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Great Canadian Rail Fiasco 2017 – July ’18
Monumentally-frustrated North American forest operators were astonished last week to receive word from a major Canadian railroad that the egregious logistics and supply chain problems of last winter will not be unwound until July. Those Canadian sawmill facilities which are at the mercy of one or the other of the two Canadian rail operators have…
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North American Railway Difficulties
Yet another transportation issue bombshell hit the North American forest industry last week in the form of a potential looming labour disruption in Canada. Wednesday reported the Manitoba Co-operator that members of the Teamsters and IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) unions were set to strike CP Rail April 21, but postponed it until union…
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US Housing Starts, Construction Permits: March 2018
An encouraging headline Wednesday by NAHB Eye on Housing, “Most US States Record YTD Single-Family Permits Growth in February 2018” provides only more evidence that US home building and real estate business have come roaring back since the US housing starts crash of September 2006. Over the first two months of 2018, the total number…
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US Home Building and Selling Improves Further as Softwood Lumber Prices Continue Rising
In it’s quarterly report the US Census Bureau’s quarterly Survey of Construction detailed that over the first two months of 2018, the total number of single-family permits issued nationwide reached 123,871. On a year-over-year basis, this is an +11.2% increase over the February 2017 level of 111,356 single-family permits. The results from the SOC are…
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US Construction Materials Prices: March 2018
Building materials prices in the US continued to climb in March, according to the latest Producer Price Index release by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday. OSB-led price increases, up +9.3% since February, while the indexes for ready-mix concrete (+3.3%), softwood lumber (+2.2%), structural steel (+2.0%), and gypsum products (+1.1%) also moved higher. US Construction Materials…
