Boise Cascade saw its net income and sales volume decrease year over year in the second quarter of 2019. The building products distributor generated sales of $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2019, down from $1.4 billion in sales from the second quarter of 2018. Boise Cascade also saw net income decrease 34% year over year (YOY) to $27.7 million in the second quarter, according to the company’s earnings report.
The Boise, Idaho-based company said the headwinds of low commodity products pricing and softer single-family residential starts makes YOY financial comparisons difficult.
“The progress we have made growing our distribution and EWP [engineered wood products] businesses is providing more stability to our earnings during periods of weak commodity pricing,” Tom Corrick CEO of Boise Cascade said in a public statement. “BMD [Building Material Distribution] did a great job generating gross margin dollars in the current environment and continues to make further progress with the integration of recently acquired facilities.”
Wood products sales decreased $91.2 million, or 21%, YOY to $334.3 million in the second quarter of 2019. Weaker market conditions and downtime for facility improvements contributed to the lower wood product sales, according to Boise Cascade. The sale of its hardwood plywood facility in Moncure, N.C., and the permanent closure or sale of three lumber mills and Boise Cascade’s particleboard plant also contributed to the lower sales in the wood product segment.
Building materials distribution sales decreased $116.4 million to $1.1 billion YOY in the second quarter. Commodity sales decreased 25%, general line product sales increased 9%, and sales of engineered wood products decreased less than 1% YOY, according to Boise Cascade. The distributor hopes its acquisition of Birmingham, Ala.-based American Lumber can broaden the company’s product and service offerings and boost building material distribution sales in future quarters.
