Boise Cascade Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Boise Cascade (NYSE:BCC) reported third-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

Boise Cascade’s third-quarter 2026 sales increased 8% year-over-year to $1.8 billion, with net income of $36.4 million and earnings per share of $1.04, both higher than the prior-year quarter.

The company is actively transitioning to a new supplier agreement with James Hardie for siding and decking products, which has shown early promise with strong sales growth in siding.

Fourth-quarter guidance anticipates EBITDA for Building Materials Distribution (BMD) to be between $35 and $45 million, and for Wood Products to be between $10 and $20 million, affected by seasonal demand deceleration and cost pressures.

BMD sales in Q3 were $1.7 billion, up 7% year-over-year, but saw a decrease in EBITDA margin due to higher outbound delivery and fuel costs.

Wood Products sales increased 16% to $461.2 million, with segment EBITDA significantly up due to higher plywood prices and EWP sales volumes.

Capital expenditures for 2026 have been reduced to $120-$140 million due to project delays, but the company has strong cash generation and plans for strategic growth and shareholder returns.

Management highlighted the strength of Boise Cascade’s integrated model and its ability to navigate market challenges, emphasizing a focus on customer needs and long-term residential construction fundamentals.

The company expects continued challenges in single-family housing and fuel costs but remains confident in its strategic direction and supplier transitions.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good day and welcome to Boise Cascade’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone, and to withdraw your question please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Chris Forrey, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Chris Forrey (Senior Vice President Finance & Investor Relations)

Good morning everyone. Welcome to Boise Cascade’s third quarter 2026 earnings call and business update. Joining me on today’s call are Jeff Strom, our CEO, Kelly Hibbs, our CFO, Jo Barney, leader of our building material distribution operations, and Troy Little, leader of our wood products operations. Turning to Slide 2. This call will contain forward-looking statements. Please review the warning statements in our press release, on the presentation slides, and in our filings with the SEC regarding the risks associated with these forward-looking statements. Also, please note that the Appendix includes reconciliations from our GAAP net income to EBITDA and segment income to segment EBITDA. I will now turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Chris. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for our earnings call. I’m on Slide 3. In the third quarter, total U.S. housing starts and single-family housing starts decreased 4% and 2% respectively compared to the prior-year quarter. Our consolidated third quarter sales increased 8% year over year to $1.8 billion. Our net income and earnings per share were $36.4 million and $1.04 per share, both higher than the prior-year quarter.

We are proud of the results our team delivered in the quarter. The operating environment, characterized by rising fuel prices, political uncertainty, and cautious consumers facing growing affordability challenges, persisted, but our focus and execution did not waver. Our divisions worked together to unlock the value of our integrated model, the resilience of which was on full display during the quarter. Last quarter we announced that we would partner with James Hardie as our exclusive supplier of siding, composite decking and PVC, and fiber cement trim. With the World Series having just wrapped up, it feels only appropriate to reference that announcement as the opening pitch, and we’re still in the early innings of operationalizing the agreement. With the transition unfolding as expected, our sales teams have done a tremendous job balancing the duties of selling through legacy inventory by actively developing product knowledge and identifying market opportunities across James Hardie, TimberTech, and AZEK product lines.

Our sales of Hardie siding and trim products continue to show strong year-over-year growth. I want to recognize the BMD associates across our footprint for attacking a strategic initiative of this scale. I’m pleased that in less than a full quarter we were able to meaningfully reduce legacy stocking positions and make great strides with the load-in of new products. Work remains to rebuild revenue in our general line product category, but we have excellent products, an exemplary distribution footprint, and the right team in place to seize the opportunity.

Kelly will now walk through our segment financial results, capital allocation priorities, and fourth quarter guidance, after which I’ll provide insights on our business outlook and make closing comments before we open the call for questions. Kelly.

