Operator
Good morning. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today.
Welcome to Interfor Corporation's second quarter 2026 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded.
Following prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. During this call, Interfor's representatives may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws.
Additional information regarding the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions of such statements can be found in Interfor's most recent press release and MD&A. I would like to turn the call over to Mr.
Ian Fillinger, Interfor's President and CEO. Mr.
Fillinger, please go ahead.
Ian Fillinger
Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. With me on the call, I have Mike MacKay, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
The second quarter reflected strong execution across our business, supported by stronger lumber markets, continued progress on our cost reduction, improved mill productivity, and disciplined inventory management. While uncertainty remains, particularly around the softwood lumber trade dispute, we are encouraged by the progress our teams are making and remain focused on further strengthening our balance sheet.
Our previously announced 2-year company-wide cost reduction initiative continues to perform well, with results tracking on our annualized $80 million target. In addition, our Thomaston mill in Georgia delivered a strong quarter and has been transformed into one of our top-performing assets in our portfolio.
In the second quarter, we generated $92 million of EBITDA, strengthened our financial position, aligned our product mix with market demand, reduced inventories, lowered production costs, and continued to successfully navigate the ongoing uncertainty around the softwood lumber trade dispute. As we look ahead, our priorities remain unchanged.
We will continue to focus on operating our mills safely and efficiently, aligning production with market demand, maintaining a relentless focus on costs, and preserving the financial strength and flexibility of our balance sheet. These fundamentals position us to withstand prolonged market volatility while continuing to create long-term value for our shareholders.
Consistent with that focus, we recently announced the transition of certain corporate support roles to our Peachtree City office in Georgia, where the majority of our operations are located within the Central, Eastern, and Atlantic time zones. This change is intended to better align our support functions with the needs of our business while maintaining a strong corporate presence in both Canada and the United States.
Transition will occur gradually over time, primarily through attrition and future hiring decisions. This will allow us to evolve our organizational footprint in a measured manner.
This is not a redomiciling of the company, nor does it alter our longstanding commitment within our Canadian operations, mills, employees, or communities. The leadership team remains in place, and Burnaby will continue to play an important role as our corporate headquarters.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
Mike Mackay
Thanks, Ian, and good morning, everybody. From an earnings standpoint, Interfor generated $92 million of adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter, a significant improvement from the first quarter and one of our best quarterly results in nearly 4 years.
Sequential improvement was driven by stronger realized pricing, higher production volumes, and lower manufacturing costs. From a sales perspective, realized selling prices increased approximately 11% quarter-over-quarter, with all 5 of our operating regions benefiting from stronger market conditions.
Production costs per unit improved by approximately 1% and were down 6% compared to full-year 2025 levels. These improvements were driven by higher operating rates, the continued ramp-up of Thomaston, and ongoing productivity gains driven by our performance improvement initiatives.
Production volumes increased by just over 70 million board feet, or 8%, compared to the first quarter. This increase was driven primarily by higher production in the US South following the ramp-up of Thomaston, along with a more normalized operating posture in the US Northwest.
This was partially offset by the indefinite curtailment of 2 mills in Ontario. Shipments exceeded production, and while logistics remain challenging in certain markets, the actions taken earlier in the year helped improve our shipment execution and supported inventory reductions.
Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet, improved earnings, disciplined working capital management, and lower capital spending all contributed to a strengthening financial position. Net debt declined, our net debt to invested capital ratio improved to 36.7%, down from 38.3% at the end of the first quarter, and available liquidity also improved, ending the period at just over $440 million.
Looking ahead, benchmark lumber prices have maintained positive momentum into the early part of the third quarter, and our order files have remained solid. At the same time, the summer building season can introduce increased volatility in end-use demand and pricing, and we continue to plan cautiously for the back half of the year.
At a broader level, though, the industry supply rationalization that began in prior years has continued through the first half of 2026. We believe this has contributed to a much more balanced and disciplined market environment, despite the ongoing macro, trade, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Also looking ahead over the next several months, we continue to anticipate proceeds from divestitures, including the ongoing sale of our BC Coast forest tenures and the anticipated sale of real estate at 2 of our former facilities in the US South. Turning lastly to capital allocation, total capital expenditures for 2026 are expected to be approximately $90 million, and this reflects mostly maintenance spending in the back half of the year, as our priority remains focused on reducing leverage.
