June 20, 2014
MADISON’S WEEKLY LUMBER MARKET UPDATE AND OVERVIEW
Provided by: Madison’s Lumber Reporter
www.madisonsreport.com
Near-panic among North America’s lumber and panel traders was narrowly averted this week as customers came in heavily to buy solid volumes of wood and the previously-tanking futures board reversed direction absolutely, wrote Keta Kosman in Madison’s Lumber Reporter for Stockhouse Friday.
Dimension lumber prices in Canada and the US this week gained back some recent losses, in both cash and futures markets. Sawmill order files in the west were at a very comfortable four weeks (to at least July 14).
Confusion continued to reign this week however, as sources were difficult to reach and even more reluctant to offer a market comment. Happily, most were extremely busy booking new orders for wood.
Incorrect, but powerful, negative sentiment on the lumber futures board at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange since the beginning of June infected the cash marketplace despite continued solid demand and extremely weak inventories.
This week’s rebounding lumber futures board and surge in demand combined to firm up prices. Studs fared the best of dimension commodities; often it is the specialty products which lead a market shift either up or down.
The price of benchmark dimension lumber commodity, Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr rose $4, or 1.2 per cent, this week to US$324 mfbm 9net FOB mill). This is a $22, or 6.4 per cent, drop from US$346 of one month ago but a $29, or 9 per cent improvement over one year ago’s US$295 mfbm.
In company news this week, the Board of Directors of West Fraser Timber declared a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share on the Common shares and Class B Common shares in the capital of the Company, payable on July 21, 2014 to shareholders of record on June 30, 2014.
Norbord has been named as a Top 25 dividend stock, according the most recent Canada Stock Channel ”DividendRank” report. The report noted that among the coverage universe, Norbord shares displayed both attractive valuation metrics and strong profitability metrics. The report also cited the strong quarterly dividend history at Norbord Inc, and favorable long-term multi-year growth rates in key fundamental data points.
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Keta Kosman
Publisher
Madison’s Lumber Reporter
604 984-6838
www.madisonsreport.com