Kelly Hibbs (SVP, CFO & Treasurer)

Thank you Jeff. I’m on Slide 4. BMD sales in the quarter were $1.7 billion, up 7% from third quarter 2025. Segment EBITDA of $66.9 million in the third quarter compared to segment EBITDA of $69.8 million in the prior-year quarter. Gross margins increased $3.6 million compared to the prior-year quarter resulting from higher gross margins on commodity products, offset partially by lower gross margins on general line products. Selling and distribution expenses were up $6.9 million from third quarter 2025, approximately 80% of which was due to higher outbound delivery and fuel costs.

In Wood Products, our sales in the third quarter, including sales to our distribution segment, were $461.2 million, up 16% compared to third quarter 2025. Segment EBITDA was $42.7 million compared to EBITDA of $14.5 million reported in the year-ago quarter. The increase in segment EBITDA was primarily due to higher plywood prices and EWP sales volumes. These increases were offset partially by higher per-unit conversion costs. Moving to Slides 5 and 6, BMD’s year-over-year third quarter sales increase of 7% was driven by net sales price and net sales volume increases of 5% and 2% respectively. By product line, general line sales increased 4%, commodity sales increased 15%, and sales of EWP increased 1%. Sequentially, BMD sales decreased 2%, a solid result when considering market dynamics and disruptions from supplier transition activities, and a special shout out to our commodity sales team for delivering year-over-year and sequential sales increases.

Our third quarter gross margin was 14.3%, down 80 basis points year over year. Gross margins on general line products were negatively influenced by destocking associated with the transition of our composite decking supplier, offset partially by improved gross margins on commodity products. On a sequential basis, supplier transition activities and a lower proportion of general line sales were the primary drivers of our gross margin decline. BMD’s EBITDA margin was 4% for the quarter, down from 4.5% in the year-ago quarter.

The 50 basis point decline resulted from lower gross margins and higher selling and distribution expenses, offset partially by improved operating expense leverage from higher sales volumes. On a sequential basis, EBITDA margins contracted from the 5% reported in the second quarter. Seasonal demand deceleration, lower gross margins, and reduced operating expense leverage from lower volumes impacted our third quarter results. Turning to Wood Products on Slide 7, third quarter I-joist and LVL volumes were up 10% and 18% respectively on a year-over-year basis. Sequentially, I-joist volumes decreased 4% and LVL volumes increased 2%. As it relates to third quarter pricing, I-joist and LVL realizations were flat year over year and sequentially. Our third quarter realizations marked four quarters of price stability in EWP. Price protection mechanisms on contracted volumes, market-specific competitive adjustments, and rebates to support volumes sold into Canada that were subject to tariffs held realizations stable despite the price increase announced last quarter.

Turning to Slide 8, third quarter plywood sales volume was 362 million feet compared to 387 million feet in third quarter 2025 and 368 million feet in second quarter 2026. The year-over-year and sequential decreases in plywood volumes were driven by greater utilization of veneer into EWP. Our average plywood net sales price was $425 per thousand in the third quarter, representing a 31% increase year over year and an 8% increase sequentially. We attribute the continued improvement in plywood pricing to supply-side influences resulting from trade policy decisions regarding Brazil and Canada.

Brazilian plywood imports have declined by 12% year over year through the third quarter of 2026, primarily impacting southern yellow pine plywood markets. In August, the United States imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian veneer, plywood, and LVL imports that impacted western plywood markets. We anticipate evolving trade policy will continue to influence plywood market dynamics. I’m now on Slide 9. We had capital expenditures of $90 million in the first nine months of 2026, including $27 million in the third quarter. BMD and Wood Products spent $8 million and $19 million respectively on capital projects in the third quarter. We are reducing our capital spending range for 2026 to $120 to $140 million, principally the result of project delays on several BMD organic growth projects.

Speaking to shareholder returns, we paid $26 million in regular dividends during the first nine months of 2026, including $8 million in the third quarter. Our Board of Directors recently approved a quarterly dividend on our common stock of $0.23 per share that will be paid in mid-December. Through the first 10 months of 2026, we repurchased approximately $118 million of Boise Cascade common stock, including approximately $9 million between July and October.

