Western selected for softwood lumber anti-dumping review

Western Forest Products Inc. announced on Thursday that it has been selected as a mandatory respondent in the antidumping duty administrative review of certain softwood lumber products from Canada. Western was selected, along with seven other companies, under the US department of commerce's new "probability proportional to size" sampling methodology. The review covers the period from May 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005. The company is currently posting antidumping duty deposits at the "all others" rate of 3.78% on the value of its lumber shipments to the United States.

Following the review, we will post antidumping duties at the "company specific" rate determined for Western. The rates of the mandatory respondents are averaged to determine the "all others" rate. We are not able to determine the impact that this review may have on our antidumping duty deposit rate, if any. Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the second largest coastal woodland operator in British Columbia. Principal activities conducted by Western and its subsidiaries include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, value-added remanufacturing and producing NBSK pulp. Over 95% of Western's logging is conducted on government owned timberlands in British Columbia. All of Western's operations, employees and corporate facilities are located in the coastal region of British Columbia and its products are sold in over 25 countries worldwide.