Canfor Corporation

Canfor and Canfor Pulp are committed to sustainability throughout our operations. We turn nearly 100% of our fibre into lumber, pulp and green energy.

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Canfor Corporation (Canfor) is a leading Canadian integrated forest products company based in Vancouver, BC, involved primarily in the lumber business, with production facilities in Canada (British Columbia and Alberta) and the United States (North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas), and forest operations in British Columbia and Alberta. Canfor Southern Pine’s corporate office is in Mobile, AL. 

Canfor Corporation holds a 54.8% interest in Canfor Pulp Products Inc. (Canfor Pulp), which is based in Vancouver, BC, and is a leading global producer of pulp, paper and green energy. Canfor Pulp owns and operates four pulp mills in northern British Columbia. Canfor also has a 95% interest in two pellet plants in northern British Columbia – Pacific BioEnergy Corporation holds the remaining 5%. 

At the end of December 2017, Canfor Corporation directly employed 6,331 people.

Canfor Pulp’s three mills in Prince George are among the lowest-cost northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp producers in Canada. They have the annual capacity to produce about 1.1 million tonnes of northern softwood market kraft pulp, 90% of which is bleached to become NBSK. It is the world’s fifth-largest producer of market NBSK. It also has a facility in Taylor with an annual capacity of 220,000 tonnes of bleached chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp.

Canfor Pulp’s specialty paper group produces about 140,000 tonnes of kraft paper from a forest resource with high-strength, fine northern fibres that bond better than almost any other fibres in the world. We have bleached, unbleached and coloured grades.

Canfor’s lumber operations have a current annual production capacity of approximately 6.1 billion board feet of lumber, most of it construction and specialty grade dimension lumber. We have high-quality assets in strong fibre regions and, as a result, a significant proportion of our lumber production comprises premium specialty and high-value products.

Canfor holds approximately 11.7 million cubic metres of annual harvesting rights for our solid wood operations under various forest tenures in Canada located in the interior region of British Columbia and in northern Alberta, and we harvest logs from those tenures to supply our interior lumber operations. Any shortfalls in mill requirements are made up with wood purchased from those areas. Our operations in the United States mostly purchase logs from private land holdings.
 
Canfor’s lumber facilities produce wood chips as a byproduct, and sell these to pulp mills, including Canfor Pulp mills. We harvest pulpwood – logs unsuitable for the production of lumber – from our northern forestry operations, and convert this to chips, which are sold to Canfor Pulp and other pulp producers. Canfor Pulp also has fibre supply agreements with third parties to supplement its supply of wood chips and hog fuel.

We continue to advance our One Canfor model so Canfor and Canfor Pulp can operate as one company, both equally important in the ultimate success of Canfor Corporation. We are advancing the use of technology – including an integrated information management resource for sales, inventory, transportation and the supply chain, and a new platform for human resources. Both companies recognize sustainable benefits from this integration and alignment, especially in the areas of customer service and residual fibre management.

We took steps in 2017 to integrate our newly acquired Canfor Southern Pine operations into the company such as moving to one integrated technology platform; certifying all mills in the US South to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Chain-of-Custody Standard; and looking for ways to contribute to local communities, including donations to technical schools in South Carolina and Arkansas. 

Canfor is committed to being the global leader in supplying diverse, innovative and high-quality wood-based products to our highly valued customers. We work with diverse stakeholders to develop and deliver a vision for sustainable forest management, and have positioned our company as a leading supplier of green energy and environmentally friendly building products.

Our business strategy includes expanding geographical markets, extracting the highest value from our fibre resources, maintaining product quality, attaining world-class supply chain performance, and capitalizing on attractive growth opportunities. We have a strong, enterprise-wide culture of safety, innovation and engagement.   

In 2017, Canfor and Canfor Pulp companies once again were among the BC Business top 100 companies in BC ranked by revenue – Canfor placed #10 and Canfor Pulp #42. Canfor is consistently on the list of BC's top employers – for the latest list we were recognized for encouraging lifelong learning, helping employees plan for life after work and encouraging community involvement, among other things. We were selected for The Career Directory, as one of Canada’s best employers for recent college and university graduates.
 
Canfor and Canfor Pulp are committed to research and development related to forest management, fibre analysis, manufacturing processes, quality control, and product and building systems development. We are active members of key industry research and development organizations, and maintain connections to developments in industry research and technical information through our relationships with various associations, universities, research institutes, suppliers and customers. Canfor Pulp operates a dedicated open innovation centre in Vancouver. 

Both companies maintain an ethical and responsible approach to all business actions, and support a culture of integrity internally and in our relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Our Code of Conduct sets out appropriate conduct by all Canfor employees to ensure our company obeys all domestic and foreign laws and meets our high ethical standards. Our Disclosure Policy provides guidelines on consistent disclosure practices for all company directors, officers and employees. 

Our core values incorporate employee input from all parts of the business to ensure they reflect our business, brand and culture of today. Employees are encouraged, and in some cases required, to report any concerns about violations to the Code of Conduct or Disclosure Policy. The Whistleblowing Policy states that the company will not take or allow any reprisal against an employee who reports violations in good faith.