West Fraser Timber (NYSE:WFG) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
West Fraser Timber Co Ltd reported a negative $66 million adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2026, largely due to $114 million in non-cash duty adjustments; without these, the underlying business generated $48 million.
The company saw a significant improvement in financial performance from Q4 to Q1, with all segments contributing positively, particularly due to stronger lumber pricing and operational progress.
West Fraser Timber Co Ltd continues its strategic optimization of the US Lumber portfolio, closing five mills and modernizing others to reduce costs, with liquidity near $900 million providing financial flexibility.
Operational highlights include the ramp-up at the new Henderson Lumber mill in Texas and the completion of the OSB mill curtailment in Alberta, with ongoing improvements at other facilities to boost efficiency.
Management remains cautiously optimistic about future market conditions, focusing on cost controls and strategic investments to maintain competitiveness amid uncertain demand and cost pressures.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to The West Fraser Q1 2026 results Conference Call at this time all lines are in listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press Star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, April 30, 2026. During this conference call, West Fraser Timber Co Ltd's representatives will be making certain statements about West Fraser's future financial and operational performance, business outlook and capital plans. These statements may constitute forward looking information or forward looking statements within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities laws. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause West Fraser's actual or future results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these statements. Additional information about these risk factors and assumptions is included both in accompanying webcast presentation and in our 2025 annual MD&A and Annual Information form as updated in our quarterly MDA which can be accessed on West Fraser's website or through SEDAR for Canadian Investors and EDGAR for United States Investors. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sean McLaren. Please go ahead.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Thank you and good morning everyone and thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings call. I am Sean McLaren, President CEO of West Fraser and joining me on the call today are Chris Farostic, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Tobin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and other members of our leadership team. On the earnings call this morning, I will begin with a brief overview of West Fraser's first quarter and then pass the call to Chris for additional comments before I share some thoughts on our outlook and offer concluding remarks. As we entered 2026, we saw seasonal improvement in the lumber market. Southern yellow pine in particular saw better balance between available supply and seasonal demand. While underlying demand for new residential construction and repair and remodel remained subdued, we experienced healthier market conditions compared with the second half of 2025. In OSB Q1, market conditions remained challenging, though modest signs of improvement began to appear toward the end of the quarter and as seasonal demand increased. Against this backdrop, West Fraser saw a positive sequential turnaround in first quarter results led by stronger lumber pricing and operational Progress. We generated negative 66 million of adjusted EBITDA, but this result includes 114 million of prior period duty adjustments which Chris will get into shortly. Removing the impact of these adjustments. The underlying business generated $48 million with all three of our segments Lumber, North American, Engineered Wood Products and Europe contributing to the positive results. This reflects a significant improvement from the 79 million loss in the fourth quarter representing a turnaround of over $120 million. We continued to upgrade our portfolio during the quarter. We have completed production activities at our high level OSB mill in Alberta and are four months into the production ramp up at our new Henderson Lumber mill in Texas. Our US Lumber portfolio optimization continues to lower our cost structure with five mill closures and two brownfield modernizations over the past five years. Our balance sheet remains strong providing us with the flexibility through the cycle and optionality for the future. We ended the quarter with liquidity close to 900 million. The change in Q1 reflects the normal seasonal buildup of log inventory in Western Canada which is consistent with our typical working capital cycle. We expect this inventory investment to reduce in the second and third quarters as as our mills work through their log inventories. We continue to operate with a strong balance sheet allowing us to execute our capital allocation strategy. Our financial position also provides optionality for value creating opportunities should they arise. As always, we will be disciplined on execution and returns with that high level overview. I'll now turn the call to Chris for additional detail and comments.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Sean and good morning everyone. A reminder that we report in US dollars and all my references are to US dollar amounts unless otherwise indicated. In Q1 we generated negative $66 million of adjusted EBITDA. As Sean discussed, we had two large softwood lumber duty related adjustments in Q1 totaling $114 million. Both adjustments are non cash in nature. The first is based on preliminary rates released by the US Department of Commerce for the 2024 calendar year and the second due to a change in our estimate of amounts recoverable and payable as a result of the liquidation process covering the last half of 2017.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