At the end of October, approximately $120 million of our outstanding common stock was available for repurchase under our existing share repurchase program. The ongoing strength of our balance sheet and cash generation capabilities through the cycle leaves us well positioned to continue pursuing our strategic growth objectives while taking a steady, disciplined approach to shareholder returns. I’m now on Slide 10. We have outlined a range of potential EBITDA outcomes along with the key assumptions underlying these projections. We currently estimate BMD’s fourth quarter EBITDA will be between $35 and $45 million. Our daily sales pace in October decelerated from the third quarter sales pace of $26.1 million per day and is expected to moderate further due to seasonal slowing and supplier transitions in the channel. Specific to composite decking, we have made very good progress on wind-down and ramp-up activities but expect more pronounced revenue declines in Q4.

Given the level of inventory that has been placed into the channel through recent supplier and distributor realignments, gross margins are expected to be between 14% and 14.75%. Included in our James Hardie agreement are provisions for financial assistance to support our sales ramp that may partially mask the impact of temporary moderation in BMD’s revenue and lead to elevated gross margin percentages throughout the sales ramp. Turning to our anticipated results for Wood Products, we estimate fourth quarter EBITDA will be between $10 and $20 million. In addition to typical seasonal factors, our results will reflect continued weakness in single-family housing, elevated fuel and transportation costs, and higher input costs. We expect sequential volumes to decline high-teen to mid-20%. EWP pricing is expected to increase slightly on a sequential basis. In plywood, we expect volumes to decline mid- to high-single digits sequentially.

On plywood pricing, quarter-to-date realizations are approximately 5% above our third quarter average, with the balance of the quarter dependent upon end market demand seasonality and ongoing import supply volatility. We expect our per-unit manufacturing costs will increase primarily due to lower volumes and higher resin and OSB webstock costs. Lastly, we anticipate an effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of approximately 5%, influenced by the purchase of tax credits that decrease our rate and the expected lower level of income before tax in the quarter.

I will turn it over to Jeff to share our business outlook and closing remarks.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Kelly. I’m on slide 11. High fuel prices and an inflation-driven increase in benchmark interest rates amplified the affordability challenges that have constrained the new home market throughout 2026. These realities and typical seasonal declines will be headwinds on fourth quarter construction activity. Early industry projections for 2027 indicate that housing starts are expected to decline mid-single digits from 2026 levels. Our consistent performance relative to the muted broader market conditions in 2026 is a testament to Boise Cascade’s national scale and regional expertise. In this environment, customers are hesitant to make significant inventory commitments, increasing the reliance on BMD’s in-stock product availability and next-day delivery capabilities. In Wood Products, our vertically integrated veneer production has insulated us from risks associated with the purchase and importation of veneer, and Boise Cascade’s integrated operating model strengthens our ability to respond to customer needs and changing market conditions.

By coordinating manufacturing, inventory, and logistics decisions across our Wood Products and Building Materials Distribution segments, we improve channel visibility and more effectively align supply with end-market demand. Beyond the near-term uncertainties, long-term residential construction fundamentals remain positive, and we believe the investments made throughout the business cycle have us well-positioned for an eventual recovery in housing starts. Market dynamics aside, our focus will remain on our customers to deliver the products and services they need to be successful.

Regarding our supplier transition activities in BMD, as we begin climbing the sales ramp with our new suite of products, we know the only way to maintain and grow customer base will depend on consistent execution. We look forward to providing more progress updates as we move into 2027. Thank you for joining us today and for your continued support and interest in Boise Cascade. We welcome any questions at this time.

OPERATOR

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. And at this time we’ll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And our first question will come from Susan McLaury with Goldman Sachs.

Please go ahead.

