After holding firm for several weeks while almost all other North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber commodity prices drop, the price of benchmark item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr R/L finally dropped for the week of October 23, said weekly lumber price newsletter Madison’s Lumber Reporter. For the week ending October 23, 2020 the price of benchmark softwood lumber commodity item Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr dropped -$260, or -37%, to US$700 mfbm (net FOB sawmill), from US$960 mfbm…

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October 21, 2020 – Vancouver, BC, Canada Madison’s Lumber Reporter After dropping a little bit in August due to a plummet in multi-family home building, privately-owned US housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,415,000, the US Commerce Department said Tuesday. This is +2% above the revised August rate of 1,388,000 and is and astonishing +8.1% above the September 2019 rate of 1,274,000. For the week ending October 16, 2020, the price of benchmark construction…

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Last week producer and wholesaler dimension softwood lumber prices across North America dropped, as expected for this time of year. However, US housing starts data for September 2020 is incredibly strong, so the expectation is that — given ongoing very high demand — asking prices will not approach the low levels of 2019. It is safe to say that a price floor has been reached, although where exactly that will land remains to be seen. Madison’s Lumber Reporter expects that…

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The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its Remodelling Market Index (RMI) in 3Q 2020 today, posting a reading of 82, which indicates strong remodeller sentiment, as business has strengthened while home owners focus on the importance of home for work and life amidst the pandemic and its consequences. The strong finding is a signal of residential remodellers’ strong confidence in their markets, for projects of all sizes. The demand for home improvement is robust given the importance of…

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The fact that US home sales are outpacing construction starts to this degree indicates additional home building lies ahead. US home building has staged a dramatic rebound, said the US National Association of Home Builders today. In fact, supported by low mortgage rates, an evolving geography of housing preferences, and favorable demographic tailwinds, housing demand has improved so quickly that the current difference between the pace of newly-built single-family home sales and for-sale single-family construction starts has reached a historic level. The adjusted…

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Actual (not seasonally adjusted) Canadian home sales activity posted a +46% y-o-y gain in September 2020. It was a new record for the month of September by a margin of some 20,000 transactions. Canada’s national home sales rose +1% on a month-over-month basis in September 2020.  Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up +46% year-over-year.  The number of newly listed properties fell back by -10% from August to September.  The MLS® Home Price Index rose +1.3% m-o-m and was up…

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Finally a date from the US Commerce Department, VIA Madison’s long-time connection, customs broker working the Canada/US border: A written response has arrived from the U.S. DOC’s Office of AD/CVD Enforcement and Compliance. It is their “understanding” that the effective date for the new adjusted softwood lumber AD/CVD cash deposit rates, is now November 23rd. — Michael D. Jones, President Jones & Jones Customs Brokers and Trade Consultants 638 Peace Portal Drive –  Suite 202 Blaine, Washington 98230 Cells: Michael…

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The Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend brought a not-surprising further drop in prices of most benchmark construction framing dimension softwood lumber commodities, as the days got increasingly shorter and the weather turned ever more winter-like. Demand across North America was almost entirely for small fill-in orders, while sawmills were preoccupied with locating shipments long-ago sent to customers but still not arrived.The big question on the mind of industry players is, “Where is the softwood lumber price bottom and when will that…

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US softwood lumber production and sawmill capacity utilization rates continued to improve in July 2020 but those in Canada experienced drops compared to the previous month. Compared to one-year-ago, for January – July 2020 softwood lumber production in the US increased previous improvements, up by +3.2%, says the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track. In the first seven months of this year, US lumber production volume was 21,307 mfbm compared to the same time in…

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As previously stated by Madison’s, for US home building activity and thus softwood lumber demand, “Labour Day is the beginning of the end and US Thanksgiving is the end of the end”. Canadian Thanksgiving is somewhere in the middle of these important dates, so provides a good indication of what is happening with lumber prices as US housing slows down into the winter season.Last week most sawmills reported order files of three weeks or longer, which is quite strong for…

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