Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&btr wholesaler price this week: US$376 mfbm (net FOB #sawmill) Wholesaler price of benchmark North American #construction framing #softwood dimension #lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&btr climbs another +1.6%, or +$6, this week: to US$382 mfbm (net FOB #sawmill), from $376 last week. #building #housing #wood https://madisonsreport.com/lumber-prices/

The WTO panel deciding “US — Countervailing Measures on Softwood Lumber from Canada” (DS533) has decided to open its second substantive meeting to public observation on 16, 17 and 18 October 2019. This live screening will take place at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva. On 16 and 17 October 2019, the meeting with the parties is scheduled to start at 10.00 a.m., and it may continue, if necessary, at 10.00 a.m. on 18 October 2019. The meeting may be closed at…

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Single family starts were up +3.4% year-over-year, and multi-family starts were up +13.7% YoY.   Much of the strength for August starts data was in the volatile multi-family sector, still – overall – this was a strong report. In what more than a few analysts are calling “the peak before the crash”, total housing starts in the US posted a +12% increase in August (1.364 million units) compared to an upwardly revised July estimate of 1.215 million units, according to…

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Sawmillers and loggers alike breathed a sigh of relief last week as North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices stopped falling, with several key items recovering from recent lows. Production curtailments over the 2019 building season did well to keep lumber supply tight enough for sawmills last week to push their order files into October; four weeks is a nice healthy time frame for the beginning of autumn. Lumber sellers reported customers reluctant to buy anything beyond immediate needs,…

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Over the first seven months of 2019, the total number of single-family permits issued in the US year-to-date nationwide reached 496,726. On a year-over-year basis, this is a -4.7% decline over the July 2018 level of 521,438. Year-to-date to July 2019, single-family permits reported declines in all four regions, said the US National Association of Home Builders Eye on Housing Monday. The Midwest, Northeast, South, and the West declined by 8.7%, 1.6%, 2.8%, and 7.7% respectively, compared to the same time…

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Below are some cogent thoughts on the current lumber market today, from an economist at Seeking Alpha:https://seekingalpha.com/article/4291207-lumber-sits-waits-wood-follows-price-futures “Lumber is just below its midpoint for 2019“, Seeking Alpha. So far in 2019, the price of nearby lumber futures has traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in a range from US$286.10 to US$453.90 per 1,000 board feet. At US$374.50 on September 12 on the nearby November contract, the price of the wood futures was a bit above the midpoint for this year…

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Prices paid for goods used in residential construction in the US decreased by 0.8% in August (not seasonally adjusted) according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said the National Association of Home Builders Eye on Housing Tuesday. Building materials prices in the US have declined an average of 0.1% per month over the last 12 months, compared to an average monthly increase of 0.8% during the same period 2017-2018. The price of goods used…

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Data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) indicate that US construction job openings increased in July, after a declines off a cycle high count for April, said the National Association of Home Builders Eye on Housing Tuesday. The estimated number of US job openings in the construction sector increased to 373,000 in July after reaching a post-Great Recession high of 434,000 in April. The July 2019 count of unfilled jobs represents a year-over-year gain relative to the 314,000…

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