Canfor and Canfor Pulp sell lumber, pulp and paper products in markets throughout North America and overseas through sales offices in Vancouver; Myrtle Beach, SC; Mobile, AL; Tokyo, Japan; and Shanghai, China. We service other markets in Asia and Europe through relationships with sales agents and a cooperative agreement with UPM Pulp.
While our largest market for lumber is the United States, we are shipping more to offshore markets, especially China where there is growing acceptance of North American wood products for construction. Most of the lumber destined for North America is shipped by truck and rail, while the vast majority of products sold offshore are transported by container ship and, in the case of pulp export, breakbulk cargo.
In 2014, we launched Project Edge, a new advanced technology program that will increase our forecasting ability and improve supply chain performance. It will help us stay in step with the growth of our company and our customers, and provide the real-time tracking information our customers want.
Canfor’s Lumber Sales Volumes By Market
Canfor Pulp has two wholly owned subsidiaries that market pulp – Canfor Pulp Japan Corporation in Japan and Canfor Pulp and Paper Europe SA in Europe. Premier 1 Papers, a sales and marketing partnership owned equally by Canfor Pulp and Tolko Marketing and Sales Ltd., offers a full range of high-quality bleached and natural extensible papers as well as a line of bleached specialty paper produced by our Prince George Pulp and Paper operation and Tolko’s mill in The Pas, Manitoba.
Through a cooperative sales and marketing agreement called Fibre United, Canfor Pulp and UPM Pulp provide customers with a wide range of products. Sean Curran, our vice president of sales and marketing, describes it as unrivalled in terms of product offering. “We provide for six grades of market pulps, produced from eight mills on three different continents, and servicing the four major markets of China, the United States, Japan and Europe,” he says. “This cooperation targets a total fibre solution for our customers and through unique refining strategies, we provide for tailored technical fibre optimization for our marketplace.”
We work hard to gain a better understanding of customers in markets around the globe by meeting with them, and inviting them to visit our mills and forests. Through TEMAP, our technical marketing program, Canfor Pulp production, innovation and sustainability staff contact customers directly. Through discussions, presentations and seminars, we learn more about customer needs so we can serve them better.
Canfor Pulp Sales Volumes By Market
In 2014, we were once again invited to join staff from Wing – one of our largest Japanese customers – to mark the start of their new financial year. We joined BC’s Premier in a trade mission to India in October 2014, and participated in a BC government trade mission to China, Korea and Japan later in the year.
We understand our customers’ products and operations so we can contribute to their success. Canfor Pulp partners with internationally recognized experts to deliver training on refiner fundamentals, and to support tissue customer optimization studies. We provide secure product delivery by co-ordinating with transportation partners worldwide.
In 2014, we were named vendor of the year by 84 Lumber, one of the largest building materials companies in the United States.