Western Forest Products Inc.

During this conference call, Western's representatives may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements can be identified by words like anticipate, plan, estimate, will, and other references to future periods. Although these forward-looking statements reflect management's reasonable beliefs, expectations, and assumptions, they are subject to inherent uncertainties and actual results may differ materially. Thank you for watching. Listeners should exercise caution in relying upon forward-looking statements. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Steven Hofer, President and CEO of Western Forest Products. Mr. Hofer, please go ahead.

Thank you, Gary, and good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to Western Forest Products' 2026 Second Quarter Conference Call. Joining me on the call today is Glen Nontell, our Chief Financial Officer, and Bruce Alexander, our Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Manufacturing. We issued our 2026 second quarter results yesterday. I will provide you with some introductory comments and then ask Glen to take you through our financial results. Bruce will follow with our market outlook section before we open the call to your questions. We saw modest improvements in lumber pricing and seasonal demand in the second quarter. We continue to demonstrate clear progress in advancing our strategic priorities while also solidifying a strong balance sheet to manage through near-term volatility. Since our last call, this has included completing our strategic kiln-drying investments at our value-added division, with the commissioning of the second continuous dry kiln and our thermal kiln. With three highly modern, low-cost continuous dry kilns operating on the BC coast with a capacity of 206 million board feet, Western's investment will support higher margin, value-added kiln-dried lumber production and enable the expansion of our global customer base. In addition, we are also upgrading our autograder technology at our Duke Point planar facility. The new autograder uses AI technology to grade each piece of lumber, resulting in more precision grading than manual grading, leading to higher margin potential. The $4.1 million investment is anticipated to be commissioned in early 2027. This will complement the autograder technology previous deployed in the Duke Point sawmill facility. From an operational perspective, our timberlands group continued to focus on managing costs and log margin opportunities. Harvest volume increased by 35% compared to the same quarter last year due to improved permit approvals and more favorable weather conditions. In manufacturing, we improved our operational uptime to 88% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to 87% in both the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2025. This is an all-time high for Western Force Products' manufacturing sector. In sales and marketing, we continued our customer focus, developing value-added products and programs targeted with the end user in mind. Specialty products comprised 57% of sales in the second quarter of 2026, compared to 52% in the same quarter last year. From a cash flow and balance sheet perspective, we collected the Columbia Vista property insurance proceeds of 22.8 million U.S. dollars in the second quarter and completed the sale of the sawmill site for $14.7 million in July. We look to finalize the Columbia Vista business interruption insurance process in the third quarter, and we continue to advance the $80 million sale of our Stillwater Forest Operations, which is anticipated to close in the second half of 2026. Assuming the completion of all these items, we expect to end the year with a pristine balance sheet. which will be in a net cash position. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our strategy and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We see gradual improvements to lumber markets over the midterm. However, in the near term, due to persistently weak market conditions, high softwood lumber duties and tariffs, and factors relating to the BC operating environment, We plan to curtail our Cowichan-based sawmill for the remainder of 2026. I will now turn it over to Glen to review our key financial results.

Thanks, Steven. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $0.4 million, as compared to $0.5 million in the same period last year. Second quarter EBITDA in 2026 included $2.3 million in share-based compensation due to a 20% increase in our share price. As compared to the prior year, results in the second quarter benefit from improved lumber pricing across many product lines, a strong specialty lumber sales mix, more favorable harvesting conditions, and a strong external log sale mix. This was primarily offset by a 25% reduction in lumber shipments due to softer demand and loss of sales from our Columbia Vista division, and Higher Softwood Lumber Duties and Tariffs with a combined duty and tariff rate of 45% compared to 14% in the same period last year. We closed the second quarter with approximately 67 million board feet of lumber inventory and 622,000 cubic meters of log inventory. Turning to CapEx, our 2026 total CapEx spending is expected to be between 45 to $50 million. which includes approximately $20 million related to two previously announced continuous kilns and one thermal kiln at our value-added division and the auto grader at Duke Point. From a balance sheet perspective, our Q2 ending net debt declined by $14.4 million and liquidity improved compared to the end of the first quarter. We ended the second quarter with a net debt to capitalization ratio of 6% compared to 9% at the end of the first quarter. After the end of the second quarter, we completed the sale of the Columbia Vista sawmill site for $14.7 million U.S. dollars. With the planned sale of our Stillwater Forest Operations, which is anticipated to close in the second half of 2026, we expect to be in a net cash position at the end of the year. Turning to third quarter seasonality, typical third quarters can be challenging operationally, as hot, dry weather can restrict logging activity, reducing harvest volumes, and impacting costs. While we have yet to experience any significant forest fires in our areas of operation, hot and dry conditions may impact harvest levels through the summer. I will now turn it over to Bruce to go through the market outlook.

