With the acquisition of the Angelina Forest Products sawmill, West Fraser, the world’s biggest sawmill group, is expanding its presence on the US lumber market. Also, the Canadian group now has an annual production capacity of 11.15 million m³.
Canfor, also a Canadian company, follows in second place. In 2020, its subsidiary Vida took over Bergs Timber’s Swedish sawmills, raising the possible annual output to 10.73 million m³. US group Weyerhaeuser is in third place with 8.32 million m³ a year.
North American companies Interfor and Sierra-Pacific also grew massively. In 2021, the former took over four sawmills from Georgia Pacific and the Eacom Timber Corporation. This brings the sawmill production capacity to 7.86 million m³ a year. With the takeover of Seneca, Sierra-Pacific’s possible annual output reached 5.38 million m³.
In Europe, it was Binderholz which recorded the biggest growth. After the takeover of British company BSW, the Tyrolean company can now produce 4.8 million m³ of softwood lumber a year. Stora Enso’s possible annual output is 4.88 million m³.
Other Central European companies which made it in the Top 20 are Pfeifer Group (2.2 million m³/yr), HS Timber Group (2.2 million m³), Rettenmeier group (2.21 million m³) and Mayr-Melnhof Holz (2.05 million m³).
Data were collected by Canadian consulting company Russ Taylor Global in collaboration with the Holzkurier (information on European companies).
| N. | Company | Headquarters | Total in million m³ |
Global share in % | Total in billion BF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity: >1,6 million m³ (>1 billion Bf, nominal) | |||||
| 1 | West Fraser (+Angelina)* | Canada | 11.15 | 2.9% | 6.95 |
| 2 | Canfor (+schwedische Tochterunternehmen) | Canada | 10.73 | 2.8% | 6.69 |
| 3 | Weyerhaeuser | USA | 8.32 | 2.2% | 5.19 |
| 4 | Interfor (+EACOM+4 Georgia Pacific mills)* | Canada | 7.86 | 2.0% | 4.90 |
| 5 | Sierra-Pacific (+Seneca)* | USA | 5.38 | 1.4% | 3.35 |
| 6 | Stora Enso | Finland | 4.88 | 1.3% | 2.07 |
| 7 | binderholz (+Klausner+BSW)* | Austria | 4.80 | 1.2% | 2.03 |
| 8 | Resolute FP | Canada | 4.75 | 1.2% | 2.96 |
| 9 | Georgia-Pacific* | USA | 4.13 | 1.1% | 2.57 |
| 10 | Hampton | USA | 3.09 | 0.8% | 1.93 |
| 11 | Arauco | Chile | 3.00 | 0.8% | 1.27 |
| 12 | Segezha Group (+IFR)* | Russia | 3.00 | 0.8% | 1.27 |
| 13 | Tolko | Canada | 2.62 | 0.7% | 1.64 |
| 14 | Pfeifer Holz | Austria | 2.20 | 0.6% | 0.93 |
| 15 | HS Timber Group | Austria | 2.20 | 0.6% | 0.93 |
| 16 | SCA Timber | Sweden | 2.15 | 0.6% | 0.91 |
| 17 | Rettenmeier Holz | Germany | 2.12 | 0.6% | 0.90 |
| 18 | Moelven Group | Norway | 2.11 | 0.5% | 0.89 |
| 19 | Mayr-Melnhof Holz | Austria | 2.05 | 0.5% | 0.87 |
| 20 | Södra Timber | Sweden | 2.00 | 0.5% | 0.85 |
| 21 | Idaho Forest Group* | USA | 1.96 | 0.5% | 1.22 |
| 22 | JD Irving | Canada | 1.93 | 0.5% | 1.20 |
| 23 | PotlatchDeltic | USA | 1.72 | 0.4% | 1.07 |
| 24 | Setra Group | Sweden | 1.70 | 0.4% | 0.72 |
| 25 | GreenFirst (+RYAM)* | Canada | 1.69 | 0.4% | 1.06 |
| 26 | Ilim Timber | Russia | 1.65 | 0.4% | 0.70 |
| Total: Top 26 | 99.2 | 25.7% | 55.1 | ||
| Global production in 2020 | 385 | 163 | |||