Susan McLaury (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. My first question is talking a little bit more on the fourth quarter outlook. You mentioned that in BMD your daily sales are down about 10% sequentially so far, and when we think about the environment out there and the seasonality as we go into year end, can you just give us a little more color on how we should think about the moves in the back half of the quarter and maybe what do we need to see for things to get a little better versus perhaps take another step down?

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Hey, Sue, this is Jeff. I’ll kind of start with that a little bit. Just from talking to our customers, overall, I will tell you that the word I’ve used is really, really cautious, and that’s obviously having an impact on the demand that we’re seeing. And the other thing that we’re hearing from them is that they still have a lot of inventory above what they really want. And so they set targets: here’s the days we want to have on hand. And then it has moved now since they originally set that.

So there’s still a little bit of work to go on there. So what we’re hearing, obviously, is there is going to be, once they get to the position they want, a really, really big reliance on two-step distribution. And going forward, the one thing that’s a little bit different that we’re hearing this time is it’s not just, hey, we want to rely on two-step distribution to get us through the winter. We’re hearing loud and clear, it’s a lot longer than that and carrying them into the summer and beyond that.

So we feel good about that. We think we’re set up really, really well to service them with whatever comes up.

Susan McLaury (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

Okay, that sounds great. It’s good to hear that the two-step model is continuing to be of real value in this environment. And then maybe with that, can you talk a little more about the progress on the transition within the composite decking and the siding supplier agreements? Just where you are with that, how we should think about the moves there into year end, and where you’ll be positioned as we think about early ’27.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, absolutely. I would just start with this, particularly on the decking side. It is very early, and I want to state that. As far as the product goes, it is beautiful. It’s fully compliant. They have the complete PVC line, and the fire rating and all those we really believe are an advantage for us. Since we’ve really started to hit the market a little bit, the customer reception has been great. It’s really been exactly what we expected and what we were told.

We hear over and over that they want to continue to support us and work with us. We have seen a few conversions, but again, I just stress that it is early. The box stores, national accounts, I think they really see the benefit of this full suite of products once we’re fully ramped up and ready to go. We’ve engaged, obviously, more and more with the Hardie salesforce, and they’re excellent, and we really believe that they will help, along with our sales force, drive some demand together. But right now, we’re working on the winter buy.

We’re still loading in some of the Azek. I would tell you, as expected, the Hardie siding growth has been really strong so far, but we have a long way to go. And this is a major undertaking. But we are thrilled about our future together and the direction we’re heading. But it will take some time.

Susan McLaury (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

Okay. Oh, go ahead. I’m sorry.

Jo Barney (Executive Vice President)

Yeah, let me just jump in there and echo what Jeff’s saying. You know, our siding sales were up significantly in the third quarter, which we expected, really up more than enough to offset the drawdown on our legacy decking sales in the quarter. We expect that that siding business is going to just continue to grow. You know, we are seeing a lot of success, to Jeff’s point, in driving decking conversions. We are bringing a lot of our customers with us.

So we see a ton of upside opportunity there. And again, 75% of the decking market still uses traditional wood. Right. So the total opportunity that we see in decking is tremendous. So we’re excited about that. That said, I will tell you that fourth quarter is going to be noisy for us. Our legacy decking sales are going to be minimal going forward. We’ve sold through probably 80% of that now, and our complete strategic focus is turning really to the Hardie TimberTech product categories in the fourth quarter. But we just started selling TimberTech last month. So also understand, to Jeff’s point, the channel’s absorbed a lot of decking over the past couple of months now with multiple distributors changing suppliers.

And as all of that has happened, customers are really starting to work to reduce their net working capital. And we’re heading into winter. So with that, we’d expect fourth quarter probably becomes our base level of sales on decking, and then we’ll start to gain upward momentum as we move into 2027.

Susan McLaury (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

Okay, that’s great color. Thank you for that. And then I just want to squeeze one more in, which: can you talk about conditions in EWP, and especially given the deceleration that a lot of the builders are talking to into year end and then likely even into early 2027? How are you thinking about pricing there and the competitive environment, and how that could come through relative to volumes in that part of the business?

