Unseasonably strong softwood lumber demand persisted this week as prices on virtually every commodity advanced again. Madison’s Lumber Reporter would like to wish all our wonderful subscribers and contacts a very safe and Happy Holiday Season, we will be back in January with the latest updates! #sawmill #softwood #lumber #ushousing #housing #building #construction #wood

US Housing Total Starts November 2020 & Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices December 2020 At a completely unusual time of year, US housing starts for November 2020 increased — for the third straight month even. Residential starts rose +1.2% to a 1.55 million annualized rate from a downwardly revised 1.528 million a month earlier. Single-family starts,…

Canadian Softwood Plywood 9.5mm (3/8″) TORONTO Prices: 1999 compared to 2003 and 2020 Food for thought …. the historical high Plywood prices of 1999 were briefly eclipsed in 2003 due to rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in the US. Year-end 2020 Plywood prices have surpassed even the boggling highs of 2003. Will upward…

This week marks the normal seasonal end to softwood lumber manufacturing across most of North America annually. Sawmills in Eastern Canada, specifically Quebec, are already on their yearly seasonal break, and those in the West are not far behind with curtailments and closures, according to Madison’s Lumber Reporter. Usually at this time of year construction…

New Funding for Alberta Biomass Fuel Projects, Global Biomass Capacity to Grow by 16% Alberta Announces $150 Million in Funding for Emission-Cutting Projects The Government of Alberta announced in early November it will provide $100 million in funding for Emissions Reduction Alberta’s (ERA) Shovel-Ready Challenge through the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund. An additional…

A large proportion of lumber produced in Canada goes into US home building. Like lumber prices, housing construction in the US underwent a significant stall in spring 2020. And, like lumber prices, it is recovering steadily from severe lows. It’s very interesting to watch the trend of log prices as a result of this latest…

At a time of year when housing construction across North America is usually slowing down to very limited activity, thus softwood lumber prices are usually quite soft, in the past couple of weeks there has been a resurgence of strong demand for solid wood products. Prices of dimension lumber commodities have responded upward accordingly. Underpinning…

US construction employment gained +27,000 jobs in November to a total of 7.4 million, but employment is -279,000 below its February level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Residential construction employment, specifically, rose by +15,400 in November to 2.9 million. In November, employment rose in residential specialty trade contractors by +14,100. In the past…

The total value of US construction put in place in October rose +1.3% from September, and +3.7% from October 2019, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$1.439 trillion, according to US Census Bureau data released Tuesday. US residential construction spending in 3Q 2020 is the highest since the previous residential boom in 2005-2006. Spending…

Here is a SNEAK PEAK at tomorrow’s print for North American construction framing softwood lumber and panel prices: “Robust demand persisted, sending sawmill order files well toward the end of December.” — Madison’s Lumber Reporter In September 2015, the “recent-low” of lumber prices, benchmark commodity Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2x4s were selling for US$249 mfbm. The…

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) Wednesday reported US and Canadian rail traffic volumes for November 2020. US railroads originated 900,194 carloads in November 2020, down -6%, or 55,198 carloads, from November 2019. US railroads also originated 1,136,695 containers and trailers in November 2020, up +11.5%, or 116,915 units, from the same month last year.…

US housing starts were mostly flat in 2019. At this time last year softwood lumber sales improved markedly and prices started to rise from quite low levels. As the beginning of 2020 came on, the data on US home building was much improved over the previous year, sending demand for construction framing dimension softwood lumber…

The AR1 Results of Final Review have been published in today’s (11/30/2020) issue of the Federal Register confirming the effective date (today) the adjusted subsidy (AD) rates can be used going forward, until further notice, as the AD Cash Deposits.  However, as was the case with the DOC’s Preliminary instructions in 2017, the adjusted CVD…