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Lumber sector grapples with epic wildfires and melting highways
Traders of solid wood products reported slightly slower sales this week, however expressed surprise that the usually slow-down month of July started off with such strong volumes. Sawmills will embark on regular seasonal and maintenance curtailments over the next four weeks. Prices on most dimension lumber and panel items remained mostly flat this week, with…
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Wildfires
Raging forest fires erupted with a vengeance across North America as deteriorating timber conditions in the back country and extended dry weather combined this season. Potentially record-high temperatures this weekend threaten to complicate firefighting efforts in Washington State, where five wildfires already are raging. Hot and dry weather forecast could exacerbate the 28-mile Mills Canyon…
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Housing Starts, Canada
The CMHC report showed single-unit starts rose 0.9 per cent while multiple-units, typically condominiums, rose 0.1 per cent. Canada’s condo market has cooled since 2012 after a multi-year boom, and is widely expected to cool further as unsold inventory comes onto the market. June’s strength in housing starts was led by the prairie provinces which…
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Japan Housing Starts: May 2014
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport data shows that units built for owners declined by 22.9 per cent, to 22,288 units, said Japan Lumber Reports. These drops are influenced by Japan’s consumption tax increase in April 2013, the government agency said. New construction of wood-based units in May dropped to 36,983, from 40,035 the…
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North American Freight Data 2014
Freight volumes are expected to keep increasing this year with trucking capacity to continue tightening – a recipe that should result in freight rate hikes for the industry by as much as 5 to 8 per cent before 2014 is over, says a report commissioned by the US Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and…
