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Western Canada Wildfires
Read more: Western Canada WildfiresCrews from British Columbia’s wildfire management branch are battling a second blaze in the Central Interior. They have been called to a lightning-caused fire about 80 kilometres northwest of Quesnel, BC, near Pelican Lake. It was estimated at about 250 hectares in size as of Thursday morning, according to the Prince George Citizen Friday. Meanwhile,…
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US Industrial Production: March 2015
Read more: US Industrial Production: March 2015Industrial production in the US decreased 0.3 per cent in April for its fifth consecutive monthly loss. Manufacturing output was unchanged in April after recording an upwardly revised gain of 0.3 per cent in March. In April, the index for mining moved down 0.8 per cent, its fourth consecutive monthly decrease; a sharp fall in…
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Canada Manufacturing Sales: March 2015
Read more: Canada Manufacturing Sales: March 2015Manufacturing sales in Canada rose 2.9 per cent to $51 billion in March, the second increase in six months. An increase in the production of aerospace products and parts coupled with gains in the motor vehicle industry generated higher sales for the month. Partially offsetting the advance was a drop in sales of fabricated metal…
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US All-Cash Home Sales: February 2015
Read more: US All-Cash Home Sales: February 2015According to CoreLogic Wednesday, cash sales of US homes made up 37.9 per cent of total sales nationally in February 2015, down from 40.6 per cent in February 2014. February is the 26th consecutive month of declines. Home Sales, US Month over month, the share of all-cash home sales fell by 1 percentage point, said…
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Japan Housing Starts: March 2015
Read more: Japan Housing Starts: March 2015Japan’s housing starts in March were 69,887 units (up 0.7 per cent from the same month in the previous year), surpassing the previous year’s results for the first time in 13 months. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate was 920,000 units (up 1.7 per cent from the previous month), said Japan Lumber Journal and Japan Lumber Reports,…
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Housing Starts, Canada: April 2015
Read more: Housing Starts, Canada: April 2015The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp reported May 8 that the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 181,814 in April from a downwardly revised 189,546 units in March. Canada Housing Starts In Canada, condo starts slipped 14.2 per cent to 107,216, said the CMHC. Single-detached starts rose 11.4 per cent to 58,229.…
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Forestry Week 2015: Vancouver
Read more: Forestry Week 2015: VancouverLast week the Pulp and Paper Products Council and PwC held their annual forestry conferences in Vancouver, BC. As always the events were jam-packed with great speakers providing up-to-the minute information on the latest developments with the forest products industry in North America and internationally. Numerous networking sessions gave the over-capacity crowd a chance to…
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US Architecture Billings Index: March 2015
Read more: US Architecture Billings Index: March 2015For the second consecutive month, the US Architecture Billings Index (ABI) has indicated a “modest increase” in design activity in March. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the March ABI score was 51.7, up from a mark of 50.4 in February. The new projects inquiry index was 58.2, up from a reading of 56.6…
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Canada Housing Permits: March 2015
Read more: Canada Housing Permits: March 2015The total value of Canadian building permits rose 11.6 per cent from a month earlier to $6.9 billion in March, said Statistics Canada Thursday. This was the first increase in three months. Higher construction intentions for non-residential buildings in British Columbia and Alberta and for multi-family dwellings in Ontario and British Columbia were responsible for…
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US REO Inventory
Read more: US REO InventoryFrannie Mae’s statement Friday on 1Q 2015 US REO inventory, “We continue to experience disproportionately higher credit losses and serious delinquency rates from single-family loans originated in 2005 through 2008 than from loans originated in other years. Single-family loans originated in 2005 through 2008 constituted 12 per cent of our single-family book of business as…
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North American Forest Company News
Read more: North American Forest Company NewsThis was Forestry Week in Vancouver, BC, with the Pulp and Paper Products Council and PwC holding their annual forestry conferences. Madison’s will provide coverage and updates on the sessions and conference topics in a future issue. Meanwhile there was plenty of breaking news about North American softwood lumber production; including downtime, curtailments, earnings reports,…
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Madison’s Forest Pulse: 1Q 2015 — Out Today!!
Read more: Madison’s Forest Pulse: 1Q 2015 — Out Today!!THE LATEST Lumber Production and Export Data: • US sawmill products exports to China by VALUE are down by -17.5% (compared to up +20% for previous quarter), to US$189 million (FAS value), for Jan to Feb 2015. The previous year it was US$229 million. • US sawmill products imports from Canada by VALUE are up…
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US Construction Spending, House Prices
Read more: US Construction Spending, House PricesNational Association of Home Builders analysis of US Census construction spending data found Friday that over the last year, the pace of private single-family construction spending increased 7.8 per cent and multifamily construction spending increased 23.4 per cdent, despite monthly declines for March. For the month, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of single-family construction spending…
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US House Prices
Read more: US House PricesThe S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values increased 5 per cent from February 2014, the biggest year-to-year gain since August, after rising 4.5 per cent in the year ended in January, the group said Tuesday in New York. As well, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Aprill 22 released the House Price Index data for February,…
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Quarterly Results: Forest Products Companies
Read more: Quarterly Results: Forest Products CompaniesNorbord, out of Toronto, ON, Friday reported a loss of US$6 million, or US$0.11 per share, in 1Q 2015 compared to earnings of US$3 million, or US$0.06 per share, in the prior quarter and earnings of US$7 million, or US$0.13 per share, in 1Q 2014. Norbord also announced completion of the merger with Ainsworth, making…