Thanks, Glen. Turning to our market outlook, North American lumber markets are expected to be relatively stable through most of the third quarter of 2026. Housing affordability continues to be the most significant issue leading to reduced housing demand. elevated interest rates, higher fuel costs, and broader economic uncertainty are contributing to subdued consumer confidence and the reduced housing demand. Despite these headwinds, reduced lumber supply across North America has helped to offset weaker demand and support price stability across key product categories and market segments. Lumber demand in Japan has improved as housing starts gained momentum through the second quarter of 2026. while lumber inventories at the ports decreased. The Japanese lumber market is expected to be stable through the third quarter of 2026. Demand for softwood lumber in China is anticipated to soften in the third quarter of 2026 as seasonal weather and high temperatures reduce construction activities. Overall, we currently have a third quarter order file of approximately 118 million board feet. Steven, that concludes my remarks.

Thanks, Bruce. With that, Gary, we can open the call up to questions.

Thank you. We'll now take questions from telephone lines. If you have a question, please press star 1. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star 2. Please press star 1 at this time if you have a question. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question today comes from Sean Stewart with TD Cowan. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hi, everyone. Steven, I want to start with the log harvest volume gain you saw this quarter. You referenced better weather, but also improved permit approvals. And I'm wondering if you can give some more context on the latter point and the sustainability of that change going forward.

Thanks, Sean. You know, we've had a pretty good start overall in our timberlands operation, starting in Q1 where, you know, early on in January and February, we were able to get into higher elevation areas and more old growth. And that's just continued through Q2. Weather has been very favorable to our operating environment on the BC coast. We've only lost a couple of days related to temperatures that put us in a safety watch zone. From a permitting standpoint, I'm really pleased at where we're at. It just speaks to our team's engagement and the investment we've made in Developing long-term partnerships and long-term relations related to the First Nations in the traditional territories that we operate. So, you know, it's taken us some time, but I'm really pleased at the forward look that we now have on permitting. Lots of work left to do, but, you know, through our planning group, through our First Nations relations group, through our Timberlands Operating Group, all the work we've been doing around integrated resource management plans, the first forest landscape planning plan that was completed here in British Columbia. We're starting to reap the rewards of that investment. So it really speaks to the work that's been going on for the last couple of years and now we're starting to see the benefits of that.

That's great to hear. Thanks for that detail. And you gave some context around your order file headed into the third quarter on the lumber side. Given all the puts and takes you've talked about here, can you give us perspective on the lumber production profile through the second half of the year and how that might translate into the shipment trend in Q3 and Q4?

Yeah, so we've had the Ximena sawmill curtailed since the beginning of the year. That started actually in 2025. We've had Cow Bay curtailed for the majority of Q2. So I think the lumber shipments are going to be fairly similar for Q3, Q4 as what we had here for the first two quarters. What we're doing is that if we see opportunities to increase our volumes, we have the opportunity to restart quickly or to add some incremental hours that are existing facilities that are running. Directionally, I would say they'll be fairly consistent here for the next couple of quarters.

One last one for me, Steven. We asked the same question last quarter, but you've got really good visibility on balance sheet transitioning to net cash and lots of flexibility. Has the management team and the board given updated thoughts to bigger picture growth ambitions, whether it's specific discretionary CapEx projects or or acquisition opportunities, any evolution in the thinking on your appetite on that front?

