Housing starts exploded higher in November 2023, surging by nearly +15% to a 1.56 million unit annualized pace, the best reading since May and second-best in a year and a half. The new housing market remains underpinned by an acute shortage of previously owned homes available for sale. Chief economist at Comerica Bank in Dallas,…

In the final weeks of this year, the full trendline for 2023 shows some real stability for North America construction framing softwood lumber prices. Especially in comparison to the previous couple of years. Indeed, the weekly price of both benchmark Western S-P-F and Southern Yellow Pine East Side 2x4s landed almost exactly where they were…

It is normal toward the end of the year, as construction activity really slows down for winter, that lumber sales and lumber prices also flatten out. After three years of incredible volatility, 2023 annual lumber price cycle seems to have returned to historical norm. Over the course of this year the price swing between highest…

It is normal that the US Thanksgiving holiday marks the end of true construction season across North America, thus also lumber sales, and this year was no exception. However, given the discipline of sawmills over the past year to reduce production volumes and curtail in an effort to keep supply in line with demand, lumber…

As the US Thanksgiving holiday approached, which usually marks the end of significant-volume lumber sales for the year, ongoing limited supply and hungry customers kept wood prices higher. After the severe volatility of the previous couple of years, the trendline for lumber prices through 2023 was quite stable indeed. This provides sawmills with the ability…

At a time of year when construction activity, thus lumber sales, are usually slowing down which generally means lumber prices drop; this year the ongoing severe supply constraints worked to pop lumber prices higher Customers continued to stick to the practice of just-in-time buying, since approximately the middle of last year, so have got caught…

After a minor boost in recent weeks, toward the end of October North American softwood lumber prices began their usual annual seasonal drop. Customers, whether retailers or end-users, continued to make purchases for immediate needs only, keeping their inventories quite lean indeed. This story originally appears in the latest print issue of Canadian Forest Industries…

The ongoing strategy of North American sawmills reducing production and curtailing manufacturing volumes succeeded in reversing the usual seasonal drop of lumber prices. As November dawned, the supply-demand balance was such that lumber sellers were able to actually increase prices somewhat. Customers have been running on lean inventories for most of this year, as macroeconomic…