It is widely acknowledged that in British Columbia the utilization of forest residue (wood fibre leftover after timber harvesting) is very low compared to most other jurisdictions. In the past, the cost of moving this cumbersome, oddly-sized material compared to the easy availability of further timber stands, has been the reason for so much of the previously-called “wood waste”. Madison’s has long written that this residual forest fibre in BC is not “waste”, nor an impediment, but rather is an…

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A couple of weeks ago it was panel (OSB and plywood) prices that saw spectacular rebounds, this week Douglas fir green 2×4 prices recovered back to one-month-ago levels. A strong undercurrent of sales activity allowed US sawmills to keep most of their prices flat from last week as many buyers couldn’t avoid coming back to the table repeatedly to keep their inventories from bleeding dry. Customers were looking to other solid wood commodities besides benchmark Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr…

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After flattening out last month, the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track, for January-August 2019, shows US softwood lumber production volume continues almost flat from the same time last year, to 23,737 mmfbm. Like last month, January – August softwood lumber production in Canada continued big drops through most of this year, falling another -11%, to 16,655 mmfbm, compared to the first eight months of 2018 when it was 18,664 mmfbm. In British Columbia, brutal…

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The size of the global wood pellet market for 2019 was estimated to be valued at over US$8.5 billion, and is estimated to exhibit over 10% CAGR from 2019 to 2025, said Global Markets Insights October 2019. Over 22 million tons of wood pellets were shipped globally in 2018, up 21% from 2017. The US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia, and Russia, accounted for 69% of global exports in 2018. Demand for imported pellets in Japan and South Korea continued a three-year…

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The full Madison’s Lumber Reporter North America softwood lumber price list will be updated as usual first thing Friday morning Eastern time, however here is a sneak peak at benchmark WSPF prices: After jumping another +$18 last week, The price of benchmark softwood lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr stayed flat this week, Nov 7, 2019, at US$396 mfbm, from US$396 mfbm last week. — Madison’s Lumber Reporter This week’s lumber market story published to the website Wednesday: https://madisonsreport.com/2019/11/05/softwood-lumber-prices-pop-higher-as-seasonal-winter-slow-down-looms/…

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Data released Monday from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) indicate that construction job openings in the US increased in September 2019 on a year-over-year basis. The estimated number of job openings declined from the August total to 338,000 in September, after reaching a post-Great Recession high of 434,000 in April. The September 2019 count of unfilled jobs represents a year-over-year gain relative to the 299,000 estimated unfilled construction jobs in September 2018. The US construction job open position…

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Veteran solid wood processors and sellers like to say, “Labour Day is the beginning of the end, and US Thanksgiving is the end of the end” for large-volume lumber sales. The business of manufacturing and distributing North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber is directly tied to US home building and remodelling activity. As darkness and bad weather looms across the continent, construction jobsites start to close down. Well aware of this annual cycle, sawmills tend to load up their…

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