I would point you to our news release of April 16th and our first quarter MDA and financials for further detail. The lumber segment posted adjusted EBITDA of negative 84 million in the first quarter, but removing the duties impact results in positive 30 million compared to negative 57 million in the fourth quarter, an improvement of 87 million. This improvement is largely a result of higher SYP and SPF pricing. North America EWP segment delivered 11 million of adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter, an improvement from the prior quarter's negative 24 million.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
This 35 million improvement is due largely to better OSB pricing in the quarter. In Europe we generated 10 million of adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter, more than doubling the 4 million we generated in the fourth quarter and we've seen an improvement improved environment in Europe with better demand and higher prices. This marks the highest level of adjusted EBITDA in Europe since the second quarter of 2023. We have moved our previously named pulp and paper segment to other in the first quarter as the business has become a less significant part of our total operations and will no longer be specifically addressing the results of that segment.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Bridging Our results from Q4 to Q1. A majority of the improvement came from higher prices in lumber in North American ewp. In addition, higher volumes in US Lumber in Europe and a favorable inventory adjustment represented the biggest variances. Costs were Flat relative to Q4. Lower SIP costs were offset by repair costs due to the fire at Blue Ridge and in North America and OSB we saw higher costs from resin and energy related inputs. Resin plays a significant role in our panel cost structure and the recent rise in methanol based resin pricing is a factor we anticipate will be more visible in our Q2 results. Our US lumber business continues to show improved operating efficiency stemming from the actions we have taken. The US south total cost per thousand board feet have reduced by approximately 6% in the last two years. During this period we have closed five lumber mills, completed a full brownfield modernization and successfully completed a number of smaller but significant capital projects and cost reduction initiatives. This better enables us to react to changes in the external environment and improves our ability to compete more effectively and help provide low cost supply to our customers.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
In Q1, our SYP shipments were 4% higher than Q4 on better operating efficiencies including the impact of the downtime at Blue Ridge. In Q1 our overall shipment volumes remained consistent with expectations. We saw higher shipments in both OSB and in both North American OSB and European osb. North American volumes increased due to the normal seasonal patterns and in Europe we increased shipments to meet higher demand. Cash flow from operations was impacted by the seasonal build in working capital resulting in negative $170 million in the first quarter and a net debt position of 457 million.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
We expect this working capital position to reverse in the second and third quarters. Net debt was influenced by two dividend payments made during the quarter which occurred as a result of our fiscal quarter ending on April 3rd rather than March 31st. Our net debt to capital ratio remains in single digits and our balance sheet is robust with respect to share repurchases. We did not repurchase shares in the first quarter. As we prioritize liquidity through the cycle, our commitment to returning capital to shareholders through a combination of both dividends and tactical share repurchases has not changed.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Regarding our operational outlook for 2026, we have made no changes to our shipment guidance across our main products as well as our capital expenditure range. Transportation and resin costs have been influenced by evolving geopolitical dynamics, and we expect these factors to be more fully reflected in our second quarter results as we manage through the current environment. Due to the fluidity of the situation, it is hard to quantify what that impact may be, but we are actively managing where we can.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
With that overview, I'll pass the call back to Sean.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Thank you Chris. I'll now shift to our general outlook and offer some concluding remarks. Our first quarter results showed a solid improvement relative to the last half of 2025. The 120 million turnaround relative to Q4 shows what the underlying potential of our business is. Our strong balance sheet and a well invested diversified portfolio positions us well to adapt to changing market conditions and capitalize on operating leverage while also mitigating downside risk. We manage for the long run by reinvesting in our business and are improving our operating efficiency. In the first quarter we continued to advance our heat, energy and dryer project at Bemidji, a project that when complete, will improve safety, increase throughput, lower costs and lower energy usage and emissions for our lumber assets in the US South. As Chris discussed, we are seeing the results of the continued portfolio optimization work we are doing by removing costs, increasing margins and repositioning our production to lower cost and more efficient mills. We