June 16, 2021 — Following the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada (May 24) and the Memorial Day long weekend in the US (May 31), a standoff developed between lumber suppliers and customers, thus prices were flat on almost all items. It was a “wait and see” situation; as buyers wondered if prices would go down, while sellers had quite strong order files so did not need to lower prices to make sales.
The following week cracks were beginning to show, and prices for solid wood building materials dropped. Currently still very high, but this might indicate further price drops in the horizon. No one knows yet, we’ll have to see as time goes by.
So for the week of June 10, 2021, the wholesaler price of benchmark softwood lumber commodity item Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr corrected down significantly, by -$325, or -21%, to US$1,275, from $1,600 mfbm the previous week. That week’s price is down by -$343, or -21%, from one month ago when it was $1,618.