AI Analysis: Lumber production, shipments, and stocks by species, monthly

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's monthly lumber dataset (Table 16100017) covers 144 months of production, shipments, and stocks across 15 Canadian regions and 27 product categories from January 2014 to December 2025, totalling 51,240 rows and 405 unique data series. Canadian total softwood and hardwood production peaked at 6,062.6 thousand cubic metres in March 2017 but has since declined sharply, with December 2025 output of 2,905.2 thousand cubic metres sitting roughly 52% below that peak and well under the long-run monthly average of 4,779.6 thousand cubic metres. Despite this production decline, the data is remarkably stable and consistent, with only one statistical outlier detected across all categories over the full 12-year period.

Key Findings

• Canadian lumber production peaked at 6,062.6 thousand cubic metres in March 2017 and has fallen approximately 52% to 2,905.2 thousand cubic metres by December 2025, well below the 12-year monthly average of 4,779.6 thousand cubic metres.
• The dataset is strongly right-skewed: the median value is just 15.2 thousand cubic metres versus a mean of 479.5, with 25% of all 33,736 valid records reporting a value of zero, reflecting many inactive regional or species combinations.
• Total softwood and hardwood stocks for Canada hold the highest average value in the dataset at 7,221.2 thousand cubic metres, consistently exceeding production and shipment averages and suggesting ongoing inventory accumulation.
• Spruce, Pine, and Fir (SPF) is the dominant lumber species, appearing in the top 10 rankings for stocks, production, and shipments at the national level, while British Columbia is the only province to appear in the top 10 with average softwood and hardwood stocks of 2,869.6 thousand cubic metres.
• The bottom 10 ranked categories are all 'All other softwood, not elsewhere specified' entries from provinces such as Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan, each averaging essentially 0.0 thousand cubic metres, indicating negligible or unreported activity.
• Only 1 statistical outlier was detected across all top NAPCS categories using the IQR method, indicating highly predictable seasonal and trend patterns — even through the COVID-19 period of 2020–2021.
• Values span an extreme range of 0 to 8,727.3 thousand cubic metres with a standard deviation of 1,110.2, yet the IQR of just 383.1 confirms that the vast majority of records cluster in a moderate low-volume range with a small number of very high-volume entries driving the mean upward.