Yes. It's unfortunate. We actually thought that 2009 would be the bounce-back year. We thought the end of 2008 would be the swing back, and of course the downturn hit us, and everyone was caught off guard by it.
Our companies that are standing right now are incredibly resilient. They've done an enormously good job of investing in modernization and leaning out their operations, changing their products, changing their markets. They've built a pretty strong backbone. If they're still operating, it's because they've done something right. But they're all operating at a burn rate, and they're all operating at losses right now. I don't know anybody who's doing well. Our exports to the U.S. have decreased by 70% since 2007, and we export 80% of our finished products.
That said, will there be more losses? The longer we wait, I think it's inevitable. Eventually burn rates run out and companies can't make it any longer. Again, we're hoping that things are turning around. We're starting to see the indicators slowly turn. Housing starts have increased--mind you, a percentage of nothing is still very little, but we're starting to see some of those indicators turn.
The idea is really to outlast it. It would be a shame if there were outside pressures--for example, the U.S. subsidy on black liquor, which would allow them to survive the last leg of this and not allow us to survive. The ones that are there have worked hard during tough times, and we'd like to see them make it over the last hurdle. And it's close. We really do believe it's close.
We need that little push. And it's not with the subsidies; it's making sure we're at a level playing field and that we're doing everything right, with the understanding that there are many things we can't affect.