Troy Little (Executive Vice President Wood Products)

Yeah. Thanks, Susan. This is Troy. Yeah, I guess first on the price side, you know, we held the prices, held, you know, sequentially. That was primarily due to the price protections that we had in place. We are continuing to see the pressure in the market, and in some cases we’ve had to adjust relative to our previously announced increase. And then, you know, the impact of the Canadian tariffs in the West, in terms of some of that veneer coming down out of Canada, maybe we haven’t seen the full impact of that yet, but that is there.

So we still believe that we’re going to see some slight improvement in Q4, but really because that pressure continues on price just because there’s a lot of supply available above demand. I would hate to speculate even on our previous announced going into, say, Q1, but we do still see some activity or some opportunity in price in Q3. But relative to volumes, I mean, we entered Q3 with a very strong profile. The graph on that was straight down through the quarter. We worked our order file, but then we started to see our production exceed demand. We had some opportunity to move into the inventory side, replenish some depleted inventories. And now we’ve just got to the point where it is shifting that veneer over to the plywood side. And so going into Q4, right now we’re expecting volumes on the EWP side to still be challenged.

As Jeff just mentioned, we’ve got key dealers out there still destocking and relying on the two-step going into the end of the year. And so right now the way we’re looking at it is kind of comparing to, say, Q4 of last year, both on EWP volumes as well as plywood volumes. In Q4 of last year we did take some market-related downtime, and we’re prepared right now to do that if necessary to match supply to demand.

Susan McLaury (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

Okay. All right, thank you for all the color. Good luck with the quarter.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you.

OPERATOR

The next question will come from Michael Roxlin with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Nico Puccinian (Analyst at Truist Securities)

Yeah. Hey, guys, this is Nico Puccinian from Truist. I just wanted to revisit the 4Q BMD guide. You know, is there a way to think about, or maybe dimensionalize, the sequential decline through, like, seasonal demand decline, maybe real less consumption or true demand decline, and then the supplier shake-up, and then any financial support you might be receiving from Hardie?

Kelly Hibbs (SVP, CFO & Treasurer)

Yeah, Nico, this is Kelly. Good to hear from you. Yeah. So the sales pace so far in the fourth quarter for BMD, we indicated it’s about 10% off of the $26.1 million daily sales average that we had in the third quarter. And so if you think about October, November, December, November and December are always going to be weaker in terms of the daily sales pace just given weather. And there’s also fewer sales days in those two months compared to October.

And so, as we’ve alluded to, there are going to be a number of headwinds for us beyond just the normal seasonality with weather and holidays and those sorts of things. Joe hit on it: as we kind of work through the supplier transitions, the channel is fairly full in many cases, and we have dealers looking to wind down their inventory as they get positioned for year-end. So I think all those will be headwinds. And I guess to maybe put the last point on it before I’ll open it up for anybody else is, if you look at what our daily sales pace was last year’s fourth quarter, it was about $22 million a day. And so I think that’s probably not an unreasonable metric that we might expect to see in the fourth quarter, but maybe even a little softer just given the uniqueness of the supplier transition activity.

Nico Puccinian (Analyst at Truist Securities)

Got it. I appreciate that. Following your announcement, we obviously saw a lot of other suppliers shake up. I wonder if that was expected or, just in general, since you announced this deal, what has or hasn’t proceeded with your expectations?

Jo Barney (Executive Vice President)

I think everything has proceeded pretty much exactly as we thought. We knew that there would be a drag on sales as we transitioned this quarter. Particularly we’ll feel it as we just got product in and we’re still moving some product off. So it has happened really like we thought it would. And the positive side of that is we heard from a lot of customers across the country that they would be there to support us and to help us and to work with us, and we’re seeing that as well. So I don’t think there’s really been any large surprise there at all.

