As Canadians came back to work after the Victoria Day long weekend and Americans got ready for their Memorial Day long weekend, actual purchasing of North American softwood lumber products slowed last week. For producers, the only interest was in selling wood currently on-hand rather than booking sales to extend their already-plump sawmill order files.…

Sales of new homes in the US fell by 1.5 per cent over the month of April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 662,000. According to the report released by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development Wednesday, the small monthly decline partly reflected a downward revision to the estimate…

Last week Madison’s was ensconced in the comfort and splendour of Harrison, BC, to attend and present at the Forest Resources Association Western Regional Meeting. This event was attended by many forest operators in the Pacific Northwest, from both sides of the border. A lot of the focus was on the coast, but there were…

If lumber suppliers didn’t know what to do last week, this week was even more bananas. As explained by one veteran lumber trader on LinkedIn Friday: “Frustration reigned as the lack of availabilities and tardy shipments frazzled many. The concern is that there does not seem to be any end in sight [to logistics and…

Manufacturing sales rose 1.4% to $57.1 billion in March, said Statistics Canada Thursday. Higher sales at primary metal; aerospace product and parts; fabricated metal product; and the other transportation equipment industries were mostly responsible for the increase. Overall, sales were up in 13 of 21 industries, representing 72% of the Canadian manufacturing sector, while in volume terms, manufacturing sales rose 0.6% Primary metal…

“Where will it end? No one knows,” one experienced eastern US trader exclaimed in astonishment Friday morning. There can be no true answer to this until the horrifying (and seemingly NOT improving) railway backlog started well in 2Q 2017 is unravelled, not to be till July this year said one of the two major Canadian…

The value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities increased 3.1% to $8.4 billion in March, following a 2.8% decline in February. The rise was mainly the result of higher construction intentions for multi-family dwellings, particularly in Quebec and British Columbia, and, to a lesser extent, by the commercial component. Canada Residential sector: Rise in multi-family component offsets…

The prices of most building materials increased in April, according to the latest Producer Price Index release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the count of unfilled jobs in the US construction sector increased in March and approached the post-Great Recession high level. According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and…

Last week the Canadian forest products industry received very welcome news from one of the nation’s railroads which could only leave them overjoyed: CN Rail says it will purchase 350 riserless centrebeam lumber cars to meet growing demand for forest products despite lower segment revenues in the first quarter, according to Canadian Press. Rail Logistics…

A few weeks ago Madison’s noticed some dangerous and alarming mis-reporting on the part of the other two publications which track North American lumber and panel prices. Subscribers who follow Madison’s on Twitter https://twitter.com/LumberNews and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/madison’s-lumber-reporter/ will have seen the drama unfolding. We think the comparative North America softwood lumber prices trend graphs below…

This morning the Canadian forest products industry received news from one of the nation’s railroads which could only leave them overjoyed: CN Rail says it will purchase 350 riserless centrebeam lumber cars to meet growing demand for forest products despite lower segment revenues in the first quarter, according to Canadian Press late Wednesday. The new…

According to the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development last week, sales of new homes in the US rose by +4% over the month of March to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694,000. Year-to-date, covering 1Q 2018, the total number of new homes sold is +10.3% ahead of…