continue to ramp up our modernized Henderson mill, which we believe is positioned to be one of the lowest cost mills in our fleet once it achieves full operating rates. In Canada, production at Blue Ridge was temporarily paused due to a fire and the mill has since resumed full operational capacity. We have also seen preliminary duty rates poised to come down later this year by approximately 6% with the release of the proposed AR7 rates and we continue to hold a cost advantage in SPF relative to other Canadian exporters in our North American EWP business. The indefinite curtailment of our High level Alberta OSB mill is complete. Our wind down of High Level, a less competitive and higher cost mill representing approximately 860 million square feet, will allow us to focus our operations on our most efficient production in Europe. We are encouraged by the progress achieved in Q1 and continue to navigate market dynamics including managing energy and fiber costs. We are focused on operational improvements and cost reduction and expect our European operations to continue to be competitive through the cycle of Course, this takes place in a dynamic environment influenced by developments in the Middle East. Against this backdrop, global market conditions remain fluid and we continue to assess how broader trends may influence end market demand and energy related cost inputs across our business. In the near term, we expect costs to be influenced by inputs linked to energy prices and we are adapting our logistics approach to reflect the current operating environment. We continue to closely monitor these developments and remain focused on managing controllable costs, maintaining operational flexibility and supporting our customers. As conditions evolve, we are realistic about the demand environment. Housing remains challenged in the near term. However, we believe the longer term demand drivers remain favorable. Since the start of the conflict, long term mortgage rates have moved above 6% and gas prices have risen, reflecting current economic conditions that continue to shape consumer sentiment despite ongoing macroeconomic and affordability pressures. Lumber pricing improved modestly on a sequential basis in Q1 while uncertainties remain. The seasonally better supply demand balance combined with our cost reduction focus gives us cautious confidence that as we navigate near term uncertainties. To Summarize, first, our Q1 results demonstrate the operating leverage in our business as markets improve. Second, our balance sheet and diversified portfolio are strengths that continue to differentiate us in this environment. And third, we are focused on lowering costs and investing in capital projects that improve the quality of our portfolio. Thank you again for your time and continued interest. We look forward to updating you next quarter. With that, we'll turn the call back to the operator for questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press Star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. And should you wish to cancel your request, please press star followed by the two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please, for your first question. Thank you. And your first question comes from the line of Sean Stewart from TD Cowan. Please go ahead.
Sean Stewart
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. A few questions, Sean. Hoping we can pull apart the cost inflation piece a little bit and you know, the freight part I think I understand, but I'm hoping you can give a little bit more perspective around the magnitude of resin cost pressure and how that flows through and how higher diesel
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
will feed into delivered wood costs as well. Okay. Good morning. Good morning, Sean. Well, I'm going to make a few comments here, then ask Chris to. To add anything more, fill in what I miss. So, first off, on the magnitude, I would say a few comments here. First off, I would talk geographically, that it's different in Europe than it is in North America. We saw the impact more quickly in Europe, but our team in Europe quickly began navigating through that. Hard to really have a lot of exact visibility on Q2 other than the pressure continues to build and our team continues to react and kind of navigate through that cost structure. And our assets in Europe, all of this affects everybody. So our assets are well positioned to compete in this environment of higher cost in North America. I think we're still seeing that evolve. We've got, you know, obviously large relationships with our suppliers and we're working with them to navigate the impact of that. You know, again, difficult to quantify. For Q2 resin is a significant component of, you know, of OSB costs. But to date we've been able to navigate it effectively and to be determined to see how significant that is in the coming months, you know, on diesel pricing again, in Western Canada are wood supplies delivered. So this will be a Q3 issue as we begin to replenish log inventories. So we'll see where things are at at that moment. And in the South, I think so far we've been able to navigate that through and have not seen a material change in our cost structure yet. But it's something we're monitoring and watching closely. Chris, anything to add to that? No, that's a great summary, thank you. Okay, thanks for those details. The second question I have is around chip offtake for your sawmills. We saw a recent announcement of a pulp mill closure in the south, and I'm not asking you to speak to that initiative specifically, but Sean, can you give us general comfort with respect to the strength of your wood chip offtake agreements across your sawmill system? Yeah, you bet. Shawn and I know we've maybe spoke about this on prior calls, but you know, clearly over the last several