Weyerhaeuser's swings to an adjusted loss in fourth quarter on weak wood product prices

Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. timber company Weyerhaeuser WY.N swung to an adjusted quarterly loss on Thursday, pressured by lower commodity wood product prices and sluggish demand in major end-markets.

The implementation of President Donald Trump's trade measures — particularly the 10% tariff on lumber imports and a duty of 25% on finished wood products that took effect in October — affected wood products manufacturers such as Weyerhaeuser.

The company reported an adjusted loss of 9 cents per share for the quarter ended December 31, compared with a profit of 11 cents a year ago.

The U.S. housing market also faced significant pressure in the second half of 2025 from elevated mortgage rates that kept potential homebuyers on the sidelines.

Pending home sales dropped 3% from a year earlier, impacted by a sharp slowdown in job growth because of economic uncertainty.

In its timberlands business, the company said it expects first-quarter 2026 sales volumes to be slightly higher, while per-unit log and haul costs are seen slightly lower.

In its wood products segment, Weyerhaeuser expects adjusted core profit for the current quarter to come in slightly above fourth-quarter levels.

Adjusted core profit from its timberlands segment fell to $114 million in the quarter, from $126 million a year ago, while that of the real estate unit jumped 25% to $95 million from $76 million a year earlier.

Weyerhaeuser owns or controls about 10.5 million acres of timberlands in the U.S., primarily in the west, south and northeast.

The Seattle, Washington-based company's net sales fell 9.8% to $1.54 billion in the quarter, compared to the analysts' consensus estimate of $1.56 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Last month, Weyerhaeuser and Aymium entered a memorandum of understanding to produce 1.5 million tons of sustainable biocarbon annually for use in metals manufacturing.