U.S. sawmills produced 23.737 billion board ft. (bbf) of softwood lumber in the first eight months of 2019, a 0.8% drop from the 23.918 bbf produced in the same period last year.
Western U.S. sawmills contributed 9.649 bbf to the eight-month total, down 1.9% from 9.837 bbf last year, while sawmills in the southern U.S. accounted for 12.972 bbf, an increase of 0.1% from last year’s 12.955 bbf.
In August, softwood lumber production was 3.017 bbf, down 6.1% year-over-year from 3.213 bbf, and 1.1% lower than output in July 2019 of 3.050 bbf.
Western sawmills accounted for 1.233 bbf of August’s production, a 3.4% decline from 1.276 bbf last year, but up 2.6% from the previous month’s volume of 1.201 bbf.
Sawmills in the South contributed 1.642 bbf to output in August – down 8.1% from 1.786 bbf a year earlier, and 3.7% below production in July 2019 of 1.705 bbf.
Apparent U.S. softwood lumber consumption in the first eight months was 32.723 bbf, a decline of 0.7% from 32.955 bbf in the same period last year. In August alone, apparent consumption was 4.149 bbf, a drop of 6.7% from last year’s 4.448 bbf, but up 1.7% from 4.081 bbf in July of this year.