years, both in the US and in Canada, you know, the restructuring of the pulp industry has implications not only on sawmills, but on landowners, but in any number of areas where they operate. And those closures happen from a West Fraser perspective. I'd maybe leave you with a few comments. One is our diverse portfolio, not only geographically between Western Canada and the U.S. south, but across both of those regions and particularly in Western Canada as we're integrated in British Columbia with caribou pulp. So we've got lots of optionality depending on where the, the impacts happen, on how we reposition our production or our residuals and react to that. In the south, we have a number of long term relationships as well as a number of other kind of offtake agreements that we look to and we've been successfully able to navigate each of these changes. Does it create pressure and pinch points? Absolutely. But our team's doing a terrific job navigating that. And then finally, just as a reminder that as pulp mills restructure, our OSB business also purchases pulpwood. So we have an offset or a hedge in our system that allows us to press on costs where those opportunities present themselves. Okay, that's great detail. That's all I have for now. Thanks very much, Sean. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Keeaton Mentora from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Good morning and thanks for taking my question. Maybe to start with, I'm not trying to put to fine a point on the resin issue, but, Sean, to the extent it's possible, can you talk about, you know, sort of how you all are navigating this dynamic environment? Is it using different types of resins in manufacturing osb? And if it's possible at all to maybe just give us some rough sensitivity in terms of what it means for, I don't know, like a 10% move in resin costs, is there a way for us to think about it? Yeah. Good morning, Keaton. And this might again be a little repetitive from the last question. So it's really hard to. There's a lot of moving parts, as you can imagine, within this, you know, so resin, I think, is roughly 25% of the cost structure of an OSB mill. The saying that there are different types of resins, there are different ways for the team to be able to build the board, and first and foremost is us working with our resin suppliers to navigate through this period. And this is an issue that affects sort of everybody, you know, the same. Like, it's not a unique West Fraser issue. So I think it all comes back to how we feel our assets are positioned on the cost curve, and we feel like they're positioned pretty well, and we're going to be able to navigate this and compete through.
Matt Tobin (Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing)
Understood. Okay. And then, you know, just maybe looking back at Q1, the price differential, or not just the price differential, but the change in prices in Southern yellow pine versus SPF that we saw in Q1. Can you talk about sort of what drove that, particularly against the backdrop of what's going on with supply cuts? And I'm curious whether you are seeing any signs that southern yellow pine is gaining share in the new residential market. I'm going to turn it over to Matt to make a few comments on that, Keaton. Sure. Good morning. Yeah, we saw Southern Alpine prices rise off a low point from Q4. And this has been a pretty typical, I'd say, seasonal uplift with treater activity picking up in their first quarter. So it's something we've seen, I'd say, the last few years is that rise in first quarter demand. And you know, I think that watching it and talking to customers, we don't see a structural shift in demand. I'd say it's just typical seasonal activities in the first quarter around syp.
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Understood. Okay. And then just last question from me, Chris. You talked about on the repurchase side, prioritizing liquidity. How should we think about sort of your approach over the next in the coming quarters against the backdrop of, you know, kind of weaker than expected housing demand, should we expect that in the near term this is on, on pause, or is it sort of something that you are evaluating every quarter? I think, Keaton, the best guide would be, you know, to look at what we've done historically, right. Is we take a lot of pride in, in having a durable capital allocation strategy. So, you know, throughout this cycle, which, you know, we're three years in, in lumber now, we've been very disciplined in what we've done. Right. With whether that share repurchases or the level of the dividend or the management of the debt, the debt load and the cash balance. And so look, we came through two negative quarters in the back half of last year. First quarters turned positive. The way that we look at it, excluding this 114 on the duties, clearly there's a lot of uncertainty out there, but you know, how we look at the intrinsic value of the company hasn't changed. And you know, we're not a buyer necessarily at all times, but we're a buyer opportunistically when the flexibility is at a level on our balance sheet that we think is right and the shares are priced attractively. And I think you can count on us to continue to operate that way, no differently today than over the past two or three years. Got it. Now that's helpful perspective. I'll turn it over. Good luck. Thank you, Keaton.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Ben Isaacson from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Ben Isaacson
Thank you very much. And good morning, everyone. I just wanted to extend Keaton's question. You talked about SYP but didn't talk about spf. Can you talk about whether you were surprised at the relative underperformance of SPF to SYP or was it kind of consistent with your thinking and why?
