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Even as Business Remains Steady, Softwood Lumber Prices Drop Further
Many phone calls and negotiations were made, but actual sales of North America softwood lumber last week were not an improvement over recent weeks. Sales stumbled again last week as both primary and secondary suppliers of Western Spruce-Pine-Fir lumber in the United States had to reduce their asking prices to move even small volumes. For…
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Canada to Appeal Recent Softwood Lumber Ruling at WTO and NAFTA
Just as Canada is being tossed about like a pebble between two great forces with China’s ban on Canadian canola imports — supposedly due to the US extradition request and arrest in Vancouver, BC of a top executive at Hawuei last month — the World Trade Organization (WTO) is mired in a crisis of delayed…
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US Construction Job Openings: Feb 2019
Data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Friday, indicate that construction job openings fell back in February but remain higher on a year-over-year basis, consistent with the ongoing challenge of the availability of labor for builders. The number of open construction jobs in the US totalled 286,000 for the month, compared…
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US Construction Materials Prices: March 2019
Prices paid for goods used in US residential construction increased +1.5% in March according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday. Prices have risen more quickly thus far in 2019 than they did during the same period in 2018 and are at their highest level since last…
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Softwood Lumber Anti-Dumping Duty: WTO Ruling Explained
As usual with the seemingly-permanent Softwood Lumber Dispute between Canada and the US, the latest trade ruling brings up more questions than it resolves. An almost undecipherable ruling out of the World Trade Organization on softwood lumber this week caused some great confusion, in no small part because it is both for and against both…