Yeah, I would say today that, you know, we've worked incredibly hard to put our balance sheet in this position. We're going to continue to be very disciplined as we assess opportunities, whether they're here in British Columbia or in different countries. Geographic Jurisdictions. We have a very clear strategic plan with strategic priorities. We know that our cost structure inside of our manufacturing facilities is too high and everything that we're doing is focused on reducing that. So when I think about the next phase of strategic capital, That we would look to deploy. It would really be around addressing some of these inherent cost structure challenges that we have on the manufacturing side. So we have a modest investment plan that we've previously talked about inside of our engineered wood facilities in Washington State. We continue to be encouraged by the results we're seeing on the mass timber side. In North America and the adoption of that building system and we plan to move forward with that investment as we go into 2027. So I would say directionally, we continue to look at opportunities as they present themselves, but we're very much aware of some of the internal challenges that we have and that will need to get addressed. So I would view that as our initial priority, Sean. That's great detail. Okay, that's all I have.

Thanks very much, guys.

Thanks, Sean. The next question is from Ben Isaacson with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Just two questions from me. The first one is on Cowichan Bay. So you've curtailed for the balance of $26 million. What exactly do you need to see to restart that mill, and can you talk about risk of permanent closure?

Yeah, I won't comment on the second question. I will comment, though, on the first question. So the Cowichan-based sawmill is primarily focused on western red cedar, and the log profile that we consume there is... A combination of both small diameter chip and saw and then kind of medium diameter gang cedar. And, you know, clearly the key and largest market for knotty cedar that that mill produces is in the United States. And so what would we need to see? You know, we've run into, I would call this a ceiling. and our ability to increase prices to compensate for the current 45% tariffs. So what we would need to see is a meaningful reduction in duty and tariff that allows us to be competitive in that key market to sell a naughty finished product for Western Red Cedar decking and, you know, Soffit and Sidings and those type of product lines. So I guess the short answer is, you know, a negotiated settlement to the current softwood lumber agreement and the Section 232 tariffs that we currently face.

That's super helpful. I appreciate that. Next question is on these kiln investments, these value-added investments. Can you just talk about... The EBITDA uplift or margin improvement or IRR, how should we think about what you're seeking to earn on the capital deployment?

Sure, maybe I'll speak to it at a very high level and then I'll turn it over to Glen and Bruce. Directionally, what we're doing here is we're increasing our overall Thank you very much. at high level, that's what we're doing. And then we're shutting, we're essentially have shut down all of our high cost batch kilns that we're currently being used. But Glen and Bruce, maybe some additional color from you gentlemen.

Yeah, sure. On the CDKs as Steven mentioned, not only is it a cost reduction ploy, but we now have enough capacity to dry 100% of our dryable fiber, which we did not have prior to this investment. So we're now in that position. The other thing that we've seen with this new technology and the control on the drying process is a significant uptick in the outturns of the products coming out of the mill, which is adding significant value to our product mix as well.

And maybe Ben, just from a return perspective, obviously internally, you know, we set return thresholds at greater than 20% IRRs. I'd say that all these kiln projects are well in excess of that, probably well in excess of 40% overall relative to the capital cost.

That's great. Thank you guys for that. And then if I can, just one last one. I'm not Very familiar with how these title claims work on your tenure. Can you just kind of explain, are there more claims that could pose a risk versus the one that you guys talked about? Or how do we think about that?

Well, we don't have any specific title claims being litigated with any of our existing tree farm licenses. We have a forest license out in Nootka Sound. It's relatively small and that is part of the New Chatelet litigation. But that's the only impact at this point in time that we have on any of our volume coming off of TFLs and or forest licenses.

I understand. That makes sense. And so just to be clear, you don't see any risk right now to anything else being challenged?

I don't.

