Timber Prices Reduce Crown Pacific Profits

Crown Pacific Partners reported first quarter financial results Tuesday that fall well short of the company’s performance a year earlier.

Crown Pacific reported earnings of of $4.1 million, compared with $15.3 million in first quarter 1994.

The timber company reported revenues of $97.8 million in the first quarter of this year, 18 percent less than the $115.9 million it earned the first quarter of 1994.

Lower timber and wood product prices pushed earnings down, the company said.

Crown offered 9.85 million shares of common stock in December. Those shareholders will receive a dividend of 56.5 cents a share, the company said Tuesday.

Crown Pacific owns sawmills and about 575,000 acres of timberland in North Idaho and around the Inland Northwest. Recently the company announced layoffs at its Bonners Ferry sawmill because of depressed lumber prices.