Dec 09, 2008. /Lesprom.com/. Canadian forestry companies had losses totalling $552 million in the 3Q as the U.S. housing market continued to deteriorate and companies adjusted production in response to weak demand for North American building products, PricewaterhouseCooper says. A PwC report says $230 million in losses during the July-September period came from forestry producers in Western Canada, and $322 million from companies in Eastern Canada. In both parts of the country, losses were up dramatically compared with the 3Q 2007. Eastern Canadian companies reported losses of $47 million in the same period of 2007 while Western companies, which felt the impact of a 13-week forestry workers strike last year, had losses of $132 million for the 3Q 2007. Montreal-based Domtar was the only company of the six largest public forest firms included in the survey in Eastern Canada to report positive and improved earnings in the most recent quarter. Other producers reported that manufacturing cost and pricing improvements were offset by higher raw material, energy and chemical costs. "While prices for certain building products showed improvement at the start of the quarter, increases in inventories and the global financial crisis put negative pressure on prices toward the quarter end," the report stated. The $552 million loss for the companies studied in the third quarter included restructuring costs and asset impairment charges of $302 million compared to $14 million reported a year earlier. There were pre-tax foreign exchange losses of $111 million on the translation of U.S.-dollar denominated debt, compared to gains of $249 million in the 3Q 2007.