Canadian Softwood Plywood 9.5mm (3/8″) TORONTO Prices: 1999 compared to 2003 and 2020 Food for thought …. the historical high Plywood prices of 1999 were briefly eclipsed in 2003 due to rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in the US. Mid-season 2020 Plywood prices look to surpass even the boggling highs of 2003. Will upward price pressure maintain? Or is the bulk of the latest customer demand behind us for this year? Only time will tell! Subscribe to Madison’s…

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US Softwood Lumber Production Continues Improvement, Canada Lumber Production Plummets: April 2020 Compared to one-year-ago, for the first four months of 2020 softwood lumber production in the US continued improving, increasing on the rise in March, says the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track. For January to April 2020 US lumber production volume increased by another +2.3% to 12,080 mfbm compared to the first four months of 2019 when it was 11,810 mfbm. Comparing the…

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Still, US homebuilding remains -24% below its February level.  Housing starts in the US increased +17% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.186 million units last month, the Commerce Department said today. The percentage gain was the largest since October 2016. Data for May was revised up to a 1.011 million-unit pace from the previously reported 974,000. Builders reported increased demand for single-family homes in lower density markets, including small metro areas, rural markets and large metro suburbs. The…

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On July 10 the US National Association of Home Builders explained current conditions with the North American softwood lumber market. The primary drivers of the price increase include: Sawmills closed in the spring due to stay-at-home and social distancing measures enacted by state and local governments. When prices fell between March and April as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, sawmills projected that housing would be adversely affected and therefore anticipated a large drop in demand. Accordingly, sawmills that remained…

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The Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday that the average price of a Canadian resale home was $539,000, up 6.5 per cent from the average price a year earlier. And it’s up by more than 10 per cent from what it was just one month earlier, in May. Canada’s housing market went into a deep freeze when pandemic-related lockdowns began in March, causing activity in March and April to fall to record lows. But sales picked up in May as restrictions eased,…

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“Robust lumber and panel sales continued last week as supply just couldn’t keep up.” — Madison’s Lumber Reporter While demand for construction framing dimension softwood lumber continued to surpass supply last week, it was noticeable that buyer orders to sawmills were slowing down. Indeed, customer interest seemed to shift from the benchmark Western Spruce-Pine-Fir to the East Side, as prices of Eastern Spruce-Pine-Fir increased by more than that of Western.Demand for plywood, meanwhile, was unabated for reconstruction following social unrest…

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