Matt Tobin (Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing)
Good morning. I would say in the spf, I mean, we saw steady markets, some slight price improvement over the quarter. I would say seasonally, kind of normal tightening of those spreads in the first quarter. Like I said, more to do with trigger activity. You know, I think we see those dislocations and price changes change, you know, relative to their kind of regional supply or their end user supply demand structure. And so I would say, you know, not necessarily unexpected to see a pickup in SYP and spf just to continue to be steady.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Thank you for that. My second question is coming back to this cost pressure. I was just hoping you could frame it or provide some goalposts. If nothing were to change from today, can you give some magnitude in terms of goalposts for cost? I mean, should we expect a 30 to $50 per MBF change or zero to $10? I mean, how should we be thinking about it? Yeah, you know, I'll make a few more comments here then. Chris, please fill in if we can add more. You know, again, very, you know, I know the conflicts few months here, you know, we've been able to navigate these pressures so far, you know, but the pressure is building and it's hard to predict, you know, where energy fuel prices might go. So I'm very reluctant to kind of, you know, kind of speculate on magnitudes. We just don't know, so we won't do that. What I would say is we've been so far able to navigate through the cost pressure. Chris, would you add anything to that?
Chris Farostic (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, not really. You know, I think as Sean indicated, you know, resin is about 25% of the input cost in OSB manufacturing. I think the other factors that he's raised that, you know, look, this isn't something that uniquely affects West Fraser. It affects the entire industry because everybody uses resin to make, to make osb. So there's not, you know, in our view, a disproportionate impact in any, you know, in one aspect, right. Like our fleet of assets and how they exist in different markets and make different products gives us a degree of flexibility that operators with smaller fleets may not have in order for us to mitigate more of this impact. You know, as we, as we navigate this, I think very difficult to speculate when you see oil price moving around the way that it's moving around on a day to day, week to week basis. You know, trying to pin a number on this and say this is discretely what it's going to be in Q2, there's as much likelihood that we're wrong as we're right in trying to give that guidance. So I think it goes back to look throughout this cycle we've made investments to lower costs consistently, which gives us more headroom to deal with these shocks when they happen. And we like how we're positioned to be able to deal with this.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Thank you. And my final question, Sean, can you just give a quick outlook for OSB as it relates to North America versus Europe? How are you feeling about each of those regions? Thanks. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you. Ben. Yeah, maybe just a few comments. You know, first off, in Europe, as Chris mentioned in his comments, our best quarter since mid 2023. So it's been been three years and the macro in Europe is continues to be difficult. Like north saying that our two OSB assets over in Europe are pretty well positioned. We have a terrific management team. We're located in good markets, good raw material areas. So our cost position we feel quite good about. And at the same time there is cost pressure in other regions that have resulted, we believe, in better market conditions over in Europe. So hard to again, the macro continues to beat challenging over there, but some good sequential improvement in those markets over the last 12 to 18 months. And then in North America, again, a lot of uncertainty. And I can tell you again, from Wes Fraser's perspective, we are just leaning into the things that we can control our asset ramp up at Allendale, the work we've done at Chambord, the adjustments we made at high level, all those things make our platform in OSB stronger and continue to push down costs, continue to give us the ability to navigate like Chris talked about, the spike in residence costs or whatever comes our way, hard to say on the market. All I would say is without any change, we're putting ourselves in a better position to compete.
