After peaking the past three years, softwood lumber prices finally returned to break-even levels in 2023. Poorly positioned lumber producers closed, reducing North American lumber capacity by 2% after gains in 2022 and 2021. Closures included 9 sawmills with capacities over 100 MMBF. North America’s top 10 softwood lumber firms can produce 36.9 billion board feet of lumber and represent 49% of total North American capacity. Several of these companies closed facilities or reduced production in 2023. West Fraser, the largest softwood lumber producer in North America at 7.0 billion board feet of capacity, slightly ...