With that, I'll now turn the call back over to you, Ian.
Ian Fillinger
Okay. Thanks, Mike.
Operator, we're ready to take questions from our analysts at this point.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as stated, we will now take questions from analysts.
If you do have any questions at this time, please press * followed by 1 on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised.
Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press * followed by 2. If you're using a speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys.
Thank you. Our first question will be from Ketan Mamtora at BMO Capital Markets.
Please go ahead.
Ketan Mamtora
Thank you. Good morning, and congrats on a strong quarter.
Ian Fillinger
Morning, Ketan. Thank you.
Ketan Mamtora
Maybe to start with on the $80 million cost program that Ian you talked about last quarter, can you give us just a rough order of magnitude how much do you expect to capture this year in 2026?
Ian Fillinger
It's early in the 2-year program, Ketan, but the first half of this year was very strong, and so the run rate at this point is showing achieving that fully this year. Again, the first half was a very strong performance by our teams.
I would caution that this is a 2-year program, and I wouldn't want to adjust our timeline on achieving that any sooner than that at this point. It's off to a good start.
Ketan Mamtora
Okay. Is it fair to say, Ian, though, we get sort of, I don't know, half of it this year and half of it next year, or it's sort of skewed more to next year versus this year?
Ian Fillinger
I think Ketan, that's probably a good approach to take at this point, and then obviously as we go through the next quarters, we'll be able to adjust that depending upon how things are progressing. From a baseline projection, that might be a fair assumption.
Ketan Mamtora
That is 50/50 split, Ian?
Ian Fillinger
Yeah.
Ketan Mamtora
Understood. Then on Thomaston, Ian, just curious, how is the ramp-up coming along?
What is the current operating rate like, and where do you expect to be by end of the year?
Ian Fillinger
While we expect to be fully ramped up by the end of the year, I believe we're at around 97% of our production pro forma, and we've had several performances that have been well above our pro forma target. It's a complex mill to start up or any mill of that size and magnitude, but it's been done safely, and it's just a few percent off of the pro forma target.
From Interfor's perspective, this will be one of the best startups that we've had in our capital project team and operating team.
Ketan Mamtora
Got it. That's helpful.
Good luck in the back half. I'll jump back in the queue.
Thank you.
Ian Fillinger
Thank you.
Operator
Next question will be from Ben Isaacson at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Ben Isaacson
Great. Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone.
You talked about 3 consecutive quarters of cost reductions. My question is, how much additional structural cost reductions remain available, or is Q2 really a good run rate as to how we think costs should play out going forward?
Thank you.
Mike Mackay
Hey, Ben, Mike here. I can take that one.
I think if you look back the last 3 quarters, it's been a combination of the productivity initiatives, performance improvement, some of the portfolio optimization as well. As Ian alluded to with the first question, we're on a run rate basis captured a lot of that today.
I think the key is anchoring it going forward more than anything. As we said before, a good chunk's in the bag, but we need to kind of solidify that from a long-term perspective.
We've done a lot, Ben, in the last little while. As I said in my opening comments, our manufacturing costs are down about $41 per thousand board feet, or about 6% versus 2025 levels.
As Ian can probably attest to, it's pretty hard to push that type of cost out of your system in this business. We feel really good where we are.
I don't know if we'd say too much structural changes going forward per se. It's just anchoring a lot of what we have.
Ben Isaacson
Perfect. Then thank you for that.
Then my second question is, CapEx is $90 million. Can you talk about what is maintenance versus discretionary?
With Thomaston complete, what does maintenance CapEx look like going into 2027?
Mike Mackay
I think, Ben, if you look on a go-forward basis, it's effectively all maintenance in the back half of the year. The $90 million, if you look at what the projection implies there, it's around $15 or $16 million per quarter.
We would consider that effectively all maintenance spend, and so that's a run rate of $60, $65 million per year. That's kind of what we're continuing to guide to from a pure maintenance perspective.
