The softwood lumber dispute threatens to have repercussions on various transportation modes, particularly trucking. “Our members are saying their business is still okay, even with the softer rates due to mill overcapacity, but they’re worried that if anyone pushes on this wall with more tariffs, there’s nothing to hold it up,” says Dave Earle, the British Columbia Trucking Association’s president and CEO.
Softer US demand is coming at a time of weaker Canadian supply due to the beetle infestation, forest fires, curtailed provincial harvesting in B.C., as well as holding off on cutting in some area until Indigenous rights are legally considered. “So there’s a mill on Vancouver Island, for example, that had to shut down for the balance of the year because it can’t get the necessary wood,” Earle says. “In Prince George, where transportation fees are set for moving timber and pulp, two single-line pulp-mills and one two-line pulp-mill have shut down, each putting out five to seven sawmills – so it’s bleak in a lot of places and the uncertainties around tariffs and duties are making a bad situation so much worse.”
Trucking has already been dealing with the overcapacity that was put in place for the greater demands for deliveries for most everything during the pandemic but has not subsided. Earle says the B.C. government has been doing a lot to build other foreign markets, but it takes a lot of time and effort to change building patterns. The B.C. building code permits mass timber construction of up to 18 storeys as of April 2024 following successful projects that were the first of their kind globally.
While licensed truckers have no restrictions in driving across state or provincial borders, what they can transport can be restricted. “When the economy slows, you see it first with truckers,” Earle adds. While he welcomes the assistance so far announced by the Canadian government, he is hoping that the B.C. government will also do more to refurbish lumber supply and its availability.
In terms of rail services, CPKC has seen its forest product shipments rise this year to date based on revenue ton miles. “CPKC remains laser-focused on what we can control through driving synergies and extended length of haul, which is helping to offset some macro-economic headwinds,” says CPKC spokesperson Terry Cunha. “In addition, through our expanded network and single-line solution, we have seen tremendous lumber growth into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, one of the fastest growing construction markets in the US.”
CN says only that it continues to monitor the situation in close communication with its customers.
At the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, the potential to export more lumber is significant with approximately half of last year’s containers leaving the port empty. “So there remains a lot of capacity to move additional containerized forestry exports,” says Alex Munro, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s senior communications advisor. “However, the sector is typically beholden to freight rates with shippers this year, for example, having prioritized repositioning containers to Asia to be read to ship goods east to get around U.S. tariffs.”
https://www.ajot.com/premium/ajot-trucking-and-other-transport-impacted-by-lumber-dispute