While most construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices stayed flat last week, prices of Plywood and Oriented Strand Board did increase — as Madison’s had indicated they might. The early-season storms in the US southeast as well as ongoing wildfires in the US west have propped up demand of wood panel products for rebuilding and reconstruction at a time of year when sawmills are usually reducing production. Sales of softwood lumber do seem to be slowing down, which is normal…

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Existing home sales in the US, which account for the bulk of home sales, jumped +10.5% on a year-on-year basis to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6 million units for August. Compared to July, the increase was +2.4% , which the highest level since December 2006 and marked three straight months of gains. Single-family home sales advanced +2% in August. While multi-family home sales increased +8.6%, they accounted for 10.5% of sales, down from the 12% that is considered…

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Privately-owned US housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,416,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday. This is -5% below the revised July estimate of 1,492,000, but is +3% above the August 2019 rate of 1,377,000. Total starts were up +3% year-over-year compared to August 2019. The dip in housing starts was driven by a -25% decline in multifamily construction activity. For the week ending September 11, 2020, softwood lumber prices flattened or dropped for the…

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The British Columbia government announced Thursday changes to the Manufactured Forest Products Regulation (MFPR) around export requirements for sawn-wood products and lumber made from western red cedar or cypress go into effect Sept. 30, 2020. These changes are intended to increase the amount of processing of wood products done within British Columbia, leading to more B.C. jobs, rather than having that processing done after export. Under the current MFPR, logs that are squared off up to a maximum dimension of…

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US Housing Total Starts August 2020 & Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices September 2020 The USA purchases approximately 65% of Canadian lumber production mostly for construction framing, while Canadian buyers account for about 10%, and those in Japan take 6%.However: US and Canadian customers purchase mostly standard grades (#2&Btr), while Japan buys almost exclusively premium or “appearance” grades (J-grade) which sells for quite a bit more than standard grade does. For the week ending September 11, 2020, softwood lumber prices flattened…

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Madison’s indicated last week that most standard construction framing dimension softwood lumber commodities could level off or even start dropping, and that’s exactly what has happened. Players and industry insiders say that supply is improving as sawmills are able to get more lumber production online, just as the usual seasonal drop in demand arrives. However, the massive wildfires in the US west coast — which have already caused huge damage to property — and looming storms in the US southeast,…

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The USA purchases approximately 65% of Canadian lumber production, while Canadian buyers account for about 10%, and those in Japan take 6%. However: US and Canadian customers purchase mostly standard grades (#2&Btr), while Japan buys almost exclusively premium or “appearance” grades (J-grade) which sells for quite a bit more than standard grade does.It’s true that North American softwood lumber purchasing by China has increased massively since 20 years ago, but it is important to note that a lot of this…

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The US Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported September 9 US rail traffic for the week ending September 5, 2020, as well as volumes for August 2020.US railroads originated 898,227 carloads in August 2020, down -15%, or 156,797 carloads, from August 2019. US railroads also originated 1,122,954 containers and trailers in August 2020, up +3%, or 33,115 units, from the same month last year. For the first 36 weeks of 2020, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,670,555 carloads, down…

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Here is a SNEAK PEAK at today’s print for North American construction framing softwood lumber and panel prices: “Fires raged throughout the Pacific Northwest as the pause in lumber sales persisted.” — Madison’s Lumber Reporter In September 2015, the “recent-low” of lumber prices, benchmark commodity Western S-P-F KD 2x4s were selling for US$249 mfbm. The last “recent-high” was in June 2018, when this price was US$622 mfbm. This week the wholesaler price of benchmark construction framing dimension softwood lumber item…

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US and especially Canadian softwood lumber production and sawmill capacity utilization rates reversed direction in June from sharp drops earlier in 2020 due to the lockdown caused by the COVID19 pandemic. Compared to one-year-ago, for January – June 2020 softwood lumber production in the US improved by +2%, says the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track. In the first six months of this year, US lumber production volume was 17,950 mfbm compared to the same…

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