Ben Isaacson
Great. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Once again, should you have a question, please, followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Nikolai Korupic from CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Hi, good morning. Given the attractive margin dynamics for lumber in the U.S. south, do you suspect that meaningful production has already come back online across the industry in the region? Good morning, Nikolai. You know, again, hard, hard for, you know, for us to speculate on what others are doing. I will only maybe speak to our platform and you know, and we were navigating to the demands of our customers the last two quarters. Q the second half of last year, you know, as Matt touched on, things improve seasonally. So we were able to respond to that, saying that our ability to add Other than the ramp ups, we're in the capital execution, we're in our operating excellence focus, our ability to quickly react. I think you saw that in Q1. If you look compared to Q3 and Q4, you see the difference there. Others may be in a little different spot. Hard for me to speculate on that. But I know from our perspective we're going to continue to be cautious and we haven't seen a fundamental change in the underlying fundamentals. So we'll continue to manage our business against that backdrop. Great. I see. And any more color you can provide, what you're hearing from customers regarding the health of R and R demand, might ask Matt to maybe comment on that.
Matt Tobin (Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing)
Sure. I'd say, you know, customers are mixed. You know, I'd say you get some customers thinking it's going to be flat, others are more positive. But I would say, you know, across the customer base, really kind of mixed visibility there. And from what we see with our treated customers that we think are a decent lens into that market, you know, it remains subdued.
Nikolai Korupic
Okay, I see. Thanks. I'll turn it over. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Matthew McKellar from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and thanks too for all the details so far, particularly on costs. I'd like to, I guess, follow on that theme just a little bit, but from a slightly different angle and ask about capital equipment. Can you provide any perspective on if or how capital costs to build or even maintain lumber and OSB mills in the US specifically may have evolved over the past few quarters, what with new tariffs and tariffs that have changed in scope and magnitude. Thanks. Yeah, good morning, Matthew. Maybe just a few comments on that. You know, first comment I would, would make is, you know, you know, we've done a lot of work, a lot of capital work the last three, four years and we're really in the mode of operationalizing that capital in startup, getting the benefit from all the money we've spent. So our exposure to some of those costs today are considerably less than they've been the last couple of years. You know, the one big project we have underway is Bemidji and that equipment is largely delivered. And you know, so we're again, our exposure there is, we have very little exposure left on that project. Saying that I don't think it's fundamentally different today. If you were going to do a major project and then you add on the potential of steel and other tariff issues for equipment that comes from outside of the US So pressure is probably higher, but we're largely into the operational phase of our capital capital program. Great, thanks very much. Just one more for me. Appreciate. I guess that diesel's pushing transportation costs higher pretty generally and that the impact remains hard to quantify. Are you seeing any actual scarcity of capacity beyond that that would potentially create any bottlenecks for you or your customers? Thanks. Maybe I'll turn that one over to Matt. Sure.
Matt Tobin (Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing)
Good morning. I would say, you know, it's been a challenging market in freight market and I think if we look back to the end of last year, you know, there's been, you know, quite a few publications talk about, you know, the uptick in bankruptcies and trucking companies to end 25 and you know, I'd say logistics, you know, will always kind of correct to the, to the size of the demand. And so, you know, we've definitely seen a little bit more tightness. And when you layer on top of as well, you know, end of Q1, early Q2 is a seasonally tight period for trucks anyway. You get uptick in produce and other things and so, you know, you layer on a spike in fuel and it's certainly created tightness in the market. And you know, we're working with our vendors and our customers to try to continue to provide on time shipments of our products every day.
Matthew McKellar
Thanks very much for the color. I'll turn it back.
OPERATOR
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Sean McLean for any closing remarks.
Sean McLaren (President and CEO)
Thank you, Operator. As always, Chris and I are available to respond to further questions, as is Anil Agarwala, our new Director of Treasury and Investor Relations. Thank you for your participation today. Stay well and we look forward to reporting on our progress next quarter.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
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