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Canada and US Residential Construction Spending
Read more: Canada and US Residential Construction SpendingCanadian investment in residential construction totalled $28.9 billion in 2Q, up 4 per cent from the same quarter in 2014, said Statistics Canada Thursday. Renovation spending (up 4.3 per cent to $13.9 billion), investment in apartment and apartment-condominium buildings (up 9.9 percent to $3.9 billion) and acquisition costs for new dwelling units built (up 9.9…
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New Inland Container Port: British Columbia
Read more: New Inland Container Port: British ColumbiaA new container transload facility in the BC interior, which received its first containers from Hapag-Lloyd this week, has been in the making for more than a decade. Funded primarily by the Landucci family, with a $3.57-million grant from the federal government, the terminal is expected to offer an inland port for some of the…
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Interfor to Cut US South Lumber Production
Read more: Interfor to Cut US South Lumber ProductionInterfor Corp, out of Vancouver, BC, Friday announced plans to reduce production across its operating platform in the US South by 20 per cent on a temporary basis in response to weak market demand. These curtailments will be taken by way of reduced hours at five of the company’s mills in the region and will…
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North America Transportation Development
Read more: North America Transportation DevelopmentConsider that more than 100 shipping vessels will probably be scrapped this year – a record – as owners will demolish the equivalent of about 6 per cent of all capesize vessels in 2015. This on May 15 from GMS Inc, a Cumberland, MD-based company that purchases obsolete carriers. Even so, earnings per vessel will…
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US Housing Market, Home Building
Read more: US Housing Market, Home BuildingNew data out this week from the US Commerce Department, Standard & Poors, RealtyTrac, the National Association of Realtors, and Zillow all show a steady and improving situation for US home selling, house prices, rental rates, and foreclosures. Similarly, the recent release by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) shows that its measure of house…
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US AD&C Lending Condition: July 2015
Read more: US AD&C Lending Condition: July 2015Builders and developers continue to report easing credit conditions for acquisition, development, and construction (AD&C) loans according to NAHB’s most recent survey on AD&C financing, although a separate Federal Reserve survey is trending differently. In the second quarter of 2015, the overall net tightening index of the NAHB survey was -30.7,which represents somewhat less easing…
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US Rates on New Home Loans: July 2015
Read more: US Rates on New Home Loans: July 2015On average, the contract rate on conventional mortgages used to purchase newly-built homes increased 12 basis points in July, to 3.98 per cent, according to data released Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. At 3.98, this is the highest the contract rate has been since December of last year. Initial fees have some ability…
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US Southern Pine Lumber Exports: June 2015
Read more: US Southern Pine Lumber Exports: June 2015Southern Pine lumber exports were just under 46 MMbf during June 2015, the Southern Forest Products Association said in the press release also Wednesday. This volume represents a boost of 11 per cent above the same month last year, contributing to a year-to-date increase of 7 per cent when compared with the first half of…
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US Mortgage Deliquency: July 2015
Read more: US Mortgage Deliquency: July 2015Freddie Mac reported Friday that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate declined in July to 1.48 per cent, down from 1.53 per cent in June. Freddie’s rate is down from 2.02 per cent in July 2014, and the rate in July was the lowest level since October 2008. Freddie’s serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010…
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Canada Industrial Price Index: July 2015
Read more: Canada Industrial Price Index: July 2015The Industrial Product Price Index increased 0.7 per cent in July, mainly because of higher prices for motorized and recreational vehicles, said Statistics Canada also Friday. The Raw Materials Price Index declined 5.9 per cent in July, led by lower prices for crude energy products. Canada Industrial Product and Raw Materials Prices The Industrial Product…
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US Architecture Billings Index: July 2015
Read more: US Architecture Billings Index: July 2015The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) is reflecting healthy and sustained demand for design services in nearly all nonresidential project types, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) said Wednesday. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The AIA…
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US Producer Price Index: July 2015
Read more: US Producer Price Index: July 2015The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Producer Price Indexes (PPI) for July. Inflation in prices received by producers (prior to sales to consumers) rose 0.2 per cent in July after a 0.4 per cent increase in June. The increase was based on rising prices for services (0.4 per cent), prices for goods…
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Goodfellow – Lebel Cambium Joint Venture
Read more: Goodfellow – Lebel Cambium Joint VentureA joint venture announced this week would combine Goodfellow’s three plants in Delson, QC, Elmsdale, NS, and Deer Lake, NL, and Lebel Cambium’s two Ontario plants (Bancroft and Caledon) and two Quebec plants (Degelis and St-Joseph), as those two companies expand their reach and profits by forming one of Eastern Canada’s largest producers of treated…
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BC Sawmill Waste Pile Fire
Read more: BC Sawmill Waste Pile FireA potentially disastrous mill fire, which spontaneously erupted in a waste pile at the Whitevalley Tolko Mill, was snuffed out by firefighters in Lumby, BC early Wednesday morning. Although the blaze was small, sitting near the log yard amongst additional sawmill waste, “it had the potential to be quite disastrous,” said Lumby fire chief Tony…
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US Housing Starts: July 2015
Read more: US Housing Starts: July 2015US home building ticked up in July thanks to a surge in construction of single-family homes. US housing starts rose 0.2 per cent from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.21 million last month, the highest since October 2007, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That is the third time in four…