Ben Isaacson
Okay. That's great.
Thanks so much.
Operator
Next question will be from Matthew McKellar at RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Matthew McKellar
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations on a strong quarter.
First, just wanted to check in on the transportation constraints. It sounds like that is maybe still a bit of a challenge into Q3.
Could you just talk about how that is progressing and how you might be running your business any differently as a result? Thanks.
Ian Fillinger
Matt, Ian here. It's a focus area for us for sure.
The teams, particularly in the South, I would kind of point towards that region as the most challenging on the transportation. The team's done a great job with partnering with our carriers, creating win-win incentives to secure additional truck volume.
We have seen it also on transportation getting into the rail more in the quarter. At this point in time, we're matching our production and actually outshipped our production last quarter, and we're right where we need to be at this quarter so far.
Through the initiatives that our logistics team implemented, I would say that at this point it's looking okay for us, but it's definitely something that we need to keep an eye on and adjust. Truck demand across all industries is tight, which kind of points us towards an economy that's busy.
There's products moving, whether it's oil and gas or mining, that's putting constraints on this. From an Interfor perspective, we're doing pretty well right now.
Matthew McKellar
Okay. Very helpful.
Thanks. Then it looks like lumber futures have rolled over here in the past couple of weeks.
Does that line up with what you're feeling in the cash market today? Are you seeing or hearing more caution from your customers, maybe with recent rate and oil movements, seasonal summer softness?
Any color on recent changes in demand? Thanks.
Ian Fillinger
Matt, it's depends on the region, just given our footprint across North America. Some regions are a little bit more sensitive to the August sort of seasonal slowdown, but as far as our order file goes, which is out a few weeks into August, it's solid.
The pricing is strong. We do notice the trend that you're talking about, and whether futures is kind of starting to align with the cash market looks like that's happening.
From our perspective, demand is strong given our supply constraints that Mike talked about that have been done in the industry. At this point, we don't have any caution to put on this, but I would say that we're in, again, pretty good shape relative to order file, shipments.
We are monitoring the price, and if it gets to a point where some capacity needs to come out, we would always do that, but we don't anticipate that happening. We don't see that in the immediate future.
Matthew McKellar
Okay. Thanks very much.
I'll turn it back.
Operator
Next question will be from Sean Steuart at TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Sean Steuart
Thanks. Morning, guys.
Nice results. Ian, your deck, and you've talked about this a lot before, shows over the long term fairly even EBITDA per thousand board feet contributions across the regions.
I imagine, given the strength of this quarter's results, each region was comfortably EBITDA positive. Can you give a sense of the spread in relative margins right now across the footprint?
Ian Fillinger
Sean, that's a good question. I would say that when we look at our operations from an EBITDA margin 1 through our entire portfolio, it's really a mix.
We'll have a mill that's in the South, which will be a leading mill 1 month, but then the number 2 mill will be from the Pacific Northwest, and the number 3 mill will be from the BC. The next month, some of that shifts around, and I think it's pretty great to see that given our geography and our strategy to diversify.
We have mills from each region that will be top performers on a month-to-month basis. Often number 1 mill will be in 1 region, number 2 will be in a different region, number 3 will be in a different region.
For us, it's just evidence around this strategy of being diversified and having different mills and woodlands operating at different points and times in the cycle. We don't have 1 concentrated region that's got the top 5, let's put it that way.
We have it spread out, and it's really on a month-to-month basis.
Sean Steuart
That's great detail. Thanks for that.
Just following up on one of Matt's questions with respect to markets right now, where we have seen, I guess, in the cash markets some relative weakness the last 3, 4 weeks is wider dimensions in the US South. Can you give us an updated perspective on your dimension bias in the South and your ability to switch to take advantage of relative price swings from across the dimension spectrum, any perspective you can give us there?
Ian Fillinger
That's a good, detailed question, Sean. I'll use an example of our Thomaston mill, but we have examples of this throughout the organization.
The Thomaston mill is classified as a wide mill, but when we rebuilt the mill, we were able to put in a piece of equipment that could split the wides to narrows when the narrow product line would be at a premium to wides. Similar to many of our capital projects, which started with Adams Lake, anytime that we rebuild, we're looking for how do we put in the right equipment to be able to chase the premiums on different product lines.
