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Housing Starts, Japan
Read more: Housing Starts, JapanOn January 31, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced that housing starts in December were 89,578 units, up 18 per cent compared with the same month in 2013, exceeding the result in a year ago for 16 months, according to Japan Lumber Journal. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate was 1,055,000 units, recording the…
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Canada Housing Starts
Read more: Canada Housing StartsThe pace of Canadian housing starts slowed in January with a steep drop in multiple-unit homes, an indication builders are adjusting to a slowdown in buyers, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Monday. The agency estimates there were 11,737 actual housing starts in January and that is extrapolated to a seasonally adjusted annual…
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Lumber Production Up : Jan – Nov 2013
Read more: Lumber Production Up : Jan – Nov 2013US sawmills produced 27.66 billion board feet (bbf) of softwood lumber in the first 11 months of 2013 – up 5.7 per cent from 26.161 bbf a year earlier, according to the Western Wood Products Association’s Lumber Track February 10. Western US sawmills accounted for 12.534 bbf of the monthly total, a gain of 7.5…
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Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing
Read more: Advanced Wood Products ManufacturingRecent amendments to the Building Code of Australia, which permit the use of fire and acoustic rated timber construction systems for three-storey Class 3 buildings, will help promote more opportunities for traditional wood framing and engineered timbers in commercial and multi-residential developments, according to Sourceable February 7. Set to take effect in May, the amendment…
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Madison’s Weekly Submission to Stockhouse
Read more: Madison’s Weekly Submission to Stockhouse Lumber producers face rail transportation nightmare As brutal weather patterns continued across the most populated parts of North America, lumber and panel traders reported mostly flat prices on solid wood commodities, writes Keta Kosman, publisher of Madison’s Lumber Reporter http://162.213.156.131/~madisonsreportMost commonly-traded dimensions maintained price levels from last week, or were slightly down. Wider sizes, specifically…
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Vancouver History : logging in Stanley Park
Read more: Vancouver History : logging in Stanley ParkFROM THE VANCOUVER SUN FEB 15, 2014: In Feb. 14, 1899, American industrialist Theodore Ludgate signed a deal with the federal government to lease Deadman’s Island, off Stanley Park. The cost was $500 per year, for 25 years. Ludgate planned to build a lumber mill on the 7.5 acre island. He told The Vancouver World…
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Call for Nominations, SLB
Read more: Call for Nominations, SLBThe Softwood Lumber Board (Board), which administers a national research and promotion program for softwood lumber, is seeking nominees to fill seven seats on the Board. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program, would like to encourage all eligible industry members to participate in the process. The Board is composed of 19…
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Canfor Reports
Read more: Canfor ReportsCanfor Corp, out of Vancouver, BC, Wednesday posted a higher 4Q 2013 profit, boosted by strong lumber prices and an increase in pulp production and shipments. The company said it expects lumber consumption to continue to rise in 2014 due to US demand and offshore markets. Netincome attributable to shareholders rose 31 per cent to…
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USDA Invests in Forests
Read more: USDA Invests in ForestsThe US Department of Agriculture said Thursday it will spend US$30 million this year on forest restoration projects in 12 states to reduce the threat of wildfires, protect water quality and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species. Those first 13 projects will be the start of a multi-year initiative to improve the health of forests…
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China Wood Imports 2013
Read more: China Wood Imports 2013Log and lumber imports into China rose to an all-time high in 2013, says the Japan Lumber Reports Friday, due to recovering demand and tight inventories after the government restricted credit funding in mid-2011. Import of logs into China last year was 45.2 million cubic metres, a 19.2 per cent increase over 2012. Lumber imports…
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Labour Agreements
Read more: Labour AgreementsTwo sets of labour negotiations reached agreement this week. The BC Northern Interior Bargaining Committee (USW) and the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations (Conifer) have shook hands and reached a tentative agreement, said a United Steelworkers release Wednesday. Labour Agreements Talks resumed this week in Prince George, BC, where Conifer and the USW…
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Skeena Mill Closed Due to Dust
Read more: Skeena Mill Closed Due to DustSkeena Sawmills, in Terrace, BC, was temporarily shut down late last year after a WorkSafe BC safety audit found high levels of combustible sawdust at the location, according to the Terrace Standard Monday. The stop work order, issued Dec. 19, 2013, was lifted the following day after a clean up took place. A WorkSafe BC…
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National Association of Home Builders’ Convention
Read more: National Association of Home Builders’ Convention The data looks very good for all types of US housing starts in 2014 and beyond, according to economists from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Wednesday. The association is forecasting 1.15 million total housing starts in 2014, up 24.5 per cent from last year’s total of 928,000 units. Single-family production is projected to…
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US Farm Bill and Federal Timberland Management
Read more: US Farm Bill and Federal Timberland ManagementThe massive US Farm Bill, long debated, finally passed the House of Representatives Thursday in Washington, DC. Counties in timber-producing states dependent on log harvest for revenue have been anxiously awaiting this news. The old farm bill expired in 2012. Its replacement is 959 pages long and will cost approximately US$956.4 billion over 10 years.…
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2014 Truck Logger Conference and Trade Show
Read more: 2014 Truck Logger Conference and Trade ShowIt was a rollicking time last week in downtown Vancouver, BC, for the 71st Annual Truck Logger’s Association convention and trade show. The TLA’s theme this year was “The Business of Logging – A New Era”. So it is not just for coastal operators but in the interior as well. A boisterous crowd pressed themselves…