Okay. That's great. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Great. Thanks, Ben. The next question is from Matthew McKellar with RBC. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'd like to follow up a bit on your comments in response to Sean's question. I just ask if there's any more detail you can share around your plans at Fruit Valley. I think you talked about new fabrication machines related to glulam beams, but also evaluating opportunities to modernize and consolidate glulam facilities in the region at Fruit Valley. Can you just give a bit more color on how these initiatives are progressing and maybe what demand signals you're seeing from the mass timber market at this point, please?

Yeah, thanks, Matt. This is a pretty exciting area of our business, but it is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. But we do view it as a strategic and a core piece of our business as we go forward. So when we bought the Calvert company, Calvert had two facilities that they manufactured glulam beams at. and as part of the Columbia Vista manufacturing footprint, there were two separate locations. There was the Columbia Vista sawmill and then the Columbia Vista kilns and planer. That's called Fruit Valley. And so our strategic plan has us consolidating the two facilities that we currently are at, one in Washougal, Washington, one in Vancouver, Washington, to the Fruit Valley facility that's in Vancouver, Washington. And we will utilize some of the existing kilns that are there to purchase rough green lamb stock. Those are state-of-the-art low-cost kilns. We will utilize the planer in the in the manufacturing process as well. And we own the facility free and clear. So it's really an opportunity for us to move from two facilities to one no longer on lease property and leverage a really nice manufacturing complex that is there. So we have the Hundigger fabrication machine on order. That allows us to start fabricating our glulam beams and that will happen in the first quarter of 2027. We've added some additional sales engineering resources as well as technical design resources and we continue to participate in that mass timber building segment For the glulam mass timber beams, so columns and headers that are complementary to others providing CLT. So we don't envision ourselves being in the CLT business, but we do want to be in the mass timber glulam business that requires us to participate in design, engineering, fabrication, including and all the hardware that goes with it. We're pretty excited about the growth prospects, especially in the Pacific Northwest. If you think about where the subject matter expertise resides with respect to mass timber architecture and design and specification, between Seattle and Portland, it's heavily concentrated in that region. We're developing relationships with large general contractors, with specifiers, and we're winning some jobs, which is pretty exciting. It's an area of our business, again, that is not huge, but we see it as an opportunity for us to continue to learn and grow and ideally grow. strategically grow that in perhaps a couple of different geographic jurisdictions.

That's great. Thanks for all the detail there. If I could ask one more on capital projects, we'd be curious also to hear a bit more detail on the auto grader upgrade at Duke Point. I think that MSR grader dates to just a few years back. Is this upgrade using technology that wasn't available a few years ago? Could you help us understand how it complements what you have already and Thank you. Sure.

So as you know, the auto grading technology has been around for a number of years. When we put the first auto grader in in the Duke Point sawmill, it really allowed us to start separating out rough green specialty grades inside the sawmill and that had a had an immediate payback and I think it significantly exceeded our expectations both from a grade recovery, productivity, lower costs and has just been a great project. The planer mill did have or does have a older outdated auto grading technology but it's at end of life and it still required us to have a significant amount of of our team members manually grading lumber. And so the new platform we're putting in, again, it's proven, it's tested. We're working with the market leader in North America. It has the most advanced AI platform that sits on top of the software. And we expect it to be very complementary to the previous investment on the MSR and essentially is, I'm not trying to simplify it, but it is a plug and play operating platform that is very complementary to the one we already have in the sawmill. So it leverages all the investment we've previously made both on hardware, software and people and we're pretty optimistic that this will again exceed our Internal Return Hurdles. So, pretty excited about the project.

Great. Very helpful. Thanks very much. And just one quick modeling one for me. Apologies if I missed it, but on the Columbia Vista site sale, do you expect much of a tax impact? What do you expect net proceeds to look like? Thank you.

Yeah, Matt, it's Glen. So between the property insurance proceeds and the sale of the property, we expect the tax impact to be about 5 million Canadian, which would not be payable until 2027.

Okay, thanks very much for all the help.

I'll turn it back.

Thanks, Matt. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Hofer for any closing remarks.

Well, thanks everyone for joining our call today. We appreciate your continued interest in our company, and we will look forward to our next call in November. Have a great day.

The conference is now concluded. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.