Nico Puccinian (Analyst at Truist Securities)

Got it. I appreciate that. And then just maybe one final one. You mentioned the lower CapEx guide was on project delays and distribution. Can you give a little more color on that? What drove that? Is that intentional or not?

Kelly Hibbs (SVP, CFO & Treasurer)

Yeah, sure. So we did reduce the range for 2026, Nico, and that was largely just a function of some organic growth projects we had going in BMD that were frankly delayed. Whether it’s permitting, whether it’s getting contractors lined up, whether it’s materials, equipment, et cetera, it’s really just a function of delays as opposed to a meaningful pullback. And lastly, I would say in terms of 2027 CapEx, we haven’t, we’re not at the point yet where we’re prepared to speak to the range, but there will be some of the 26 that we’ll push over in 2027. But we’ve still got to have a broader conversation internally in terms of kind of what our base level of 2027 spending will be. So we’ll get back to you the next time we talk around a 2027 range.

Nico Puccinian (Analyst at Truist Securities)

All right, understood. Thanks for taking my questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. The next question will come from Keaton Mamtora with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Hi, good morning, this is Roshni at BMO for Keaton. I was just wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit more about your wood products guide and walk us through the bridge. You know, if plywood is like a, maybe like a 20 million per year-over-year tailwind, what are the other offsets we should be thinking about there?

Troy Little (Executive Vice President Wood Products)

Yeah, this is Troy again. Yeah, I guess I’d just reemphasize that at least the way I’m looking at it is kind of going into Q4 of last year, and so I’m kind of making that comparison. You know, our prices are similar in terms of EWP, so it’s not EWP price. Like you mentioned, plywood prices are up. But really as it relates to the fourth quarter forecast, it’s a volume issue, and volume relative to some escalated cost — it’s really impacting our conversion cost number or manufacturing cost number. And so like I mentioned, our volumes for EWP have come off. We’ve shifted over to plywood and then the next shift is to curtail and match to demand. And so in the fourth quarter of last year we did have that around the holidays. We’re anticipating some of that.

We also have some maintenance-related downtime at some of our mills. And so that volume is really the driver. And then on the cost side, we’ve seen cost — I just looked at, say, 10 key input drivers for us — and our costs are up anywhere from 5% to 30%. And of the 10 that I looked at, on average we’re up about 10%. So increased costs, lower volumes — that’s what’s really driving that forecast.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Okay. Are you able to also just quantify the transportation or freight headwinds that you had in Q3 and how much of that is embedded going from Q3 to Q4?

Kelly Hibbs (SVP, CFO & Treasurer)

Yes. And what we did speak to, Roger, in terms of transportation was specific on the distribution side in terms of quantifying the selling and distribution expenses and how much of that related to fuel and delivery costs, which was about 80% of our selling and distribution increase in BMD. As we think forward to fourth quarter, no reason for us, I guess, to believe that diesel fuel and other things will come off at this point. The only, I guess, sequential benefit we could see there is just the fact that we expect to have lower volume — so lower outbound actual volume.

Anything else we’d add on freight and transportation?

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

No. I would say this: the inbound freight, obviously we can absorb very easily. The outbound freight is a little bit more challenging. But I would give a shout-out to the BMD team — they’ve done a fantastic job of building it into the pricing and really done a nice job of covering where we can.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Thank you, that’s helpful. And just one more for me. I think you mentioned that you’ve sold about 80% of your old competitor or old supplier products so far. Do you expect to finish the rest through Q4? Is there going to be spillover into Q1?

Jo Barney (Executive Vice President)

No, I think given what’s in the channel right now and how full it is with all the switches that have taken place, we’re pretty comfortable with the 20% we have left. And yes, we will continue to sell some of it if the right opportunity comes along. But decking season is around the corner in the spring and we just believe that we’ll have more success selling it then. So we’ll move what we can, but the plan is, when decking season kicks in, we’ll move the rest of it then.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

And with the early buy decking opportunity, we really want to make our strategic focus the Hardie and TimberTech brands. So we’re kind of intentionally shifting away from that right now in order to put our full strategic focus on the future and the brands that we’re going to be partnered with in the future.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Thank you, that’s very helpful. I’ll turn it over. Thanks.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks, Roshni.

