Lumber producers kept manufacturing volumes lower to keep supply in line with still-muted demand.
Capacity utilization rates at North America sawmills have been well below optimal levels for approximately 2 years, since rising interest rates brought slower home sales thus reduced new housing starts.
Solid wood manufacturers prefer to keep production volumes higher, due to the very complex process of securing log supply over a longer term.
As such, maintaining balance between amount of sales and prices can get tricky. As true summer months this year arrive, it seems this balance has been achieved;
as lumber prices reversed recent drops and started climbing.
In the week ending June 20, 2025, the price of benchmark softwood lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2×4 #2&Btr KD (RL) was US$475 mfbm. This is up +$13, or +3%, from the previous week when it was $462, said weekly forest products industry price guide newsletter Madison’s Lumber Reporter.
That week’s price is up +$29, or +7%, from one month ago when it was $446.
Spruce prices continued to grind upward while Southern Yellow Pine seemed to hit bottom on long-beleaguered 2×6 dimension. A supply-driven uptick was evident in plywood.
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KEY TAKE-AWAYS:
- Western S-P-F players in the United States reported good daily trading volumes, although as a barrage of smaller transactions.
- Ongoing tweaks on the supply side seemed to balance overall availability with suboptimal demand.
- There was a prevailing sense that lumber was in a state of oversupply heading into summer.
- Sawmill order files were slowly inching beyond the two- to three-week range.
- For Eastern S-P-F, gone were the $30-$50 counter offers that were easy to find in May.
- There was still liquidity in Southern Yellow Pine as suppliers navigated the bumpy ride of pricing and availability.
- Eastern stocking wholesalers reported many buyers had covered their near-term needs and gone back to just-in-time purchasing.
- Transportation issues abounded, especially in trucks, delaying orders; players lamented nearly every load arrived late.
Madison’s Benchmark Top-Six Softwood Lumber and Panel Prices: Monthly Averages
