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US Architecture Billings Index
Read more: US Architecture Billings IndexAfter nine consecutive months of growth, January’s Architecture Billing Index (ABI) reported a “softening” in US design activity. According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the January ABI score was 49.9, down from a mark of 52.7 in December. This score reflects a “very modest decrease” in design services (any score above 50 indicates…
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Producer Price Index, US: January 2015
Read more: Producer Price Index, US: January 2015US producer prices posted a record decline in January, weighed down by plunging energy costs, pointing to very benign inflation pressures in the near term. The Labor Department said Wednesday its producer price index for final demand dropped 0.8 per cent, the biggest drop since the revamped series started in November 2009, after falling 0.2…
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US Housing Starts: January 2015
Read more: US Housing Starts: January 2015Construction starts on new homes in the US fell 2 per cent in January, data released Wednesday by the US Commerce Department shows. Housing starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 1.065 million, below December’s downwardly revised estimate of 1.087 million. Still, last month’s rate was 18.7 per cent above the 897,000 annual…
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Housing Starts, Canada: January 2015
Read more: Housing Starts, Canada: January 2015Home builders in Canada largely shrugged off the woes of the oil patch as the pace of new residential construction picked up in January. Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted 187,276 in January, increasing 4.3 per cent compared to December, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported February 9. Canada Housing Starts The rise in…
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US Housing Affordability Edges Up
Read more: US Housing Affordability Edges UpSlightly lower interest rates and home prices in markets across the country contributed to a slight increase in nationwide housing affordability in 4Q 2014, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index Thursday. In all, 62.8 per cent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of October and end…
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US Home Prices: 4Q 2014
Read more: US Home Prices: 4Q 2014During the last quarter of 2014, the United States saw solid price growth for homes, with most metro areas seeing a slightly stronger rate of growth. According to Propertywire Wednesday, this growth was due to lower levels of housing supplies combined with low interest rates and an improving jobs market, with these facts being gleaned…
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Home Building, Canada and US
Read more: Home Building, Canada and USIn a shiny fresh new year, home building activity in Canada and the US continues along the waffly path each experienced in 2014. Curiosity about where home building will be through this year abounds. Much of the growth in multi-residential starts came from a jump in construction of rental apartments in Edmonton, which hit a…
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Construction Employment, US
Read more: Construction Employment, USConstruction employers in the US added 39,000 jobs in January and 308,000 over the past year, reaching the highest employment total since February 2009, as the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 9.8 per cent, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America Monday. US construction employment totaled 6,314,000 in January, the highest…
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Japan 2014 North American Log Imports
Read more: Japan 2014 North American Log ImportsJapan’s total import of North American logs in 2014 was 3,047 million cubic metres, a 10.8 per cent drop compared to the previous year. Log imports in 2013 had increased, by 14 per cent over 2012, due to looming tax hike last year. North American Timber Market 2014: Japan Kure and Kashima remain the top…
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Canada Monthly Survey of Manufacturing: Dec 2014
Read more: Canada Monthly Survey of Manufacturing: Dec 2014Canada’s manufacturing sales rose 1.7 per cent in December, despite a 9.3 per cent drop in sales of petroleum and coal products, said Statistics Canada Friday. Excluding the petroleum and coal product industry, manufacturing sales were up 3.2 per cent. The gain reflected higher sales in the transportation equipment industry Overall, sales were higher in…
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Japan 2014 Housing Starts
Read more: Japan 2014 Housing StartsJapan’s housing starts in December 2014 were 76,416 units, down 14.7 per cent from the same month in the previous year, according to Japan Lumber Journal Monday. Total housing starts in Japan for 2014 were 892,261 units, down 9 per cent over one year ago. It was the first drop in five years but level…
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BC Sawmill Safety Regulations
Read more: BC Sawmill Safety RegulationsThe BC government is introducing legislation that would allow for the prosecution of negligent employers whose actions seriously injure or kill workers. Covering four specific objectives, the legislation is expected to provide range of new safety enforcement tools, shorten the process for finalizing financial penalties to improve their effectiveness as an enforcement tool; ensure timely…
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Washington Sawmill Shutdown
Read more: Washington Sawmill ShutdownNorthwest Hardwoods lumber mill in Centralia, WA, is cutting production because the slowdown at West Coast ports has crippled its ability to export products. Vice President Brian Narramore on Friday told The Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1Dp4qVe) production will be cut as much as half, starting Monday, impacting 100 employees one way or another. Narramore says Northwest Hardwoods…
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Rail Transportation Labour Dispute
Read more: Rail Transportation Labour DisputeAfter a long period of difficult negotiations, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union this week said if a deal can’t be reached by midnight Saturday, Canadian Pacific Railway will face job action by 3,300 locomotive engineers, conductors, and train and yard workers across Canada. In addition, Unifor, which represents 1,650 workers who perform safety inspections,…
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Madison’s Forest Pulse 4Q 2014 — Out Now!
Read more: Madison’s Forest Pulse 4Q 2014 — Out Now!Important Lumber Production and Export Data: • US sawmill products exports to China by VALUE are up +20%, to US$1,199 million, Jan to Nov 2014 compared to US$959 million the previous year; • US sawmill products imports from Canada by VALUE are up +9%, to US$4,939 million, Jan to Nov 2014 over US$4,498 million in…