OPERATOR

Again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. Our next question will come from Nicholas Sherwood with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Sherwood (Analyst at Bank of America)

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. This is Nick Sherwood speaking for George Sappos. Can you kind of talk about some of your operating rates assumptions when thinking about pricing and just how you’re going to be managing operating rates through the year and into 2027?

Troy Little (Executive Vice President Wood Products)

Yeah, I’d say right now, relative to Q3, like I mentioned, we were able to run fairly — if you’re looking at the dry veneer side and then whether that dry veneer goes to EWP or to plywood — we ran fairly well through the quarter. Our operating rates through the quarter were in the 80% range for the plywood side and low 80s for the EWP side. That’s where I’d expect going into Q4. We’re going to be shifting more veneer away from EWP, so those operating rates will come off, and then plywood — while we’re running, we’re going to run fine — it’s just a matter of the hours that will be taken out if that comes to pass.

Nicholas Sherwood (Analyst at Bank of America)

Okay, understood. I appreciate the color. And then for my second question, can you kind of just talk about the James Hardie transition and what kind of operational milestones should we think about for that partnership in 2027?

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

You know, I think the way that we look at the James Hardie–TimberTech — where we’re trying to go — our objective there was never just about replacing our existing sales. We really partnered with the James Hardie and TimberTech brands in order to go out and gain share, expand our overall market position, kind of take over the marketplace. So the opportunity isn’t just selling decking and siding products for us. We really see an opportunity to drive the entire market toward adopting an exterior solution.

We measure our success by our customer success — by our customers’ growth. So if we can bring them the right solution, if we are aligned with the right suppliers who are long-term market winners, then our customers will begin to grow and that becomes a sustainable model for us. So that is always our focus, and we partner with the best-in-class brands in order to do that — the suppliers who are the most innovative, the ones that bring solution-based opportunities to our customers and to the market — and then the rest of it is just based on our execution, and we are really extremely confident in our ability to go execute.

Nicholas Sherwood (Analyst at Bank of America)

Okay, great. Thank you for that detail and answering my questions. I’ll return to the queue.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you.

OPERATOR

The next question is a follow-up from Keaton Mamtora with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Pardon me, Ms. Mamtora. Your line may be muted.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Hi, sorry about that. This is Roshni filling in for Keaton. Just one more question. Could you please provide some perspective on channel inventories in siding — particularly whether they’re at normalized levels — and then also on siding growth, could you break down how much is coming from market versus incremental share gains? Just any perspective there would be helpful. Thank you.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, I’ll start with that. And then Bill and I think kind of the same thing has happened with siding as what happened with decking. When there’s a switch, people started trying to move the material into the market. However, I will say we are seeing some gains on our Hardie siding. We are — they’re meaningful. We believe we’re picking up share. We don’t think that the market is so strong as much as it is that we’re gaining share. And we’re seeing and feel really good about that and think about our opportunity going forward.

I really believe in this quarter the gains we’ll pick up on siding will really help to cover what we won’t get on the decking side as we transition.

Jo Barney (Executive Vice President)

Yeah, I would agree with Jeff. Our siding sales have picked up significantly. We believe they’re going to continue to pick up. We’re picking up a lot of that business from the James Hardie exits that they’ve made in different markets as far as other distributors. So we’ve picked that up. And yet there was still quite a bit of siding inventory in the market from those exits. So we anticipate that that’s just going to continue to grow as those other distributors wind down and we ramp up.

Roshni (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Thank you. That’s very helpful.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you.

OPERATOR

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Jeff Strom for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Jeff Strom (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you for your continued interest in Boise Cascade. We look forward to our conversations next quarter. Be safe. Thanks again.

OPERATOR

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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