VANCOUVER -- CanWel Building Materials Group Ltd. is reporting higher fourth-quarter revenue and earnings on strong demand and prices for its products thanks to surging home improvement and new home construction activity.

The Vancouver-based company is reporting net earnings of $15 million in the last three months of 2020, up from $3.4 million in the same period of 2019, as revenue increased 37 per cent to $402 million compared with $293 million.

Analysts had expected it to report $15.6 million in net income on $368 million in revenue, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

The company says prices for lumber, plywood and oriented strand board construction panels underwent "unprecedented" increases in the second half of 2020 due to limited supply and elevated demand.

It says net earnings for all of 2020 were $59.6 million on revenue of $1.61 billion, up from $17.2 million in earnings on $1.33 billion of revenues in 2019.

CanWel reports reducing debt by $87.5 million to $281 million during 2020.

"I am extremely proud of our ability to react and respond positively with robust financial and operational discipline to the unprecedented and unfortunate global pandemic, which negatively impacted many parts of the global economy," said chairman Amar Doman.