We have several mills that can do that, Sean. Being able to flip from a wide mill to producing narrows is a real strategic advantage in this business, and we have that capability to do that.
We will chase the premium if the premium's a kind of a longstanding week, week, week up, then we'll chase it. I feel really good about the setup of our portfolios across the whole organization, because that's sort of in our DNA of how we think about being able to capitalize margin in this business, is not to be too tied to 1 particular product line.
Sean Steuart
Yep, that makes sense. One quick last one for Mike, updated targets for divestitures, any change in the dollar figures we should be thinking about as you sell off the non-core stuff?
Mike Mackay
Thanks, Sean. Essentially no change from prior guidance.
The BC Coast forest tenures, kind of back half of the year, between $20 to $25 million of cash proceeds. The real estate in and around the $40 million mark in the back half of the year.
I will say just timing remains the key piece of uncertainty on both those files, the exact timing to kind of peg down one quarter per se. We feel good about the number of the proceeds coming in say over the next 12 months.
Sean Steuart
Great. That's all I have.
Thanks very much, guys.
Operator
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press * followed by 1 on your touch-tone phone. Thank you.
Next we will hear from Hamir Patel at CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hamir Patel
Hi, good morning. Ian, I wanted to ask, just to follow up on the end markets.
We've seen various commentary from some of the US building products companies around the R&R channel. What's been your experience there?
Are you seeing any growth in volumes in that channel this year, and just yeah, any comments you'd have there?
Ian Fillinger
Thanks, Hamir. We see R&R is hanging in there, I guess would be the way to put that.
The housing starts are also fairly muted, with multi-family kind of up and down. From an R&R perspective, our experiences that it's steady, and we've got good takeaway happening with our customers on that front.
I would point out as we look to what the last half of 2025 was, and we kind of look towards what's the next half of 2026, fundamental difference from last year's inventory build from customers in all channels. There was the 232 tariff that was hanging around us at this point in time with speculation that would be quite a bit higher than it did, and so we saw an inventory build and then a real drawdown as the year progressed in 2025.
The setup this year I would classify on all of our channels is more of a hand-to-mouth situation right now, which in some ways can be a little bit frustrating, but in other ways, I think it's much stronger than it was last year at this time as we look forward.
Hamir Patel
Fair enough. Ian, you mentioned with the relocation of some of the head office functions to the US, you were still planning on being domiciled in Canada.
Would there be any potential tax benefits to redomiciling?
Ian Fillinger
We haven't looked at it in that much detail, and so I don't have a view of that at this point, Hamir.
Hamir Patel
Okay. Fair enough.
Just the last question I had, on the capital projects side, it sounds like it's maintenance for the remainder of the year. As you think about with the balance sheet improving, 2027, what are some of the sort of higher-return projects that you might look to action if you continue to see the balance sheet improve here?
Ian Fillinger
We've always got a lineup of projects on our books. They're really scattered throughout, but primarily there's a few projects in Eastern Canada, in Ontario and New Brunswick, and then there's a few projects in the South.
We remain cautious and conservative until we achieve what we want to do and relative to our balance sheet targets, which are first and foremost. We do have several projects that are identified, but I would say, Hamir, that they're smaller.
The projects are not Thomaston-level projects. They're high payback, lower capital expenditures.
There's a few that we have in mind in Eastern Canada and the South. Again, just want to make sure that I communicate that we're cautious on that.
We're planning for those, but the timing will be when we're ready to do that.
Hamir Patel
Great. Thanks, Ian.
That's all I had. I'll turn it over.
Operator
At this time, Mr. Fillinger, we have no other questions registered.
Please proceed.
Ian Fillinger
Okay. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning and your thoughtful questions.
While the market conditions improved in Q2, we continue to plan conservatively. As always, Mike, myself, Brian Fast, our Director of Investor Relations, are available for any follow-up calls or communication.
Thank you. Have a great day, and goodbye.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude the conference call for today.
Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines.
Have a good weekend.
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