West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is indefinitely curtailing its lumber mill in Leola, in Grant County, along with its Huguley oriented strand board mill in Lanett, Alabama, the company announced, as weak housing demand and rising costs continue to squeeze North America's wood products producers. Both curtailments are expected to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026 following orderly wind-downs.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company disclosed the moves alongside its third-quarter results, which showed a net loss of $80 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, on sales of $1.363 billion, according to a West Fraser news release. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported an $80 million profit, or $1.03 per share, in contrast to West Fraser's reported loss. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $38 million, representing just 3% of sales, per the company's release.
The curtailments are expected to strip 500 million square feet of OSB capacity and 225 million board feet of Southern Yellow Pine lumber capacity from West Fraser's annual output. The company said it expects to record a fourth-quarter asset impairment charge of between $200 million and $220 million tied to the shutdowns.
Housing Affordability Named as Key Culprit
West Fraser President and CEO Sean McLaren pointed to continued weakness in demand for wood products used in new-home construction, repair and renovation work as the driving force behind the curtailments. McLaren said housing affordability remained a key constraint on wood-products demand, and that higher energy-related input costs also weighed on the company's results.
According to the company's release, its teams responded to those pressures by running mills to demand, reducing inventory and controlling costs. Rising input costs compounded the pain: resin and wax expenses climbed by about $3 million from the second quarter, while diesel inflation has added roughly $15 per thousand board feet to certain lumber costs since the start of the year, per a report from lesprom.com.
Despite the losses, West Fraser said it ended the third quarter with $1.2 billion of available liquidity after refinancing its term loan into a new $500 million facility maturing in September 2029, per the company's release.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Cuts
The Leola and Huguley curtailments extend a string of capacity reductions West Fraser has made across its lumber and panel operations over the past two years. The company permanently closed its Augusta, Georgia, and 100 Mile House, British Columbia, lumber mills by the end of 2025, moves that were expected to affect roughly 130 and 165 employees, respectively, and strip a combined 300 million board feet of capacity, according to the company's release on those closures.
At the same time, West Fraser said its 2024 indefinite curtailments of lumber mills in Huttig, Arkansas, and Lake Butler, Florida, would become permanent, with those mills dismantled and the sites sold. The Huttig mill, located in Union County, had been closed in 2024. The latest cuts also follow the closure of West Fraser's OSB mill in High Level, Alberta, which the company announced in December 2025 and completed in the second quarter of this year, per lesprom.com's report.
Lumber Market Stays Soft Nationwide
The curtailments arrive as the broader lumber market remains sluggish. Framing lumber prices slipped 0.9% week over week to $494.51 per 1,000 board feet on October 23, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders. The trade group notes that softwood lumber prices have been especially volatile in recent years largely because of increased demand, rising tariffs, supply-chain bottlenecks and insufficient domestic production.
Even if prices stabilize, relief for builders and remodelers tends to lag: the NAHB says it may take at least a few weeks to a couple of months for builders to see price relief after lumber costs decline. The stakes for the broader housing supply chain are significant given how much wood goes into a typical home — the NAHB notes that an average new single-family home uses more than 2,200 square feet of softwood plywood, more than 6,800 square feet of OSB, and roughly 15,000 board feet of framing lumber.
