Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results that reflected continued growth and margin expansion in its Siding business, offset by weak oriented strand board (OSB) pricing tied to softer housing demand. Management also provided 2026 guidance that anticipates a difficult start to the year for siding volumes due to channel inventory dynamics, while OSB is expected to remain highly sensitive to commodity pricing.
Leadership transition and market backdrop
Chief Executive Officer Jason Ringblom, succeeding longtime leader Brad Southern, opened the call by pointing to a challenging environment for homebuilding in 2025, citing tariffs, economic policy uncertainty, deteriorating consumer confidence, and affordability pressures. He noted that housing starts decelerated through the year and referenced Census Bureau data showing single-family starts down roughly 10% in the third quarter, adding that fourth-quarter data had not yet been published but was expected to show further weakness.
Fourth-quarter results: Siding resilience vs. OSB weakness
LP reported fourth-quarter net sales of $567 million, EBITDA of $50 million, and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.03. CFO Alan Haughie said Siding revenue rose 6% year over year in the quarter, driven by an 8% increase in prices (including mix) despite a 2% decline in volume.
Within Siding, Haughie said ExpertFinish volumes increased 35% in the fourth quarter, while “prime” (primed) volumes declined 5%. The mix shift was a slight headwind to EBITDA because ExpertFinish still carries a lower margin than primed products, though Haughie said ExpertFinish margins improved by about 8 percentage points year over year due to higher volume leverage and manufacturing efficiencies. Siding’s EBITDA margin for the quarter was 25%, up 5 points year over year. Haughie also noted the absence of tariffs on ExpertFinish imported into Canada and the non-recurrence of prior-year production and cost timing effects tied to a delayed maintenance project.
OSB performance “tracked housing demand more closely,” Ringblom said, with commodity prices softening alongside starts. He described OSB prices, adjusted for inflation, as the lowest LP has seen in 20 years at the trough. Haughie said OSB results were dominated by price pressure and weaker supply-demand dynamics, with combined price and volume movements contributing to a $129 million year-over-year revenue decline and a $95 million decline in EBITDA in the fourth quarter. While the OSB segment did not break even in the quarter, management said the business produced positive EBITDA for the full year.
Full-year 2025: Strong Siding profitability offsets OSB pricing pressure
For 2025, LP reported $2.7 billion in net sales, $436 million of EBITDA, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.65. Haughie said the full-year outcome reflected Siding growth and margin expansion offset by low OSB prices.
In Siding, management said full-year net selling prices rose 4% and volumes rose 4%, producing 8% revenue growth and a 26% EBITDA margin. Haughie said Siding ended 2025 with $444 million in EBITDA, up $54 million from 2024, and with a 1 percentage point increase in EBITDA margin to 26%.
Ringblom offered detail on end-market trends inside Siding. LP estimated shed volumes were up slightly more than 20% year over year, helped by significant volume gains with its largest shed customers earlier in the year. LP estimated volumes into new residential construction declined roughly 1 to 3 points, which he said outperformed the decline in single-family starts, while repair and remodel was likely flat to up a point or two. ExpertFinish grew 18% for the year, Ringblom said.
In OSB, Haughie said the segment generated $7 million of EBITDA for the full year despite the difficult pricing environment.
Capital allocation, liquidity, and safety
Haughie said $436 million in adjusted EBITDA generated $382 million of operating cash flow in 2025, after $42 million in cash taxes and a small working-capital increase. LP invested $291 million in sustaining maintenance and growth capital expenditures, about $25 million less than previously anticipated due to deferring non-essential OSB projects and slowing certain siding capacity investments.
The company returned $139 million to shareholders through $78 million in quarterly dividends and $61 million in share repurchases. LP ended the year with $292 million in cash and an undrawn $750 million revolver, for more than $1 billion in liquidity. Haughie said the company had $177 million remaining under its board authorization for share repurchases.
Ringblom also emphasized safety performance, stating LP achieved a total incident rate of 0.62 in 2025, slightly better than 2024. He noted two mills reached three years without a recordable injury and said LP earned the APA’s Safest Company Award for the third consecutive year.
2026 outlook: Siding inventory headwinds early; OSB pricing sensitivity persists
Management’s outlook for early 2026 is shaped by channel inventory and uncertain housing data. Ringblom and Haughie described how dealers held fewer weeks of supply amid market uncertainty, and LP also experienced a larger-than-needed volume allocation ahead of a 2026 price increase. Combined, those factors led to demand being pulled forward into the fourth quarter, elevating inventories at some two-step distribution partners and weakening early 2026 order files.
For the first quarter of 2026, Haughie said LP expects total Siding volumes to be down 15% to 20% year over year, including shed volumes down 25% to 30% and new construction and repair-and-remodel volumes down about 10% to 15%. Average selling prices are expected to be up 6 to 8 points, resulting in an expected 11% to 13% year-over-year decline in Siding net sales and an EBITDA margin of 23% to 25%.
For the full year, assuming housing starts end 2026 flat versus 2025, management expects sequential improvement after the first quarter as inventories normalize and shed demand returns to a prior-year cadence. Haughie said LP expects full-year Siding volumes to be down low single digits, selling prices up mid-single digits, net sales up low single digits, and an EBITDA margin of around 25% to 26%.
In OSB, Haughie said recent Random Lengths pricing has climbed toward levels near breakeven, and that extrapolating current prices for the full year would imply OSB results similar to 2025. However, he said OSB price realization typically lags rising market prices, and assuming current prices hold, LP expects first-quarter OSB EBITDA to be a loss of $25 million to $30 million. He added LP anticipates OSB utilization to be a few points below its longer-term average rate of 85%.
On capital spending, Haughie said LP expects about $400 million of capex in 2026, split evenly between sustaining maintenance and strategic growth, with about 60% of spending in the second half. He said LP has flexibility to accelerate or reduce investments depending on demand.
During Q&A, Ringblom said ExpertFinish continues to outperform in both new construction and repair-and-remodel, supported by labor constraints and consumer preferences for durability and warranties. He said LP came off allocation for ExpertFinish on Feb. 1 due to operational efficiency improvements, ahead of the planned timeline tied to the upcoming Green Bay line. Ringblom said the company expects to ramp a new 70 million-foot line in Green Bay in early second quarter 2026 and continues detailed engineering work for future ExpertFinish and primed capacity expansions.
Management also acknowledged some market “mix down” to vinyl in response to affordability pressures, while reiterating confidence in SmartSide’s value proposition and continued market share gains. On the OSB market, Ringblom described early-year pricing improvement as “supply driven,” citing competitor mill closures in Canada and downtime and outages, while adding that improved demand would be needed to maintain balance into the second and third quarters.
Haughie said full-year Siding guidance includes inflation assumptions, including about $20 million of raw material inflation (resin and paper overlay), $7 million of labor inflation, and modest freight inflation. He said ramp-up costs for Green Bay were “nothing significant.”
About Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX)
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: LPX) is a leading manufacturer of building materials and engineered wood products for residential, industrial and light commercial construction. The company produces a diverse portfolio of products, including oriented strand board (OSB), engineered wood siding, trim, molding, sheathing panels and subflooring. Its flagship product lines, such as LP® SmartSide® trim and siding, are designed to offer enhanced durability, moisture resistance and ease of installation, helping builders and homeowners achieve long-lasting performance in a variety of climates.
Founded in 1973 as a spin-off from Georgia-Pacific, Louisiana-Pacific established its reputation by pioneering innovative manufacturing techniques for OSB, becoming one of the first companies to bring the product to market in the 1980s.
