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Building Materials Price Index, US: December 2016
The price of softwood lumber rose by 2.3 per cent in December, while prices paid for ready-mix concrete, gypsum products, and OSB all fell, according to the latest Producer Price Index release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics January 13. The 2.3 per cent increase in the softwood lumber price index is the largest monthly…
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US Construction Labour Shortage
Also at the NAHB Design and Construction Week, was a lot of conversation about a looming and serious shortage in skilled construction labour. During a three-hour seminar Wednesday morning, builders shared tips for finding and training newcomers and maintaining ties with their trades when labour is hard to find. US Home Builders and Skilled-Labor Shortage:…
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BC Dimension Cedar Producers Hike Prices in Anticipation of Softwood Lumber Duties
Dimension cedar mills in Lower Mainland, British Columbia, pushed their prices up another ten per cent, with plans for further hikes designed to mitigate forthcoming retroactive duties on their US-bound shipments. At least one large producer was “working hard” at getting Western red cedar exempted from the ongoing and embittered US-Canada Softwood Lumber Dispute. In…
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US Construction Outlook 2017: ConstructConnect
In US residential construction, the multi-family homebuilding segment has returned to a level of starts on a par with before the Great Recession, said Alex Car- rick, Chief Economist for ConstructConnect (formerly Reed Construction Data), December 1. Single-family groundbreakings, while considerably better than they were in 2010, are still languishing below their previous ‘norm’. Many…
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US Manufacturing Rates, Producer Prices: 3Q 2016
The Final US Markit Manufacturing PMI increased to 54.1 in November of 2016 from 53.4 in October. As well, producer prices in the United States is expected to be 111.30 Index Points by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics. Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in November, and the overall economy…
