that will be helpful.
Real simple. We just want to we will continue to match the production levels with market demand and availability of economic fiber, period. And that's been the way we've been kind of operating for a while, and we'll continue to do that and keep our eyes on that. And we won't be afraid, though. If we have to take some downtime, we will.
Okay. That's very helpful, Don. I'll jump back in the queue. Good luck.
Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Take care. Good talk to you.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I'll now turn it over to Don Kayne for closing comments. Go ahead, Mr. Kayne.
Oh, thanks. Thanks, operator, and thanks for everyone for joining the call and for your interest in Canfor. We certainly appreciate that and look forward to talking to you at the end of the next quarter.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.