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Author: Madison’s Lumber Reporter

  • Softwood Lumber Prices May 2020 & Canada April and Japan March Housing Starts

    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…

  • May Long Weekend in Canada Does Nothing to Slow Lumber Demand

    A lot of regular life activities remain unknown as various jurisdictions “open up” from the Covid19 isolation and quarantine. Regardless, most North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices jumped once again last week on both continued healthy demand and uncertainty with supply.Producers of Western Spruce-Pine-Fir commodities in the United States said bread and butter…

  • Softwood Lumber Prices May 2020 & US Housing Starts: April 2020

    Residential housing starts in the US slumped -30% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000, the lowest level since 2015, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Data for March was revised up to show homebuilding declining to a pace of 1.276 million units instead of dropping to 1.216 million units as…

  • Madison’s Weekly Softwood Lumber Prices: May 19, 2020

    Prices updated May 19, 2020 (CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE) MADISON’S SOFTWOOD LUMBER MARKET WEEKLY COMMENT: Key comment: “Demand in both the West and the East was robust, as order files at sawmills stretched out and most prices advanced further.”

  • US Home Improvement & Remodelling Activity: 1Q 2020

    A recent report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies shows US home remodelling punches above its weight in the ratio of it’s contribution to US total GDP, compared to new home building.Over 50% of US housing is now over 40 years old and the average price tag is getting a lot bigger, at:…